Nobody applauds Keira Knightley when she first appears on stage for her Broadway debut in Thérèse Raquin. The audience doesn’t recognize her; she’s in the background under faded light, the third character in what is mostly a two-character scene in the breathtaking adaptation of Emile Zola’s breakthrough novel of adultery and murder.

That staging is a deliberate choice by director Evan Cabnet to avoid the standard Broadway reaction to the stage entrance of a movie star; it is one of the production’s many smart choices.

Full review in DC Theatre Scene

Click on any photograph by Joan Marcus to see it enlarged

Thérèse Raquin Keira Knightley Matt Ryan

Keira Knightley and Judith Light

Gabriel Ebert, Matt Ryan and Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley and Matt Ryan