Nicole Kidman is part of London?s theater lore: Her naked 1998 turn in ?The Blue Room? spawned that grubby critical assessment, ?Pure theatrical Viagra.? Returning to the West End 17 years later, she leaves nothing to chance. Anna Ziegler?s ?Photograph 51? is as safe a safe bet as you?ll find, a science play that sticks to the formula, a history play like every other and a star vehicle that doesn?t look like one. Directed by Michael Grandage, it?s never less than solid and never more than satisfying.
Kidman plays Dr. Rosalind Franklin ? ?Miss Franklin? to her patronizing male colleagues ? whose X-ray studies of DNA molecules were key to the discovery of its double helix structure by Francis Crick and James Watson in 1953. The Cambridge pair got wind of her findings before she was ready to publish, realized their mistakes and raced ahead. Ziegler?s contention, whether accurate or not, is that Franklin would have gotten there herself with a little more respect and a little less stubbornness.
