As much as Broadway now relies on Hollywood actors to bring in the crowds, so A-listers increasingly view stints onstage as integral to a rich career. Here, seven award-winning actors on their new roles.





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Bradley Cooper in “The Elephant Man”

Since he was 12 years old, Cooper has been obsessed with Joseph Merrick, whose life as a freakish curiosity for 19th-century English society became the subject of Bernard Pomerance’s 1977 play. Now Cooper, 39, is fulfilling a lifelong dream in performing the part of Merrick at the Booth Theatre, where it premiered in 1979. The actor explained that there would be no poster of his face on the outside of the building. “The more anonymity I can maintain, the better theatergoing experience people can have,” he said. “And if for some reason ‘The Hangover’ fans are in the audience making noise, it’s one-hundredth of what Merrick would have had to deal with when he walked into public.”

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Glenn Close in “A Delicate Balance”

Close, who last appeared on Broadway a neat two decades ago as the faded movie star Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard,” now returns as the matriarch of the WASPy family in Edward Albee’s 1966 play alongside John Lithgow and Martha Plimpton. “I’d rather be in this very tight ensemble than some star vehicle,” she said. “We’re all experiencing the phenomenon that if you get a word wrong it can have a distressing domino effect, so you have to be kind of rescued by your fellow actor.”

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Jake Gyllenhaal in “Constellations”

“It’s less about string theory than about love,” said Gyllenhaal of his role as a beekeeper who falls for a physicist in “Constellations,” the new play by the British playwright Nick Payne. The 33-year-old actor has performed on smaller New York stages, but this is his Broadway debut. “If you know anything about love or have experienced it in any way, you might know more about string theory than you think you do.”

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Patricia Clarkson in “The Elephant Man”

For her role as Mrs. Kendal in “The Elephant Man,” in which she stars alongside Bradley Cooper and Alessandro Nivola, Clarkson, 54, will be playing an actress who is taken into Merrick’s trust. “She has a beautiful line,” said Clarkson. “She says, ‘Of course he is rather odd. And hurt. And helpless not to show the struggling. And so am I.’ And that’s it. I think as performers, as actors, people in the public eye, we often mask tremendous pain and struggle and sadness and it’s just there. It’s just part of the game.”

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Martha Plimpton in “A Delicate Balance”

Plimpton stars as Julia, a 36-year-old who flees her disintegrating fourth marriage to return to her parents’ home. Theater, according to the 44-year-old actor, “has its own type of mystery for me because it’s an ongoing process. I mean, not to get too precious about it, but it’s a loom, you know? And all of you are the working parts of that loom and you’re making this marvelous piece of fabric.” Then: “That was too pretentious, even for me.”

Hair by Brent Lawler using Oribe Hair Care at Streeters. Makeup by Kaoru Okubo for Management + Artists. Ralph Lauren Black Label Sweater, $395, ralphlauren.com.

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Maggie Gyllenhaal in “The Real Thing”

“I do feel a different kind of pressure,” said Gyllenhaal, who, like her younger brother, is also making her Broadway debut this season. “And there is a terror, certainly, that I just didn’t feel in the smaller spaces.” The 37-year-old actor plays Annie to Ewan McGregor’s Henry in a revival of Tom Stoppard’s 1982 play. “Maybe it was just because I was younger, and I find the older I get the softer my heart gets — I feel more vulnerable to everything. But maybe it’s also something about Broadway.”

Hair by Matthew Monzon using Davines for Tracey Mattingly. Makeup by Kaoru Okubo for Management + Artists

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Alessandro Nivola in “The Elephant Man”

The 42-year-old actor and producer will appear alongside Patricia Clarkson and Bradley Cooper in The Elephant Man as Frederick Treves, the Victorian surgeon who befriends John Merrick. Nivola has now appeared in over 30 films, yet he began his career thinking his life would be on stage rather than screen. “The thing about the theater is it’s either just a euphoric excess or one of the most painful things to have to do. If it’s badly reviewed you’re stuck doing it for three months and it can be humiliating and gut-wrenching. You battle your own insecurities and fears in a way that you’d never have to in film. But if you get well-reviewed there’s just nothing better than being able to go on with this ritual every day.”

Margaret Howell sweater, $585, margarethowell.co.uk. Alternative T-shirt, $38, alternativeapparel.com.

Video: Sylvia Rupani-Smith

Video: Sylvia Rupani-Smith