Entertainment

Emilia Clarke makes a poised Broadway debut in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’

Making your Broadway debut is nerve-wracking enough. Add a bit of cat-wrangling and a nude scene in a bathtub, and even seasoned pros would have the jitters.

Did we mention the role is Holly Golightly in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” a part made iconic by Audrey Hepburn? You might as well paint a neon target on your back.

Yet Emilia Clarke doesn’t seem affected in the least by the pressure. Not only does the young British actress look poised and confident at the Cort Theatre, but she pulls off a nifty feat: Her Holly is very different from the two other women looming over the performance.

One of them is Daenerys Targaryen, the fierce dragon-loving character Clarke plays on HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” The other is even more daunting: It’s the ghost of Hepburn, whose performance in the 1961 Blake Edwards movie is held by many to be the definitive Golightly.

RELATED: HOLLY GOLIGHTLY IN HISTORY

Those familiar only with that adaptation are in for a surprise here. Hollywood shied away from the darker side of Truman Capote’s novella, but Richard Greenberg (“Take Me Out”) largely sticks to the source in his new stage version. It doesn’t necessarily translate to a good play — the second act limps to the finish line — but at least it’s closer to Capote’s spirit.

As in the book, the play mostly takes place in 1943 New York. We gradually discover the many sides of Miss Holiday “Holly” Golightly through the eyes of the neighbor she insists on calling Fred (Cory Michael Smith, late of “Cock” and “The Whale”).

A gawky aspiring writer, Fred is bewitched by Holly’s zany charm and devil-may-care attitude, and susses out her mysterious back story — when she sings on her fire escape, it’s not Henry Mancini’s romantic “Moon River” but a traditional ballad that ominously goes, “I am a traveling creature/Today I am a warning; to woman and to man.”

With Fred as narrator, we discover Holly’s friends, including Japanese photographer I.Y. Yunioshi (the sleek James Yaegashi), and witness her seemingly blithe habits. Those involve a lot of late-night partying — limply staged by director Sean Mathias, with distracting projections by Wendall K. Harrington — and early-morning drinking. The local watering hole, by the way, is run by George Wendt, who finally gets to sling drinks after years of downing them in “Cheers.”

RELATED: VITO IS CLEARLY THE CAT’S MEOW

Over the decades Holly has become the symbol of the free spirit, but here it’s clear she comes at a price: “Any gent with the slightest chic will give you 50 for the girl’s john,” she cheerfully tells Fred. “I always ask for cab fare, too; that’s another 50.”

And while she looks cool and sultry — think of a dark-haired Veronica Lake — she’s also prone to funks she calls “the mean reds.” One of the ways she restores her spirit is dropping by Tiffany’s, though we don’t see her do it in the show.

Clarke captures that survivor’s drive, as well as the aching vulnerability that bubbles up under the cool, sophisticated exterior. This Holly is still in her teens, after all — a kid who had to grow up fast, she’s putting on airs. “She’s such a goddamn liar,” says her Hollywood agent pal, OJ Berman (Lee Wilkof), “maybe she don’t know herself anymore.”

Smith’s Fred is a perfect sounding board for this elusive creature since he’s also inventing himself as a writer and as a man. (Greenberg added scenes with a publisher and an editor that make it clearer that Fred is gay, or at least weighing his options.)

It’s in the intimate, bittersweet scenes between those two that “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is best. During those precious minutes, the show creates a life of its own.