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Katie Holmes Draws Applause as "Dead Accounts" Previews on Broadway

PEOPLE
By Tim Nudd
11/6/12

Katie Holmes brought star power, and a touch of improvisation, in her return to the Broadway stage on Monday, as the new family comedy Dead Accounts opened for previews.

Holmes, 33, drew applause on several occasions – notably, when a telephone she was using in one scene broke, and she deftly fixed it without skipping a beat, even punctuating her dialogue by slapping the broken piece back into place.

She also earned cheers for a defiant speech about Wall Street greed – a recurring theme of the play, in which Holmes plays a Cincinnati woman whose brother returns home with a load of new money and a missing wife.

After the final curtain, Holmes was applauded during her solo bow, though the standing ovations started only when the full cast took their final bow together.

Holmes – who made her Broadway debut in 2008 in a revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons – left the Music Box Theatre, just off Times Square, looking sleek in black pants, a black blazer, a cream scarf, hair pulled back into a bun, and sunglasses.

Asked what it was like to work with Holmes, one of her costars, Josh Hamilton, remarked: "Are you kidding me? She's a sweetheart."

Dead Accounts, written by Theresa Rebeck and also starring Judy Greer, Jayne Houdyshell and two-time Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz, officially opens Nov. 29.

• Reporting by SHAKTHI JOTHIANANDAN