Daniel Craig, right, and Hugh Jackman are shown in a scene from A Steady Rain, at Broadway's Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in New York. (Joan Marcus/The Hartman Group/Associated Press)

Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig earned kudos from most critics for their Broadway performance in A Steady Rain, which opened Tuesday night.

The two play Chicago cops whose long friendship is tested by a summer of disastrous events in Keith Huff's play, which debuted in Chicago last year.

Hollywood Reporter critic Frank Scheck criticized Huff's play for its melodrama, but said Jackman "is in full macho-bluster mode and is hugely entertaining."

Craig's performance, with his James Bond image obliterated by an unfortunate mustache and general hangdog air, is even better, Scheck said.

"The British actor tends to be a bit recessive in his film roles (his James Bond, to my mind, is a stiff). But here, making his American stage debut, he delivers a highly convincing, engaging turn, complete with a terrific Chicago accent, which works beautifully," he wrote.

The New York Times was lukewarm on Jackman's performance, saying he "often seems to be presenting his character more than inhabiting it."

But Times critic Ben Brantley was hardest on the play itself. A Steady Rain is "probably best regarded as a small, wobbly pedestal on which two gods of the screen may stand in order to be worshipped," he wrote.

The plot, involving best friends in love with the same woman and cops crossing the line, seems the stuff of a 1930s movie, he said.

"Huff has not managed to reweave this premise with any surprising threads, [but] he has packed it with enough lurid incident to fill a season of Law & Order."

'Riveting theatre'

The Los Angeles Times' Charles McNulty writes that the play, which is staged with the two characters sitting facing the audience and describing the summer that forced them apart, might work better in a smaller theatre than on a Broadway stage.

But David Rooney of Variety found the play to be "riveting theatre."

Jackman brings "powerful presence" to the role of Denny, a tough-talking hothead, and Craig is "superb," he wrote.

"While Denny puffs himself up, Joey keeps his strength coiled; his body language is all guarded defensiveness."

Craig himself is reported to have chosen the play as his Broadway debut, as the quieter character who tries to quell his friend's racist tongue and more outrageous behaviour.

Every ticket at the Gerald Schoenfeld theatre is in high demand, and Tony nominations may not be far behind.

It won't be long before many more people will be able to see A Steady Rain on the big screen. Barbara Broccoli, the producer behind the James Bond franchise, is one of the show's backers and there are plans for a film version.