\nNearly 100 people lined up outside the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre Thursday night an hour before Holmes acted on Broadway for the first time in a preview performance for \u201cAll My Sons.\u201d
\nNot in the line: roughly 30 Scientology protesters who stood behind a barricade and loudly chanted \u201cScientology kills!\u201d Some wore masks like in the movie \u201cV for Vendetta,\u201d and one poster read: \u201cFREE KATIE.\u201d
\nMoments before the curtain went up, Holmes\u2019 husband \u2014 and Hollywood\u2019s most famous Scientologist \u2014 Tom Cruise entered the theater, where he mingled and shook hands with some other theatergoers who took photos and clapped. He then hugged Dustin Hoffman, who was sitting a couple rows away, which drew another cheer inside the theater.
\nAmid the hubbub, it took awhile for people to take their seats. 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.
\n\u201cI love Katie Holmes,\u201d the 27-year-old New Yorker said. \u201cI think she\u2019s 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\u2019s a mom \u2014 and I just think she\u2019s a really good role model.\u201d
\nMeanwhile, 27-year-old Alistair Savides, visiting from St. Louis, said he wasn\u2019t there to see Holmes. He said he\u2019s a fan of Arthur Miller\u2019s drama, which first played on Broadway in 1947. \u201cI don\u2019t really care about who\u2019s performing as long as they\u2019re good at what they do and it\u2019s a good play,\u201d Savides said.
\nAs protesters\u2019 chants grew louder, Savides called it \u201csurreal to be right in the middle of this thing. But, you know, there\u2019s always two sides to every story and they just really strongly believe in one side of the story. \u2026 If it adds to public debate, maybe that\u2019s a good thing.\u201d
\nCruise\u2019s membership in the Church of Scientology has made a controversial target of criticism. And just earlier this year, Jada Pinkett Smith felt compelled to deny her good friend Holmes is a prisoner in her marriage to Cruise, who\u2019s been depicted by the tabloids as a controlling husband.
\n\u201cAll My Sons\u201d concerns businessman Joe Keller (John 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. Dianne Wiest plays Keller\u2019s wife; Patrick Wilson his idealistic son; and Holmes the son\u2019s fiancee and daughter of Keller\u2019s disgraced partner.
\nThe play officially opens October 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"