Star Power A Proven Ingredient To Fill The Theatre Seats

The past decade has seen its fair share of sheer celebrity power on the New York stage. Theatre patrons were not only drawn in by the calibre of the productions, but also by the the opportunity to see box-office mega-stars and internationally recognized names such as Julia Roberts, P. Diddy, Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig and Jude Law to name but a few.

As a story in the New York Times reports, theatre producers have awokened to the fact that in the United States, celebrity status has a direct impact on the success and popularity of certain shows.

"Theater producers - who had unhappily discovered that jukebox musicals and works adapted from popular movies did not, after all, guarantee financial success - learned what every televangelist knows: Religion sells. And in the United States, no religion is more pervasive than the cult of celebrity," says Ben Brantley in a story in the New York Times.

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