Orlando Bloom: debut on Broadway as Romeo

Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom has been praised for "a first-rate Broadway debut" in Romeo and Juliet, but the production itself has received mixed reviews.

The modern take on Shakespeare's play "packs Hollywood star power but lacks emotional fireworks".Bloom stars opposite "gifted" rising Broadway star Condola Rashad as Juliet.

Many critics commented that Bloom, 36, should be "too old" to play Romeo, however most admitted he had pulled it off.

Ben Brantley in The New York Times was not the only critic to pick up on Bloom's "cumbersome and embarrassing" entrance, "Leader-of-the-pack style, on a motorcycle, his jeans fashionably torn at the knees".

However he praised Bloom and felt Rashad exuded "a too-fine-for-this-world purity that makes their characters' love feel sacred". Many criticised the modern touches from five-time Tony Award nominee Leveaux, as well as the cuts he made to cut the production down to two-and-a-half hours.