Orlando Bloom's mixed response from critics

Orlando Bloom [AFP]

Hollywood hunk Orlando Bloom's London West End debut has been met with mixed reviews from critics, with many insisting his role is too small to prove himself on the stage.

The Lord Of The Rings star, 30, plays Steven, one of three brothers in David Storey's play In Celebration at the Duke of York Theatre.

Critic Michael Billington from The Guardian writes, "Bloom lends Steven exactly the right sense of haunted taciturnity and withdrawn moodiness."

The Daily Telegraph's Charles Spencer says, "...While a brilliantined and moustached Orlando Bloom spends the entire evening looking pale and interesting. It's not a challenging role but he remembers his lines and doesn't bump into the furniture."

The Times' Benedict Nightingale writes, "Superficially it's an unrewarding part, because he spends most of the time looking wan and saying little but that he's 'fine', but an important one."

Meanwhile, WhatsOnStage.com's Michael Coveney declares, "He says very little and rarely commands the stage."

Trade paper Variety's David Benedict, "It's still a gamble to put a man largely cast for his ability to deliver looks - not lines - into a play all about things spoken. That the gamble doesn't really pay off artistically, however, is not entirely Bloom's fault... As Steven, Bloom wears a moustache in a (failed) attempted to age up so he is believable as the father of four children, but he spends the evening in diffident moody introspection. He indicates his character's gathering distress but lacks the skill to reveal the reasons for it."