NEW YORK - Elton John hasn’t seen the Broadway play “Next Fall,” but he has invested a six-figure sum in the $2 million production. Jay-Z, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, and their business partners have put $3 million into the Broadway musical “Fela!” And Lily Tomlin has just signed on as the lead promoter of a new one-man show off Broadway.

Their offstage roles this season are part of the newest wave in the celebrification of New York theater, where commercial producers have long sought to use famous people to sell tickets. In earlier eras, Rodgers and Hammerstein or Andrew Lloyd Webber were imprimaturs of a good show . Now the latest idea is tapping marquee names from pop culture as investors and “presenters.”

Such artists, who in general have put money into their shows, tend to have little to no creative involvement in them; instead they hope to use their prestige as tastemakers and trend setters to help shows stand out at a time of declining theater attendance.

“There are no stars in the cast of ‘Next Fall,’ so I’m doing what I can to raise its profile with my profile,” said Mr. John, who is presenting “Next Fall” with his life and business partner, David Furnish, and who recently taped promotional material for the show. “It’s so hard to have a hit play in this economy. So I’m hoping we can give it a big boost.”

Ms. Tomlin, who will be presenting “My Trip Down the Pink Carpet” in April, starring the character actor Leslie Jordan , said she hoped that her name - and that of her life partner, Jane Wagner, who has also signed on - could help the production reach a wider audience .

“I think Leslie’s show is entirely entertaining but also surprisingly cathartic, and people might not hear that about the show unless Jane and I were drawing attention to it,” Ms. Tomlin said.

Several theater producers who are not working with celebrity presenters said they saw benefits to the strategy, knowing the challenges of attracting investors and theatergoers to new musicals and plays like “Fela!” and “Next Fall.”

The first celebrity presenter to make a real mark in New York, according to several Broadway producers, was Oprah Winfrey, who put $1 million into the 2005 production of the musical “The Color Purple” and actively spoke up for the show. Her top billing, “Oprah Winfrey Presents ‘The Color Purple,’ ” marked a turning point , longtime Broadway executives said.

“We’ve come a long way from the days when the names above the title were only one or two, such as with David Merrick, Harold Prince, Billy Rose, or Feuer and Martin,” said Howard Sherman, executive director of the American Theater Wing, which helps oversee the Tony Awards. “Producing participation by stars may be the next iteration of what it takes to get a show on and also help it get a foothold in a media world which is so celebrity driven.”


By PATRICK HEALY