NY1 recently caught up with some high-profile Hollywood performers who are behind new projects slated to open on Broadway within the next few weeks. NY1’s Roma Torre filed the following report.

Academy Award-winning actress Jane Fonda, who was last seen on film in "Georgia Rule," will return to Broadway’s stages for the first time in over 40 years. The play, Moises Kaufman's "33 Variations," is inspired by Ludwig Von Beethoven, which struck a familiar chord in Fonda.

“I happened to be writing about Beethoven, the fact that like many great artists he did his best work later in life when he was physically-challenged, and I got this play about Beethoven later in life, when he was physically-challenged,” says Fonda. “And a musicologist [played by] myself [is] on a quest to discover why he did what he did.”

“I read the play, and I realized I've never read a play like this before,” Fonda continues. “There is something different, stylistically-different, structurally-different.”

Kaufman, who last directed Broadway with "I Am My Own Wife," is making his “Great White Way” debut as playwright.

“What I keep saying is that I was writing this play in a way, that I never knew I was writing it for Jane,” says Kaufman.

Meanwhile, two more Academy Award winners are diving into Theatre of the Absurd. Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon will soon star in a revival of Eugene Ionesco's "Exit The King," which was last seen on Broadway in 1968.

The dark comedy, newly-translated by Rush and director Neil Armfield, tells the story of a power-hungry king, played by Rush, in a crumbling kingdom.

“Because Ionesco has written a mock-classical play, it's sort of our own personal charter for Neil and I - we're always trying to find redefine the theater as where great fun, great surprises can happen,” says Rush. “So it doesn't ever fall into the traditional patterns of a chore that audiences and performers have to go through.”

Sarandon makes a return to the stage after a nearly forty-year stage absence.

“The last time I did this, was when I was at the Shubert with ‘An Evening With Richard Nixon,’ it was a big ensemble piece where we were on stage all the time,” says Sarandon. “And this is also an ensemble piece where I'm onstage all the time, but my time is above the title - which is so scary!”

Other Hollywood icons about to walk the Broadway boards this spring include Jeremy Irons, Joan Allen, James Galdofini and Jeff Daniels.