DAILY MAIL: Michael Coveney writes: "That lesbian kiss on Brookside is nothing to what Anna Friel gets up to in this turn-ofthe century classic shocker... Miss Friel plays a little girl debased by sex then destroyed by it. She does so with kittenish sensuality but hardly a trace of inner vital-ity...The woefully inexperienced Miss Friel - her only stage appearance was in Closer on Broadway - is flat and slack-jawed in voice and delivery, almost embarrassing.
"This is painful to say, because she looks so great, in and out of her clothes."
THE TIMES: "The first challenge facing the actress playing Lulu is to exude - no, ooze - an effortless sexuality. Friel passes that test easily," writes Benedict Nightingale. "The voice is a bit thin and shrill; but the woman herself is a creamy sensualist whose every pore palpitates and whose long legs are built for winding round male waists."
DAILY TELEGRAPH: Charles Spencer writes: This is a show that dismally fails to deliver the advertised goods. Friel is a terrible disappointment. She looks terrific, never more so than in the opening scene when she appears in a translucent Pierrot costume that leaves remarkably little - though just enough - to the imagination.
"Unfortunately, though Friel impressed me on Broadway in Patrick Marber's Closer, she comes over here as a second-rate actress. Her accent is all over the place and her strained little voice is inexpressive.
THE INDEPENDENT : "Throughout the first half, in which she links, struts and throws her legs wide apart at the drop of a trouser, she manages to be not only highly sexy, but also childishly surprised and even amused by her own power to enthrall the male of the species," writes Kevin Jackson.
"As Lulu grows more vulnerable, so her performance gains in nuance and depth, and the sensual prowling gives way to a girlish hesitancy and neediness. It is admirably done."
MIRROR: If Nicole Kidman was theatrical Viagra when she stripped off in The Blue Room at The Donmar then Miss Friel is more like theatrical Horlicks.
Lulu
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