Actress Jennifer Garner has become the latest Hollywood star to debut on
Broadway, receiving mixed reviews Friday for performance role alongside Kevin
Kline in a revival of "Cyrano de Bergerac."
Garner, married to actor-director Ben Affleck, stars as Roxane, the love
interest of Cyrano, played by Kline.
Cyrano pines for Roxane but fears she will not be interested because he has a
large nose so instead pens love letters to her for the dim-witted, yet handsome
Christian de Neuvillette (played by Daniel Sunjata), whom Roxane loves.
"The latest in a series of boldface film and television actresses to test
their stage legs (including Julia Roberts and Claire Danes), Garner seems by far
the most comfortable," The New York Times critic Ben Brantley wrote.
"If she's a tad stilted in the big tragic finale, her comic timing is
impeccable," he said.
Kline, Brantley added, "knows what he's doing."
Kline has starred in several Broadway productions, winning a Tony Award in
1978 for his role in "On the Twentieth Century" and in 1981 for "The Pirates of
Penzance." He also won an Oscar in 1989 for his role in "A Fish Called Wanda."
New York Post critic Clive Barnes wrote of Garner -- best known for her
Golden Globe-winning role as a spy on the television series "Alias" -- she "is
knee deep in film and TV credits, but despite Garner's promising opening scenes,
they wade in onstage projecting little or nothing."
While Garner worked as an understudy for a 1995 Broadway production of "A
Month in the Country," starring British Academy Award-winning actress Helen
Mirren, a spokeswoman for "Cyrano de Bergerac" said the actress never officially
made her debut.
The Daily News said Garner "brings her natural beauty to Roxane, but she's
miscast." Critic Joe Dziemianowicz added "Garner goes from little-girl breathy
to Kathleen Turner husky, and either way she breathes no conviction into her
role."