Katie Holmes can’t get no respect. Okay that joke doesn’t really work. But it sure is the truth. Katie hasn’t gotten much attention for her acting career in recent years. She is, at best, an okay actress. If it weren’t for marrying Tom Cruise, she wouldn’t exactly be memorable. Tepid. That’s the word I was searching for.

But Katie is still a big name, regardless of the reason. Which made Broadway producers think it was a good idea to sign her star in “All My Sons.” Unfortunately for them, it appears theater-goers care more about talent than a big name – they’ve barely been able to sell tickets to the show.

“Where are all the Scientologists? Don’t they want to see her?” jokes one person, who requested anonymity for fear that the followers of L. Ron Hubbard would hunt him down and make him read all 10 volumes of “Mission Earth.”

Ticket brokers and group sales agents, who at one point thought Holmes would be this season’s Julia Roberts – who pretty much sold out “Three Days of Rain” in One Day of Rain – say interest in the Holmes show is nil. “I bought 1,000 tickets to the show,” says one broker. “I still have them.” The advance for “All My Sons,” which opens in September, is said to be less than $1 million.

Holmes, meanwhile, is in the public eye only because she’s Mrs. Tom Cruise. [She] is also up against a troubled economy, which, several ticket brokers say, is starting to take its toll on Broadway. “People aren’t shelling out $110 for a play anymore,” says a broker. “It doesn’t matter who’s in it.”

Backstage at “All My Sons,” the buzz is that the cast has been forced to sign confidentiality agreements. The Scientology minders in charge of Holmes apparently don’t want any press they can’t control.

[From the New York Post]

The Post focuses quite a bit on how successful Nicole Kidman was in her 1998 run on Broadway in “The Blue Room,” noting that she “she set the town on fire.” Of course she also took her clothes off for the show – and Holmes is keeping hers tightly buttoned.

The New York Times Magazine also points out that the producers have made a critical error promoting the show. They have only talked about Katie Holmes in all of their promotions – completely failing to mention that the play also stars John Lithgow, Patrick Wilson, and Dianne Wiest. Perhaps if they’d bother to mention their well respected Broadway vets, more people would be willing to shell out the cash.

It’s probably not fair to blame the whole thing on Katie Holmes, her acting skills, or the bad publicity her husband brings to the whole affair. And there’s a chance she’ll get great reviews come September. Failing that, Holmes could do what someone suggested in the Post article to compete with Kidman; “I think if she takes off her clothes, she may catch up.”

Here are Katie and Tom at LACMA’s Opening Celebration of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum on February 9th. Images thanks to PR Photos.