Star Shine Brings Money, Talent

All those TV and movie stars on Broadway this season helped gross a total of $1.02 billion during the 09-10 season, according to The New York Times.

The revenues are up despite a slight decrease in attendance, perhaps attributable to the non-reporting of numbers for “Young Frankenstein” because of that show’s policies.

But the stars are bring in more than box office revenues; they’ve got talent, too.

Consider that all five of the Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play nominees are better known for their movie work:

Jude Law, “Hamlet
Alfred Molina, “Red”
Liev Schreiber, “A View From the Bridge:
Christopher Walken, “A Behanding in Spokane”
Denzel Washington, “Fences”

In the Best Actress in a Play category, sit-com vets Valerie Harper and Linda Lavin were both nominated for “Looped” and “Collected Stories.” (Laura Linney, nominated for “Time Stands Still,” is equally at home in TV/film and on stage.)

In the Best Actor in a Musical category, Kelsey Grammer for “La Cage aux Folles” and Sean Hayes for “Promises, Promises” successfully made the switch from sit-coms to Broadway.

Add Catherine Zeta-Jones, Leading Actress in a Musical nominee, and Scarlett Johansson, Leading Actress in a Drama nominee, and you can see the tremendous impact these double- and triple-threat performers had.

See the Tony Awards on June 13 at 8 p.m on CBS. – MKilgore