On Tuesday (May 3), the 2016 Tony nominations were announced, an exciting day for theater-goers everywhere. Celebrating the hard work and performances on Broadway this past year, there were numerous celebrities more known for their work in TV and film who earned nominations, like Lupita Nyong’o, Michael Shannon and Steve Martin.
Why do huge stars leave Hollywood for The Great White Way? How can they turn down large paychecks to perform eight shows a week for way less money?
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Nyong’o addressed this issue straight in a personal essay for Lenny Letter whose release coincided with the Tony nominations. The Oscar winner earned her first Tony nod for her Broadway debut as “the Girl” in Danai Guirira’s play “Eclipsed,” which was also nominated.
Nyong’o says being in a play is “like running a marathon every night,” but she loves doing it. She writes, “A journalist asked me, ‘Why would such a big star choose to do such a small play?'” A question the Yale drama grad calls “quite silly.”
“I’m an actress; why wouldn’t I want to be in an incredible, gorgeous, meaty piece about the complicated choices of women during wartime?” Nyong’o writes, explaining that the problem of that question goes way deeper. “To me it felt like a question about our value system in this culture, the ways we define success for ourselves as well as others. I turned down a few projects to pursue this one. I knew there was a sense of what was expected of me, but this play felt so important to me that I had to do it, expectations be damned.”
Many A-list actors share the sentiment. In 2006, two-time Oscar winner Julia Roberts starred in the play “Three Days of Rain,” explaining to the New York Post at the time, “I love being an actor, but sometimes doing this I feel as though I’ve gone back to square one.”
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It’s important for true artists, actors who love nothing more than the art of their craft, to separate themselves from the hoopla of Hollywood and focus on immersing themselves in a role. Returning to their theater roots can also have a major nostalgia factors for those who got into acting because they fell in love with a play or musical.
Danielle Brooks, who has made a name for herself playing Taystee on “Orange is the New Black,” challenged herself to film the Netflix series while performing in Broadway’s “The Color Purple” revival, which was an opportunity that she just couldn’t pass up. “It’s been a lot of work doing both ‘Orange’ and ‘Color Purple’ and to see it pay off in a way you weren’t expecting, it’s so humbling,” she told to The Hollywood Reporter after learning about her first Tony nom. “[‘The Color Purple’] was the first Broadway show I saw, the first time I realized I could do this on a larger scale.”
Sometimes the explanation of film actors turning to theater is simply because the material is better. There’s a reason certain plays have been around for hundreds of years and continue to draw audiences. Michael Shannon told THR after learning about his Tony nom for his role in the revival of Eugene O’Neill’s play “Long Day’s Journey into Night” as Jamie Tyrone, “I can only accept so much credit. I am playing one of the most exquisitely written roles in the history of American drama.”
Bradley Cooper told the New York Times that disappearing into his role for “The Elephant Man” in 2014 was somewhat of a relief. “I kind of feel cleansed,” he said of playing Merrick everyday, a role in which the movie star hunk was unrecognizable on stage. “I feel full. I feel relaxed. I find it therapeutic, playing him, inhabiting him every day.”
