Jimmy Fallon Isn’t the First Tonight Show Host to Appear On Broadway

It was big news earlier this week when Jimmy Fallon made his Broadway acting debut in All In: Comedy About Love, the limited-run play penned by fellow SNL alum Simon Rich.

But while Fallon is the first person to ever appear in a Broadway production while serving as host of The Tonight Show, he’s not the first Tonight Show host to ever appear on Broadway. That was none other than Johnny Carson.

For a period of six weeks in the winter of 1958, a 32-year-old Carson starred as philandering cartoonist Augie Poole in Broadway’s The Tunnel of Love. He inherited the role from its originator, Tom Ewell, and eventually handed it off to Larry Parks, who went on to lead the show’s brief U.S. tour.

The Playbill issued during Carson’s Tunnel of Love tenure stipulated that, despite his lack of Broadway experience, he had been “entertaining audiences, both live and over the nation’s television screens, for upwards of a decade.” Indeed, he had already starred in several TV programs, including Carson’s Cellar and Earn Your Vacation.

Carson’s Broadway bow came nearly four months into his stint as host of the ABC game show Who Do You Trust? (which was at that time titled Do You Trust Your Wife?). He continued to star on the popular daytime series during and after his Broadway run, ultimately leaving to host The Tonight Show on a permanent basis in October 1962.

As it happens, while Carson was starring in Tunnel of Love at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, the Tonight show (then hosted by Carson’s predecessor Jack Paar) was being produced just a block and a half away at The Hudson Theatre… the very same theater where Fallon is starring in All In.

Fittingly, both Carson and Fallon’s first Broadway plays are romantic comedies. All In, which opened in previews at the Hudson Theatre on December 11, 2024, is based on seven short stories Rich originally wrote for The New Yorker. Also attached to the show are director Alex Timbers (Moulin Rouge!; Beetlejuice) and producer Lorne Michaels.

The Broadway production of All In is set to run for ten weeks with 14 actors filling the show’s four roles on a rotating basis. The cast originally consisted of John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and Richard Kind.

Fallon’s All In gig will last less than one week, with his final performance scheduled for February 2. He shares the stage with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Aidy Bryant, and Nick Kroll.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *