Nicole Kidman praised over West End return

The Oscar-winning actress plays British scientist Rosalind Franklin, the only woman related to the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953.

She added that she “felt at home” in London, where her last theatre role was in 1998 in David Hare’s The Blue Room. Her father, Antony Kidman, was a biochemist who died about a year ago.

If the hype surrounding the “The Blue Room” targeted on Kidman’s temporary nude second on stage, “Photograph 51”, by American playwright Anna Ziegler, is by comparability a way more sober affair, concentrating on Franklin’s skilled achievements and frosty, aggressive relationship together with her colleagues.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Stephen Dalton said Kidman delivers in a performance that is “muted but reliably intense”.

According to The Guardian, Kidman gives “a commanding, intelligent performance” in her first West End appearance in 17 years.

He adds, “My only complaint about Anna Ziegler’s intriguing, informative 95-minute play is that it is not longer”.

The London Telegraph also awarded the play four out of five stars, stating that Kidman has the power “to hold us in thrall”. “Although her kit is 1950s demure, the caboodle of her nuanced performance is the stuff of intoxication”, he writes.

Having performed Virginia Woolf, Diane Arbus, Martha Gellhorn, Grace Kelly and Gertrude Bell on the large and small screens, Nicole Kidman has chosen to incarnate one other real-life historic determine for her extremely touted return to the stage.

Yet while Neil Norman found Kidman “never less than watchable”, the Daily Express critic said the evening was “let down by Michael Grandage’s spectacularly unimaginative direction”.

Mark Shenton, The Stage: “I can’t say that I honestly understood all the science presented”.

Michael Grandage’s production for his self-named company has drawn near-ecstatic acclaim for Kidman – and the play – across the board, including from New York Times chief drama critic Ben Brantley, who concludes his notice, “As directed by Mr. Grandage, with a wintry set by Christopher Oram that conjures a London in ashes after World War II, Photograph 51 sustains a crisp dramatic tension even when it skirts banality or expository tedium”. She was supported by husband Keith Urban, who flew over from the USA for the big night.