The 5 Best Stars on Broadway Right Now!

In his first movie as James Bond, actor Daniel Craig did may of his own stunts—including a dangerous fight 200 feet above the ground and a dramatic high-wire jump from a crane.

But that was nothing compared to what he is doing right now—starring as Iago in an off-Broadway production of Shakespeare’s Othello.

It takes talent to be a movie star, but it takes talent plus guts to be a star on stage. Each night is something new, and you don’t get retakes or second chances. So big cheers to the stars who’ve been proving their moxie by performing in front of live audiences every night. Here are five who blew me away.

Josh Groban

The handsome pop star has been one of the best-selling artists in the country with at least four albums that have gone multi-platinum. So what’s he doing on stage as a dissolute and angst-ridden Russian?

Groban said he wanted to challenge himself to try something new. He’s gone to Broadway as the star of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, an extraordinary new musical based on a slice of War and Peace.

Groban wears padding on his slim frame to look more like the chubby Pierre, and he has learned to play an accordion, too. When he tours as a singer, Groban is charming and warm. But it turns out he’s also a terrific actor—and his Russian angst and despair is fully believable.

The whole show is exhilarating with waves of romance, comedy, Russian tragedy and opera all at once. And in one of the most creative stagings on Broadway, the whole theater is turned into a Russian nightclub (and you may even be served pierogis).

Groban has one show-stopping song, a long and touching aria called “Dust and Ashes.” The playwright, Dave Malloy, added it just for Groban and it’s hard to imagine anyone else doing it justice.

I first saw this off-Broadway without Groban and was impressed by the show as a wonderful new piece of theater. But Groban gives it an unforgettable punch and power. I hope he’ll keep acting.

Cate Blanchett

The gorgeous Aussie actress can do anything—but you’ve probably never seen her chugging vodka and dancing on a table. In The Present, she does both. Playing Anna, a woman who invites friends and family to her Russian estate to celebrate her 40th birthday, Blanchett is outrageously charming and seductive. Most of the men at the party are in love with her, and you can’t really blame them.

Anna tries to seduce her dear friend Mikhail, played by Richard Roxburgh, and at one point she lies down on the ground and wraps her long legs around him. He resists—which is hard to believe—but his explanation rings true. If he yields to Anna, he’ll never think of anything else. Nobody in the audience can focus on anything but her either.

The play was adapted from an early work of Anton Chekhov by Blanchett’s husband, Andrew Upton. Chekhov is usually gloomy, and themes about getting older and finding meaning in life pepper this version too. But my guess is that if Chekhov got to see Cate striding across the stage, even he would have a smile.

Josh Radnor

After nine seasons playing Ted Mosby on the hit comedy How I Met Your Mother, Josh Radnor could retire to a beach in Hawaii. Instead, he’s starring in a serious play at New York’s Lincoln Center Theater. In The Babylon Line, he plays Aaron Port, a writer from Greenwich Village who is teaching a dreary adult ed class in Levittown, New York.

Radnor brings an intensity and intelligence to the performance that makes a slightly lightweight show gain more power. Radnor becomes attracted to one of the students in his class, played by Twilight’s Elizabeth Reaser. Their scenes together throb with unfulfilled desire. Radnor proves he’s not just the goofy guy from TV but a serious and strong actor. Here’s hoping we’ll get to see him do this more.

Zoe Kazan

When actress Zoe Kazan first shows up in the play Love, Love, Love, she’s an awkward teenager wearing wire-rimmed glasses and an ungainly school uniform. Her brother is taunting her, and she’s having a first-love crisis with her boyfriend. And at dinner, her parents battle each other in front of the kids and decide to get a divorce.

Zoe may be 33, but she plays teenagers as well as anyone. In the movie It’s Complicated, she was the daughter of Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin—and there as here, she shows what parents do to their kids by their own self-involvement.

At the end of Love, Love, Love, Zoe’s character is in her late 30s and comes to ask her parents for support. She gives a powerful rebuke to all that they’ve stood for—and throws in some perspective on government’s failings too. Whatever your age, you identify with her. Zoe may be the granddaughter of famed movie director Elia Kazan, but she’s definitely making her own name.

Daniel Craig

Usually an audience welcomes a big star to the stage with a big round of applause. But not so in this production of Othello, which stars Daniel Craig as the manipulative Iago. It’s not that Craig isn’t a big enough star (they don’t come any bigger!)—it’s that the production begins in total darkness. So the audience hears the characters talking for a while before the lights come up. When they do, Craig has already disappeared into being Iago.

Wearing shorts, a T-shirt and work boots, Craig plays the famously manipulative character in a brilliant, self-effacing performance. Craig’s powerful portrayal lets you understand the Shakespeare play on a different level than before. Honestly, if you’d seen this production in high school, you would have always loved Shakespeare.

I would be very happy if Craig continued to play James Bond—I think he’s the best one ever. But even if he doesn’t, his performance on stage will remain seared in my mind. It’s hard to imagine that I’ll ever get to see a better Iago.