ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "inception said: "I wonder if it isthe current economics of film making, where smaller "art house" films are notseen as profitable, that is causingA-list actors like George Clooney & Robert Downey Jr look at performing on Broadway?
Looking at the box office for Mr. Clooney's most recent directorial effortThe Boys in the Boat,its receipts likely did not cover production & marketing costs."
None of Clooney's directorial efforts have been major financial successes, and only one got real awards traction. He's a pretty bad director, imo. Good Night & Good Luck is the best thing he's done by a long shot, and even that's just okay.
Big stars come to Broadway regularly. Remember all the yelling around 2010 when"celebrities took over Broadway" - Denzel, ScarJo, Catherine Zeta Jones, Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman, Chris Walken, Jude Law, Kelsey Grammer, Sean Hayes, Carrie Fisher,and others.
Clooney, Downey, and Carell are an interesting case study:Broadway may have been a goal for a while, they're hovering around 60, all could use a career pivot, and 60 is a good time for an agent to say "hey, why don't you try that thing you've always wanted to do before you're too tired or before it looks like a desperate cash grab?"
I do think GN&GL feels like a bit of a cash grab. But it's got lead producers who know their way around limited-run plays (the prolific team of Seaview & Wagner/Johnson,alongside Jean Doumanian and Robert Fox)."
Clooney (and Downey... and perhaps to a lesser but still very meaningful degree, Carrell) is ultra rich by any standard. (Remember when he gifted a dozen friends $1MM each to thank them for their help over the years...?) He probably makes more any random week than he will make on the entire run of this show. He is doing Broadway because he can.
A "cash grab" is Hugh Jackman coming out of Wolverine retirement doing his new movie for, what, $50MM? A cash grab on another level - after an all-time huge,,crowd pleasing Broadway box office hit.