Reflecting some years later, the Langners noted, "Westport Country Playhouse was never intended to be operated solely as a local 'summer' theatre, but always set the larger theatre of America as the ultimate goal of its productions."

So that productions built for Westport Country Playhouse could easily transfer to larger Broadway theaters, the stage was built to match the specifications of Broadway's Times Square Theatre on 42nd Street. The wisdom of this was proven immediately when the opening production, the 19th century melodrama The Streets of New York with Dorothy Gish and Rollo Peters in the leading roles, transferred to Broadway's 48th Street Theatre.

Several other plays made the move to Broadway during the Playhouse's first two seasons, however none achieved the success of The Streets of New York. The Langners abandoned the idea of a repertory company and turned to plays that allowed some of the greatest theatre stars of the day to shine in challenging roles.

Indeed the leading actors of the era performed on the Westport Country Playhouse stage in subsequent years: Ruth Gordon, Bert Lahr, Ina Claire, Dennis King, Laurette Taylor, Eva LeGallienne, Paul Robeson, Helen Hayes, Ethel Barrymore, Van Heflin, Jose Ferrer, and many more.

Many newcomers who would later make their marks on Broadway and in Hollywood had early career successes at the Playhouse during the Langners' years of leadership. A decade before becoming a bona fide star in Mister Roberts, Henry Fonda made his Playhouse debut in The Virginian. Twenty-two-year-old Julie Harris, who had previously worked for the Langners as a witch in Macbeth on Broadway, made her Playhouse debut in Sundown Beach only 14 months before The Member of the Wedding made her a Broadway star. Nineteen-year-old Patricia Neal was seen by Lillian Hellman in The Devil Takes a Whittler and months later made her Broadway debut in the great playwright's classic Another Part of the Forest.

Another newcomer to the stage was, in fact, already a theatre legend as a playwright. Thornton Wilder applied for and received his Actors' Equity Association membership card in order to portray the Stage Manager in his own hit play, Our Town, at the Playhouse in 1946. Two years later he returned to play the leading role of Mr. Antrobus in The Skin of Our Teeth.