Gwyneth starts West End run

Paltrow worked with the play's director on Shakespeare in Love

A tearful Gwyneth Paltrow took an ovation from a West End audience after her first London theatre performance on Thursday.

Paltrow, whose only previous stage appearances have been at a particular Massachusetts theatre festival, proved to a West End audience that she could handle a high-profile theatre role after finding film success.

The play, Proof, sees Paltrow reunited with Shakespeare In Love director John Madden, in a theatre run by American Beauty director Sam Mendes.

She is the latest Hollywood star to appear on a West End stage, following recent appearances by Matt Damon, Jude Law, Hayden Christensen and Nicole Kidman.

Paltrow took an emotional ovation from the audience at the Donmar Warehouse theatre after the two-hour performance.

Her most famous tearful performance was on accepting the best actress Oscar for Shakespeare In Love in 1999.

American Beauty director Mendes runs the Donmar Warehouse

She has also starred in films including Sliding Doors, The Royal Tenenbaums and Emma.

In Proof, written by David Auburn, Paltrow stars as the gifted daughter who does not know whether she has inherited the mental problems of her mathematical genius father.

She is due to star in Proof, alongside UK actors Richard Coyle, Ronald Pickup and Sara Stewart, for one month.

The play was originally staged in New York almost two years ago - but the London performance was Paltrow's first appearance.

The New York production won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony award in 2001.

Paltrow's performance comes on the same stage that Nicole Kidman appeared naked in 1998, when her performance was described as "pure theatrical viagra".

Madonna is due to become the next big name to star in the West End, appearing as an unscrupulous art dealer in Up For Grabs at the Wyndham's Theatre, with previews starting on Monday, 13 May.