Why major stars are choosing the raw intensity of Off-Broadway solo plays

Celebrities like Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Sean Hayes, Anthony Rapp, and Wallace Shawn are stripping away the ensemble and bringing their big talents to small venues, from basement theatres to historic mansions.

Summary

• This article explores the trend of celebrities starring in intimate Off-Broadway solo plays this spring
• Actors Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Anthony Rapp and Studio Seaview head Greg Nobile share insights on the artistic and commercial forces behind the trend

The New York theatre landscape is experiencing a striking shift in gravity. While Broadway remains the premier space for large-scale spectacle, a different kind of ambition is taking root in smaller, more intimate spaces off-Broadway. Marquee stars are increasingly choosing to stand alone on stage, trading the safety net of an ensemble for the high-wire act of a solo play.

From Jesse Tyler Ferguson playing Truman Capote in a historic library to Anthony Rapp leading the new play Touch for an audience of 40 to Sean Hayes deconstructing masculinity in The Unknown, the solo stage has become a sought-after destination for actors — and audiences — seeking a complex, dramatically unexpected kind of closeness through a high-stakes storytelling challenge.

Finding power in the theatrical close-up

For Ferguson and Rapp, the allure of the solo stage isn’t just about the spotlight; it’s about the intimacy of a shared secret. Ferguson, who previously played 40 characters in the 2016 solo show Fully Committed, finds inspiration in the technical mastery of those who came before, citing Jefferson Mays in Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife as his “north star” of solo performance. Now, he is preparing to inhabit the singular, haunted world of Truman Capote in Jay Presson Allen's Tru at the House of the Redeemer, a Vanderbilt-era library seating a mere 99 people, rather than a traditional theatre venue.

“It certainly brings the play into close-up,” Ferguson said of the site-specific setting. “I have enjoyed doing TV work because I like working in front of a camera and how it can pick up these intimate moments. There’s something really special about Tru because it marries both of the things I love: being in front of a live audience, while also being able to rein it in.”

Rapp shares that preference for the micro-audience: He will perform Touch in the East Village Basement, a remarkably small space of only 40 seats. By acting for such small groups and deeply inhabiting one character instead of jumping between dozens, the goal isn’t spectacle, but a focused and almost voyeuristic experience.

“There is a powerful sense of immediacy in the idea that, in this age of AI and screens, we can gather in a room as living, breathing human beings in a very close environment,” Rapp said.

Prioritizing authentic storytelling

Rapp’s project, Kenny Finkle's Touch, follows Syd Blatter, a middle-aged teacher and failed writer whose unexpected encounter with a former student forces him to to navigate the muscle memory of human connection after intense trauma. The show marks a return to the form for Rapp, who led his autobiographical solo play Without You in 2023 and, years before, starred in the solo piece Gompers written by his brother, Adam Rapp.

For Rapp, “the voice of the character and the voice of the writing must feel authentic to the story that’s being told,” he said. Touch explores the friction between the desire to be seen and the instinct to hide, using Syd’s history to ask whether a person can ever truly return to society once they have been fundamentally broken by it.

A new model for commercial viability

Behind the scenes, this solo-show resurgence is being fueled by a new model of financial and artistic flexibility. By reducing production costs and focusing on niche, dedicated audiences, performers can take greater creative risks than with a massive commercial run.

Greg Nobile, head of the new Off-Broadway venue Studio Seaview, positioned his theatre at the epicenter of this movement. Since its opening in summer 2025, the venue has housed solo projects like a reading of Jesse Eisenberg's play The Ziegfeld Files starring the author, John Krasinski in Penelope Skinner's Angry Alan, and the current Hayes-led run of David Cale's The Unknown, about a writer who ends up living out a thriller off the page. For Nobile, this shift was partly due to the evolving perception of Off-Broadway as a prestigious alternative for serious work.

“As Off-Broadway has become more viable again, there’s an opportunity,” Nobile said. “There’s a real economic viability now of audiences who are willing to pay to go into shows in intimate spaces.”

He noted that for a star like Krasinski, a Broadway run was always an option, but the solo format off-Broadway offered a unique freedom to explore weightier themes (Krasinski's Angry Alan character falls down a rabbit hole of right-wing extremism online).

“It wasn’t something that screamed commercial Broadway given the sensitivity of the subject matter and the politics around it, but Off-Broadway was a viable space for him,” Nobile said. “Having this sort of middle ground to pressure-test commercial viability of a show before going and making such a sizable investment on something like a full transfer is going to be hugely great,” Nobile observed.

A season of solitude

The trend continues to expand across this spring's Off-Broadway calendar. In addition to Rapp, Ferguson and Hayes, the season features the return of a master of the form: Wallace Shawn, starring in an Off-Broadway revival of his own haunting, politically charged solo piece The Fever on select nights through May.

Solo plays are proving that a lone actor can be as magnetic as any large cast, especially when exploring the more intense corners of life. As Nobile observed, the distinction between these intimate stages and a Broadway house has become less about prestige and more about the needs of a given story. Ultimately, these plays offer a rare, high-stakes environment where a beloved star can fully surrender to a character, finding a unique kind of transformation through the power of a single voice.

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Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the playwright of Touch. The article now reflects the correct information.