Zeta-Jones earns mixed reviews in Broadway debut

Catherine Zeta-Jones, who won an Oscar for the film musical Chicago, has received a mixed reception following her musical debut in New York. Zeta-Jones stars in Broadway's biggest opening of the Christmas season, Stephen Sondheim's classic A Little Night Music, which is directed by Trevor Nunn and co-stars Angela Lansbury and Alexander Hanson (left above with Zeta-Jones).

Zeta-Jones, star of many films including Ocean's Twelve and Traffic, plays Desiree Armfeldt, a fading actress and habitual man-eater who is facing middle-age. At 40, Zeta-Jones is barely old enough to play Desiree. While several critics praised her glamour and breathtaking wasp-waisted dresses, others argued that the actresses's gorgeous looks count against her.

"An actress radiating youthful vigour and sensuality is not a great fit for Desiree Armfeldt, the soignée Sondheim heroine whose most ravishing days are behind her," said the Washington Post's Peter Marks. "It's an unfortunate truth that Catherine Zeta-Jones is not ideally cast as regretful, wistful Desiree.” Marks was not won over by Trevor Nunn's direction either, calling it a "never-right revival".
 
Meanwhile in a three-star review for the Guardian, Emma Brockes noted that "Zeta-Jones is perhaps too beautiful to have faith in herself as anyone's second choice". Brockes concludes that Zeta-Jones has chosen a tough gig for her Broadway debut: Sondheim's musical has a complex score and requires the skills of a seasoned stage actor. "While Catherine Zeta-Jones can act and sing, she can't do both at once in this production – at least not in one take".
 
But Variety's David Rooney praised the "luminous" Zeta-Jones, calling her "bewitching, confident and utterly natural, she breathes a refreshing earthiness and warm-blooded sensuality into the part" and the New York Times critic Ben Brantley lauded the Welsh-born actress for her "decent voice, a supple dancer’s body and a vulpine self-possession".
 
Brantley noted, however, that she plays the usually droll Desiree with "a not always appropriate edge of desperation". He added: "Swapping arch banter, sung or spoken, doesn’t come naturally to Ms Zeta-Jones".
 
Before this morning's lacklustre reviews, Nunn's production was already one of the hottest tickets on Broadway, with tickets selling for as much as $300 on eBay. The chances are that Zeta-Jones's star power as one half of a Hollywood super-couple will keep the momentum going despite the nay-sayers. Her husband Michael Douglas was in the first night audience, as were fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and her media mogul husband Barry Diller, actress Kathleen Turner, who starred in Romancing the Stone opposite Douglas way back in 1984, and Aussie actor Hugh Jackman, fresh from his turn on Broadway in A Steady Rain with Daniel Craig.

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