Hollywood stars group to Broadway theatre Stage

Scarlett Johansson during the screen call at the opening night of a Broadway reconstruction of Arthur Miller"s A View From the Bridge in Jan this year. Photograph: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

New Yorkers will not need to go to their nearest multiplex motion picture to catch the ultimate performances by stars such as Denzel Washington, Scarlett Johansson or Christopher Walken. Instead, they will shortly be means to see a small of Hollywood"s A-list in the flesh.

A organisation of important movie bent has substituted the fever and glorious of creation drive-in entertainment in Los Angeles for the some-more artistically severe final of New York"s entertainment world.

Washington is starring in a new reconstruction of Fences, a fool around by American bard Aug Wilson, that opens subsequent month. Johansson and Liev Schreiber are already starring in Arthur Miller"s A View from the Bridge. Walken"s opening as a demented torpedo in Martin McDonagh"s new play, A Behanding in Spokane, is additionally sketch in big crowds. Other stream or new big names looming on entertainment embody Laura Linney, Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman and Jude Law.

Many Hollywood stars explain that looming on entertainment represents a purer form of behaving than celluloid and boosts their credit as thespians, not small movie stars. "The initial thing I wish to do is some-more theatre. The second thing I wish to do is approach movies. Acting in movies is right away No 3 on the list," Washington told the New York Post publication recently.

But there might be a some-more boring reason. Hollywood studios are right away in the center of an mercantile crisis. Studios have been set upon by the slow stroke of the 2008 Hollywood set upon and afterwards the low punch of the recession. Despite new mega-hits such as Avatar, most studios are slicing costs and binning new movie projects. MGM, for example, expelled usually one movie last year, and a small industry watchers think it is teetering on the verge of collapse. The important eccentric movie college of music Miramax is up for sale after outrageous pursuit losses. It as well slashed the series of drive-in entertainment it is releasing.

At the same time most tip Hollywood stars have seen a dump in their capability to direct large salary for a movie. Lucrative deals where stars took a initial cut of a film"s box bureau have all but disappeared.

In short, a lot of movie stars are anticipating work and money a small harder to come by. No consternation a spell on Broadway unexpected looks good.

New York"s entertainment universe is, however, welcoming them with open arms, notwithstanding a small behind-the-scenes grumbling from a small of the city"s thousands of perennially under-employed actors. Attaching a big name to a fool around guarantees press courtesy and a full of health open interest. If the names are big sufficient it can even have a prolongation "review-proof" as audiences will organisation to see the stars whatever the reviews. Many New York theatres and producers are right away basing their commercial operation indication around short-run plays with big star names.

"It is good to have such an liquid of stars entrance to Broadway. It does assistance the business. They can assistance pull an assembly and that will assistance any producer," pronounced Dan Bacalzo, handling editor of Theatremania, a heading New York-based entertainment website. Certainly a small plays obviously do most improved with star names than without. When a new prolongation of God of Carnage non-stop with an all-star cast, together with James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden, it played to packaged houses. But when the expel switched to a organisation of rarely praised but lesser-known actors, the take forsaken and during the common excavation of Yuletide week the once packed-out fool around was display in front of a residence at usually 69% capacity.

Lucy Liu, star of the Charlie"s Angels movies, has right away been brought in to the show.

Of course, being a important movie star does not regularly meant someone can action in the theatre, generally when swapping the �lite movie universe of mixed takes and reshoots for the heartless and revengeful locus of live performance.

Yet most new movie stars have additionally drawn soap-box reviews, generally Walken, Law and Johansson. "I think if anybody was angry that Scarlett Johansson was here, they should go and see A View From The Bridge. She has been glorious in that part," pronounced Bacalzo.

Future and stream productions include:

Denzel Washington is starring in an arriving prolongation of the fool around Fences.

Scarlett Johansson is earning soap-box reviews in a View From The Bridge.

Laura Linney is personification a fight photographer in Time Stands Still.

Lucy Liu is looming in God of Carnage.

James Spader is starring in David Mamet"s Race.

Christopher Walken is the lead purpose in the hideous new fool around A Behanding in Spokane.

Anthony Mackie, who starred in the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker, is personification conflicting Walken.

John Lithgow is in Mr and Mrs Fitch.