The West End boasts some of the greatest theater and talent in the world, and many Hollywood stars have taken the stage to prove their mettle in front of London audiences. In fact, right now, per London Theatre, one star you can currently see onstage in London’s West End is Oscar-nominee Amy Adams in The Glass Menagerie. Earlier this year, too, famed actor Eddie Redmayne took the stage in the multi-Olivier Award-nominated Cabaret, as outlined by The Hollywood Reporter.



Not all of these runs have been successful, and some have ended much sooner than planned, but on this list we’ve listed some of the most successful runs. From Nicole Kidman to Daniel Radcliffe, here are six movie stars who proved themselves on the stage of London’s West End.

6 Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman has been on the West End more than once, starring in the 1980s production of The Blue Room. More recently, in 2015, she starred in Photograph 51 as an overlooked data scientist named Rosalind Franklin. Both times, Kidman made a stir, with tickets to The Blue Room being nearly impossible to come by. What’s more, for her work, she won Best Actress at the London Evening Standard Theater Awards.

Related: These Movie Stars Also Had Successful Runs on Broadway

5 Natalie Dormer

Best known for her role in Game of Thrones, Natalie Dormer had a successful run in Venus in Fur, a play that originated on Broadway and had a limited run in London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket. The acclaimed S&M comedy had Dormer in the lead role as a mysterious actor who turned up late to an audition in Manhattan, and becomes entangled with the writer-director (in this production, portrayed by David Oakes.) While the production itself wasn’t lauded, most reviews praised Dormer’s performance.

4 Benedict Cumberbatch

Benedict Cumberbatch has been in a whole host of theater productions, dating back as early as 2001. Most recently, he was in a production of one of the greatest plays of all time, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, at the Barbican Theatre as the titular character. Despite the production receiving criticism, Cumberbatch is almost universally called the highlight of the production, with the right kind of look for the role as well as a command of the stage. If you want to find out for yourself, this production was filmed and released as National Theater Live Hamlet.

3 Rebel Wilson

At the time, the decision to cast Rebel Wilson as Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls at the Phoenix Theatre was largely regarded as a stunt casting — a casting that is guaranteed to bring in audiences, and therefore more money — so that the show could continue running. However, when Wilson took the stage, this was proved to not be the case. Miss Adelaide is a role which relies on the comedic skills of the actress taking it on, which is perfect for Wilson and her history of playing comedic characters in movies. She brought new life to a production that was dwindling, and came to the West End with a bang.

Related: Great Movies That Inspired Stage Musicals

2 Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley is another actress who has been on the West End stage more than once, with her first turn on the stage being in 2009’s production of The Misanthrope. However, it is her performance alongside The Handmaid’s Tale star Elizabeth Moss in The Children’s Hour that set her as a star of the stage, as well as a star of the screen. Knightley plays Karen Wright, one of the owners of a girls boarding school where a girl’s whispers set off a dramatic and deceitful chain of events.

1 Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Radcliffe has an extensive theater history, having starred in plays and musicals including How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Of course, his turn in the revival of Equus in 2007 is the role that grabbed media and audience attention the most. Radcliffe played Alan Strang, the boy at the center of the play who blinded six horses due to a religious fascination with them. One of the play’s scenes required Radcliffe to be nude on stage, sparking a lot of controversy due to his age and his role in the family-oriented franchise Harry Potter. However, theater critics were extremely impressed by him, and this role opened the gateway for him to be in more adult roles.