Jane Fonda returns to Broadway

Hollywood legend Jane Fonda (right) returned to the Broadway stage last night after an absence of 46 years. The 71-year-old actress, who made her name in the 1960s in films like Barefoot in the Park and Barbarella (pictured left), is appearing in a production of 33 Variations, Moises Kaufman's play about a woman investigating the creative genius of Ludwig van Beethoven's later years.

Speaking of her return to the boards – she was last seen in 1963 in Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude - Fonda said she saw the play as an adventure. "That's how I choose to think of it", she wrote on her blog. "I could be real scared. I mean, eight shows a week after 46 years! But I am choosing to think of it as a challenge."

Friends will be hoping she can keep her eye on the ball and is not too distracted by her evident fury over the Bernie Madoff scandal. Writing on her blog, she said of the disgraced financier: "I've lost a lot but it's nothing compared to friends of mine who have lost everything they had because every penny they saved over their entire lifetimes was invested in one of Madoff's schemes.

"I read a few days ago that Madoff was complaining that he felt like a prisoner in his own penthouse! I want to shake him till his teeth fall out."

The critics have yet to deliver their verdict on her performance, but Fonda clearly believes, as with the play's subject, that creativity can flourish whatever age you are. Indeed, she was writing a book about ageing when she was asked to do 33 Variations.

"There's this chapter I'm writing about how you can look at Beethoven, you can look at Matisse, you can look at Cezanne, you can look at so many great artists who did their best, most profound work later in life when they were physically challenged," she told theatre website Playbill.com.