Katie Holmes’ return to Broadway is a lesson in fall evening wear

Katie Holmes will begin starring in a Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder’s play this week Our city, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play that hasn’t been performed in New York for 20 years. It had been almost as long since the actress last hit the red carpet – it was technically back in March, but six months feels like decades in Hollywood – when Holmes posed at press night in stylist Brie Welch’s latest coup: a watery blouse and thigh – slit column skirt with sophisticated Reza earrings.

Katie Holmes at the premiere Our city.

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Katie Holmes at the Roundabout Theater Company Gala.

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It’s an almost identical version of the outfit Holmes wore to the Roundabout Theater Company Gala: a draped silk Brandon Maxwell dress with floral appliqués and Magda Butrym pumps. Of course, it helps to have a style template that includes yesterday’s steel-toed kitten heels, the latest in Holmes’ long line of quirky red carpet steppers, from running shoes to steel-heeled mules.

In her first stage role in 12 years, Holmes marked her big comeback with a series of exciting Instagram stories that included the lines “Wow!!!” and “P!nk” and “I love these beautiful people so much!!!” (You can take a small-town theater kid to Broadway and style him in all-black, or even slick his hair back in a wave reminiscent of Kim Kardashian’s wet hairstyle, but the seriousness will always remain.)