Most people don't pay attention to Broadway as much as they do to television and movies, which is understandable given that it's much more difficult to see a show on Broadway [1] than it is to watch the latest TV sensation or film blockbuster. There's also a bit of a stereotype about the division between actors on stage [2] and actors on screen, but in recent years, there's actually been a surprising amount of overlap [3] between the two. While successful Broadway stars have crossed back and forth to Hollywood, major A-list names have also made the crossover to tackle roles on the Great White Way, often to great acclaim. You might be surprised at who has been treading the boards — take a look at some of the stars you might not know have spent their fair share of time on Broadway.
Melissa Benoist
The Supergirl and Glee star has spent most of her career on television, but she put her singing talents to good use in the Summer of 2018, where she played a limited Broadway engagement in the title role of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.
Bryan Cranston
No longer Breaking Bad, Cranston has taken his talents to the New York stage. He's currently leading the play Network, for which he's earned a Tony nomination for best leading actor in a play.
Jeff Daniels
A staple of TV and film, Daniels is currently reunited with The Newsroom scribe Aaron Sorkin in the latter's adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway.
Adam Driver
Driver has garnered fame on TV's Girls, followed by his now-iconic villain Kylo Ren in the sequel Star Wars trilogy. Currently, though, he's taking a break from blockbusters to star opposite Keri Russell [5] in Burn/This.
Sutton Foster
Her role on Younger has made her one of the biggest breakout TV stars as of late, but she's been a star on Broadway for years. Foster has two Tony Awards for leading actress in a musical: one for her Broadway debut in Thoroughly Modern Millie and one for the 2011 revival of Anything Goes. Another major revival is on the horizon: she's starring opposite Hugh Jackman [6] in the 2020 revival of The Music Man.
Andrew Garfield
Yes, Spider-Man was on Broadway. The A-lister got fantastic reviews for his role as Prior Walter in the 2018 revival of Angels in America, leading to his first Tony win for leading actor in a play (he was previously nominated in the supporting category back in 2012 for Death of a Salesman).
Kelsey Grammer
The sitcom icon has been treading the boards on and off since the 1980s, when he made his Broadway debut in Macbeth. Since then, he's bounced between classical plays and musical theatre, with his most recent roles being a Tony-winning performance in La Cage aux Folles and a semivillainous role in the adaptation of Finding Neverland.
Harry Hadden-Paton
Fans of historical dramas know him from Downton Abbey and The Crown, but he's been on Broadway for much of the past year in his Tony-nominated role as Henry Higgins in the revival of My Fair Lady.
Tom Hanks
Hanks's Broadway debut was something very special and very fitting. He starred in 2013's Lucky Guy, a play by Nora Ephron. It was Ephron's final work before her death, and she and Hanks went way back: his breakout roles in the rom-coms of the 1990s were in Ephron's films Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail.
Neil Patrick Harris
You definitely know what a huge musical theatre geek Harris is, but did you know he has a Tony Award of his own? In 2014, he headlined a revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and took home the prize for best leading actor in a musical.
Hugh Jackman
Everyone knows Jackman is about as charismatic a song-and-dance man as we've got these days, but you might not know he's been on Broadway proper. Not only has he been on Broadway, but he's got a Tony Award for best leading actor in a musical, thanks to his 2004 role in The Boy From Oz. Jackman is set to be back on Broadway in 2020, leading a revival of The Music Man.
Scarlett Johansson
Yup: Black Widow has been on Broadway! In 2010, she made her Broadway debut in the play A View From the Bridge, winning the Tony for best featured actress in a play.
Jeremy Jordan
He's your favourite geek on Supergirl, but he's also one of Broadway's most reliable musical leading men. He's starred in Bonnie and Clyde and Newsies, earning a Tony nomination for the latter, and wraps a stint as Waitress's Dr. Pomatter this June.
Jane Krakowski
You know and love her from her comic roles on TV and film, and Krakowski is every bit as funny on stage. In 2016, she landed a Tony nomination playing Ilona in the revival of the romantic comedy musical She Loves Me.
Zachary Levi
The nerd fave has been a superhero (Shazam!), a love interest (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), and a geek-turned-spy (Chuck). But he's got another talent: he sings too! Levi has starred in two musicals: 2013's original First Date, and the 2016 revival of She Loves Me, which earned him a Tony nomination.
John Lithgow
He's a sitcom favourite and a recent Emmy winner for The Crown, but Lithgow's talents reach beyond the screen, with roles on Broadway in both plays and musicals. He was nominated for a Tony for 2005's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and can currently be seen as a tweaked-universe version of Bill Clinton in the play Hillary and Clinton.
Laurie Metcalf
Her sharp comic timing has made her successful on sitcoms such as Roseanne, The Conners, and The Big Bang Theory. Metcalf has no problem translating that to Broadway, where she has won consecutive Tonys in the past two seasons (leading actress for A Doll's House Part 2 and featured actress in Three Tall Women). She's currently up for yet another Tony for this season's Hillary and Clinton.
Daniel Radcliffe
Never one to be boxed in, Radcliffe leapt from his Harry Potter [7] fame to unusual choices on stage. He caused a minor (and ridiculous) scandal when he appeared nude in Equus, then proved his comic (and singing!) chops in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Amy Schumer
The comic actress debuted on Broadway in 2017 in the play Meteor Shower. She wasn't the only Hollywood performer involved: Steve Martin [8] wrote the play, and her costars included Keegan-Michael Key and Laura Benanti.
Tony Shalhoub
You know him from his iconic role as Monk or, more recently, from Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. But did you know he's a talented stage actor too? Shalhoub was most recently seen on stage in the acclaimed musical The Band's Visit, winning a Tony for best leading actor in a musical for his role as reticent conductor Tewfiq.
Uma Thurman
The Hollywood star made her Broadway debut in 2017 in The Parisian Woman. She's also got a more distant tie to the theatre community: she had a recurring role in the Broadway-themed cult fave TV series Smash back in 2012.
Denzel Washington
Washington is as much a staple on the stage as he is on the big screen, with multiple acting credits, mostly in plays. In the past decade alone, he's been in three major plays: Fences, A Raisin in the Sun and The Iceman Cometh; he won a Tony for Fences and is nominated again for The Iceman Cometh.
Sigourney Weaver
Weaver has starred in multiple plays on Broadway, although it's been a few years since she was last seen: her most recent credit was 2013's Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike.
Michelle Williams
The Oscar nominee has a neat connection to her Fosse/Verdon role: back in 2014, she starred as Sally Bowles in a revival of Cabaret, the iconic show directed by Fosse and advised by Verdon. She later took a role in a nonmusical play, Blackbird, and earned a Tony nomination.