NEW YORK, NY.- Robert Downey Jr. is deep in rehearsals for his Broadway debut next month as an artificial intelligence-obsessed novelist in “McNeal.” Next spring, George Clooney arrives for his own Broadway debut in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” and Denzel Washington returns, after a seven-year absence, to star in “Othello” with Jake Gyllenhaal.

Then comes an even more surprising debut: Keanu Reeves plans to begin his Broadway career in the fall of 2025, opposite his longtime “Bill & Ted” slacker-buddy Alex Winter in “Waiting for Godot,” the ur-two-guys-being-unimpressive tragicomedy.

Broadway, still adapting to sharply higher production costs and audiences that have not fully rebounded since the coronavirus pandemic, is betting big on star power, hoping that a helping of Hollywood glamour will hasten its rejuvenation.

Even for an industry long accustomed to stopovers by screen and pop stars, the current abundance is striking.

It reflects a new economic calculus by many producers, who have concluded that short-run plays with celebrity-led casts are more likely to earn a profit than the expensive razzle-dazzle musicals that have long been Broadway's bread and butter.

For the actors, there is another factor: As TV networks and streaming companies cut back on scripted series, and as Hollywood focuses on franchise films, the stage offers a chance to tell more challenging stories.

“Look, certainly the paychecks are incredible when you’re wearing a rubber suit, but the payoff you feel inside when you’re doing theater is an even greater reward,” said Christian Slater, who will be performing off-Broadway this winter in a Sam Shepard play, “Curse of the Starving Class,” opposite Calista Flockhart.

The result is an outcome that few would have predicted a decade ago, when industry insiders were wringing their hands about the plight of plays on Broadway, where most tickets are purchased by tourists drawn to song and dance. For a time, it seemed like plays might almost disappear from the Broadway menu; instead, they are proliferating.

“Almost our entire model is limited-run star engagements,” said producer Greg Nobile, whose company, Seaview, had a hit last season with a 17-week revival of “An Enemy of the People” starring Jeremy Strong. This season it is doubling down, starting next month with a revival of “Romeo and Juliet” featuring Kit Connor, a star of the popular Netflix teen show “Heartstopper,” and Rachel Zegler, who played Maria in the 2021 “West Side Story” film, followed by the Clooney play. “I believe right now, to get anybody’s attention in any sector, things need to be an event.”

Since the pandemic, film and television stars have brought buzz and audiences to a number of Broadway plays, including Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick in “Plaza Suite,” Samuel L. Jackson in “The Piano Lesson,” Jessica Chastain in “A Doll’s House” and Jodie Comer in “Prima Facie.” Producers took note, and among the screen stars headlining plays on New York stages in the coming months, both on Broadway and off, are Kenneth Branagh, Kieran Culkin, Adam Driver, Mia Farrow, Daniel Dae Kim, Julianna Margulies, Bob Odenkirk, Jim Parsons and Marisa Tomei.

As with everything on Broadway, finances play a role. The money risked by investors on plays is much lower than on musicals, which tend to have bigger casts, more elaborate sets, and, of course, musicians, and which have become increasingly expensive to produce. A new musical these days often costs more than $20 million to bring to Broadway — “Boop!” a new musical based on Betty Boop that is opening next spring, is being capitalized for up to $26 million. Plays generally cost less than half as much — the “Romeo and Juliet” revival is being capitalized for up to $7 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Of course, the potential upside is also lower. A successful play might return 30% to investors; the musical juggernauts (which are few and far between) can return many times that by sustaining long runs in large theaters and spinning off tours. (Of the 24 new Broadway musicals that opened over the past two seasons, only one, “& Juliet,” has become profitable thus far. Two others, “Hell’s Kitchen” and “The Outsiders,” have plausible paths to profitability, but it is too soon to know for sure.)

Parsons, who has embraced stage work since the end of his television series, “The Big Bang Theory,” is featured in a revival of “Our Town” that begins performances next month, with a cast that also includes Katie Holmes.

“The pandemic did plenty of things to me, as it did to many people, and I have to think that one of them was that I really crave things that force me into contact with other humans,” he said in an interview. “And maybe it’s not just the pandemic — it’s the digital age. There are fewer of these opportunities to gather together and experience something together, and it feeds my soul in a way that I haven’t felt in a long time.”

The pay on Broadway is not Hollywood-high, but it’s not bad — in commercial productions, stars are often given a negotiated base salary plus a percentage either of the box office or of any profit. Generally, movie stars need to commit to at least four months if there is to be any hope of profitability; producers have taken to sharing financial details with celebrities. “Every star wants to do six weeks on Broadway, but you can’t make that work, so you show them a recoupment chart,” said Sue Wagner, a producer and general manager.

The surge of stars shows no signs of slowing — there are indications that John Mulaney, Sarah Snook and Andrew Scott will also appear on New York stages this season. “A lot of actors are waiting for the right script,” said John Johnson, a producer and general manager.

Some of that seems to be attributable to a changing Hollywood. “There’s very little indie market, even for huge stars, and so they are looking for places to be able to tell more daring stories” said Scott Elliott, founding artistic director of the New Group, which is marketing its current off-Broadway season as “the stars and shows you can’t miss” because it has Tomei, Flockhart and Slater.

Joe Machota, a Broadway power agent as head of the theater department at Creative Artists Agency, said that after years of schedule disruptions caused by the Hollywood strikes and the pandemic before that, more screen stars find themselves available. “This was the first season people could say, ‘I can commit this time to doing this here in New York,’” he said.

It’s not only movie stars and television stars who are flocking to Broadway plays. This season’s musicals will feature pop performers Nick Jonas (of the Jonas Brothers), Nicole Scherzinger (of the Pussycat Dolls) and Michelle Williams (of Destiny’s Child). And of course musical theater is one area where Broadway mints its own megastars: several reigning divas, including Audra McDonald, Idina Menzel, Sutton Foster and Bernadette Peters, will anchor musicals this season.

The starry season is a symbolic boost for an industry still trying to regain its mojo. Broadway had been on a remarkable upward trajectory in the years preceding the pandemic, but then tumbled; during the 2023-24 season, total attendance was still 17% lower than it had been the last full season before the pandemic.

“These actors do bring brand-new audiences to the theater, and of course, that’s what you always want,” said Jamie Lloyd, who will direct Scherzinger in “Sunset Boulevard” and Reeves in “Godot.”

For the film and television stars strutting their stuff onstage, Broadway appeals for a variety of reasons. There is the prestige, the possibility of awards (some of this season’s stars already have Emmys, Grammys or Oscars, so there’s always that hope for a Tony and an EGOT), and, they say, a particular pleasure of performing live. Many trained as theater actors, and they often say they feel more control, more challenge and more community when onstage.

“There’s nothing like it,” said Margulies, who starting late next month will be starring opposite Peter Gallagher in “Left on Tenth,” adapted by Delia Ephron from her memoir. Margulies hasn’t worked onstage for 18 years, but said, “I have been looking for a play for a long time.” Why? “I started onstage, and that immediate connection with the audience you don’t get in film or television. You just don’t get it.”

Margulies rose to fame on the television show “ER,” which also starred Clooney. “Years ago,” she recalled, “after we had done ‘ER,’ I said to him, ‘You should do stage, and he said, ‘No way. I will never do stage. No way.’”

When she saw that they would both be onstage this season she emailed him, and they commiserated about their nerves.

“I emailed him and I said, ‘George, I’m so proud of you,’” she recalled, adding that she was extremely nervous about doing live theater. She said that he wrote back and said that he was nervous, too, but added that “it’s time.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.