Hollywood's most profitable leading lady, Julia Roberts, made her big fat Broadway debut this week...and bellyflopped like Bruce Vilanch jumping off the high dive. While some of the blistering critical reaction can be explained by the general snootiness of New Yorkers (they don't like it when movie stars decide to flounce about on theatrical stages), it remains clear -- after high-profile failures by Denzel Washington, Jessica Lange, and Alec Baldwin -- that film acting and stage acting are very different skills to master.To be fair, some Hollywood types do well on Broadway -- Hugh Jackman triumphed in The Boy From Oz, Philip Seymour Hoffman led a remarkable True West, and Ralph Fiennes is currently on the boards acquitting himself nicely in a revival of Faith Healer -- but most of them cut their teeth for years in the theatre before transitioning to film. Ms. Roberts, on the other hand, hasn't foot on a stage since her high school years in Georgia.
The play she stars in (with Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper, of 40-Year-Old Virgin and Wedding Crashers fame, respectively) is a revival of Three Days of Rain, by Tony winner Richard Greenberg. Kudos to Julia for picking difficult material (she plays two roles in different acts), but her flat line delivery leads me to believe that Erin Brockovich: The Musical will not be in the cards anytime soon. - ModFab
Tags: Julia Roberts, Broadway, Three Days of Rain, Hollywood, critics
