Filed at 10:34 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- Katie
Holmes made her Broadway debut in ''All My Sons,'' and her husband Tom
Cruise thought it was a knockout.
When asked for his verdict on Holmes' performance, Cruise stopped for a
moment while moving through the crowd at the Gerald
Schoenfeld Theatre on Thursday night, telling The Associated Press: ''Did
you see it? ... It was extraordinary.''
Hundreds of people bought tickets to see Holmes act on Broadway for the first
time in a preview performance for the revival of ''All My Sons,'' co-starring John
Lithgow, Dianne
Wiest and Patrick
Wilson.
The audience collectively gasped when Cruise entered the theater moments
before the curtain went up. While anti-Scientology protesters demonstrated outside, the movie star -- and Hollywood's most famous
Scientologist -- mingled and shook hands with some other theatergoers who took
photos and clapped. He then hugged Dustin
Hoffman, who was sitting a few rows away, which drew another cheer inside
the theater.
Amid the hubbub, it took awhile for people to take their seats. Then the
moment they'd been waiting for arrived: Holmes and her fellow cast members
stepped out on stage to start the play, which officially opens Oct. 16.
If Holmes felt nervous and jittery, she didn't show it. She delivered her
lines with confidence and projected her girlish voice so it could be heard loud
and clear. She danced around on stage with gusto. She looked lovely in two
dresses that highlighted her trim yet shapely figure. She wore a brown
shoulder-length hairpiece to hide her trendy pixie cut.
And she received a standing ovation afterward. It's safe to say that no one
probably clapped harder than Cruise.
''All My Sons'' concerns businessman Joe Keller (Lithgow) whose factory
supplied defective cylinder parts to the military, resulting in the deaths of 21
pilots during World War II. Yet it was his business partner who went to jail for
the mistake.
Wiest plays Keller's wife; Wilson his idealistic son; and Holmes the son's
fiancee and daughter of Keller's disgraced partner.
The role calls for Holmes' character -- named Ann -- to be at turns winsome
and willful, and theatergoer Diane Yatauro thinks she nailed it.
''It was a very tough role in that she had to be delicate and hurt and
strong,'' said Yatauro, 54, of Glen Cove, N.Y. ''She was playing against some
heavyweights who've been around for a long time and she held her own.''
New Yorker Nadja Forbes, 35, said she was impressed by Holmes' stage presence
having known her recently as Mrs. Tom Cruise.
''She brings this fresh breeze of air not only in her acting but also in her
dialogue that kind of breaks up the seriousness of what's going on,'' Forbes
said. ''I'm actually surprised that she's, you know, enough of an actress for
being on Broadway.''
Holmes starred in the popular teen drama ''Dawson's Creek,'' and has appeared
in such films as ''The Ice Storm,'' ''Wonder Boys,'' ''Disturbing Behavior,''
''Thank You For Smoking,'' ''Batman Begins'' and ''Mad Money.''
The 29-year-old star -- accompanied by Lithgow, not Cruise -- stopped to pose
for photographers outside and called her performance ''fine.'' She and Lithgow
then jumped into a black SUV that sped them away from the surrounding media and
fan frenzy. More than 200 bystanders had gathered across the street to watch
Holmes leave the theater as police officers on foot and horseback patrolled the
scene.
Not among the observers: the roughly 30 Scientology protesters from a group
called Anonymous who demonstrated before the show behind a barricade, loudly
chanting ''Scientology kills!'' Some wore masks like in the movie ''V for
Vendetta,'' and one poster read: ''FREE KATIE.''
Melissa Doyle tried to ignore the ruckus. She said she took her spot in line
early, and saw Holmes rush into the theater wearing skinny jeans, a black blazer
and oversized sunglasses.
''I love Katie Holmes,'' the 27-year-old New Yorker said. ''I think she's a
great actress and right now, I really love her for her fashion, her style! I
think she really kind of differentiates herself among young Hollywood. Plus,
she's a mom -- and I just think she's a really good role model.''
Meanwhile, 27-year-old Alistair Savides, visiting from St. Louis, said he
wasn't there to see Holmes. He said he's a fan of Arthur
Miller's drama, which first played on Broadway in 1947.
''I don't really care about who's performing as long as they're good at what
they do and it's a good play,'' Savides said.
As protesters' chants grew louder, Savides called it ''surreal to be right in
the middle of this thing. But, you know, there's always two sides to every story
and they just really strongly believe in one side of the story. ... If it adds
to public debate, maybe that's a good thing.''
Cruise's membership in the Church of Scientology has made him a controversial
target of criticism. And last year, Jada
Pinkett Smith felt compelled to deny her good friend Holmes is a prisoner in
her marriage to Cruise, who's been depicted by the tabloids as a controlling husband