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NEW YORK -- I never imagined I would express concern for a woman who, in one of her more recent films, was paid an eight-figure salary to kiss Jude Law. But honestly, I felt nervous for Julia Roberts Monday night.
It was, after all, the first critics' preview for Three Days Of Rain (*** out of four), the movie star's much-ballyhooed Broadway debut. I knew that Roberts wouldn't fall on her face; living Hollywood legends generally don't do that sort of thing. The question was, would the pretty woman truly hold her own in Richard Greenberg's poignant drama? Would she make the sort of distinctive impression that Patricia Clarkson did, by all accounts, in Rain's off-Broadway run nearly a decade ago?
Having not seen that production, I can't compare Roberts' performance to Clarkson's. But in the new Rain, which opened Wednesday at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, Roberts does hold her own with two guys who have more stage experience: the young stage and screen veteran Paul Rudd and the theatrically trained rising film actor Bradley Cooper.
It's a credit to all three stars and director Joe Mantello that this Rain is a study in graceful, generous ensemble acting. In the first act, Roberts and Rudd play Nan and Walker, grown siblings confronting their past and future after the death of their father, Ned, a noted architect. Cooper is cast as Pip, their blithe childhood friend, whose dad, Theo, was Ned's business partner.
The lingering scars and conflicts that emerge are fleshed out in the second act, which takes place 35 years earlier. Here Rudd and Cooper appear as the young Ned and Theo, and Roberts plays Lina, the feisty but troubled Southern woman who will marry Ned and mother Nan and Walker.
A skeptic might suggest that Roberts' roles naturally accommodate the Broadway newcomer's strengths and potential weaknesses. Nan, the mother of two young children, is called on to seem worried and ill at ease much of the time; Roberts' sometimes abrupt reactions and the way she keeps cupping her hands together could be construed as classic signs of inexperience on stage, except that they happen to be true to character.
Similarly, Lina's Southern accent becomes more pronounced at certain times, particularly when she grows buoyant after knocking back some drinks. But I've gleaned that many regional accents become more pronounced after a few cocktails.
In the end, Roberts makes both women credible, compelling and sweetly funny. And she manages a tender chemistry with each of her co-stars; Lina's scenes with Rudd's heartbreakingly awkward Ned are especially endearing.
Whether the star of Erin Brockovich is ready for, say, Medea remains to be seen. But I'm not sure a new mom would be eager to tackle that golden oldie anyway.
*Rudd is a busy man, 3D
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