Does any of this sound familiar?  Young (relatively unknown) actress marries box office heartthrob and Scientology loony.  Her marriage and personal life are spread across the tabloid covers.   A family follows quickly for the young starlet.  She slowly builds a film career with several well selected roles (indie leads and supporting parts with Hollywood big wigs).  Then, to lend her credibility and legitimate actress "street cred", she nabs a role in a high profile Broadway play.

Oh, you probably thought I was talking about Nicole Kidman.   Nope, I was referring to Ms. Katie Holmes-Cruise.   Holmes is copying another page out of Ms. Nicole Kidman-Cruise-Urban's playbook and will soon star in a new production of the classic Arthur Miller play All My Sons on Broadway.

Is she really going to replicate the career of Nicole Kidman play by play?  What is next for her; Moulin Rouge 2, The Hours-Revisited and Cold Mountain: Up the Other Side?  I cannot take it!  I am seriously waiting for TomKat to announce that they are shooting a movie together (a la Far and Away with Kidman).  I am sure they are talking about that at this very moment (dare I suggest Near and Away).

Here are the facts.  Producers have finally confirmed that Ms. Holmes will face the footlights this fall in a revival of one of the theater's most beloved and respected plays, All My Sons.  Written by, arguably, one of theater's greatest legends (he wrote a few little plays you might have heard of, Death of a Salesman and The Crucible).  Joining her in this venture will be two-time Tony Award winner, three-time Emmy winner and twice Oscar nominated John Lithgow, as well as two-time Oscar winner, Emmy winner and multiple Oscar and Emmy nominated actress Dianne Wiest, and (oh, yes, there is more) Tony and Emmy nominated thespian Patrick Wilson.  Wow.  That is a lot of high wattage talent.  And then there is Katie Holmes.

I like Katie - I do.  I thought she was great in the small independent movie Pieces of April (she was really quite good) and she certainly got noticed in The Ice Storm.  But, can she really compete with such major stars and trained theater professionals as Lithgow, Wiest and Wilson?  In one of the greatest plays of all time?  I am not 100% sure.  Did Dawson's Creek really serve as a fertile training ground for her stage and Broadway debut?  I worry that she will not have the chops for this.  I do, however, want to give her the benefit of the doubt.  We can't pre-judge her; we can only go buy tickets and check out her performance ourselves. 

I do have to fully register my objection to what I perceive as a calculated career move.  The whole thing just reeks of Nicole Kidman's arrival on B'way in the David Hare play The Blue Room during the ‘98/'99 Season.  Kidman garnered a ton of attention and it helped boost her movie career.  One can only assume that Ms. Holmes is hoping to make an equally big splash on the great white way and enhance her struggling movie profile.  I hope I am wrong and she is truly doing it for the love of theater; it just doesn't look that way.  But, what do I know?

One thing I know for sure - this is going to cause quite a stir on the rialto!  Times Square is going to go crazy for TomKat and baby Suri when they swoop into town.  Audiences will wonder nightly if Tom is in the audience watching.  Throngs of fans will crowd the stage door for a glimpse of post-show Katie.  The paparazzi will follow them all over town doing NYC type things (TomKat at the Met, TomKat at the Statue of Liberty, TomKat riding the crowded smelly subway at rush hour - oh wait, that's my life -scratch that).  New York has not seen drama this exciting in decades (if only it were on a stage).

No official dates have been announced (producers are eyeing a fall opening) and an actual theater has not been booked.  That being said I want to let Tom and Katie know that no matter which theater the show is booked in to, all the theaters in Times Square are within a 4 block radius of the Scientology Center on 46th Street.  It will be VERY convenient for a quick E-meter Audit between shows.

I tried to get through the whole post without a Scientology reference, but I couldn't do it.  I am weak.  I am very weak.  I do hope, however, that Ms. Holmes is strong.  In the coming months she is going to face a lot of speculation, gossip and criticism.  I truly wish her all the best and hope she knocks ‘em dead in the fall. 

~ See You On The Aisle
Bixby Elliot