Bradley Cooper is garnering Oscar buzz for his performance in American Sniper and earned praise for his voice acting in the massively successful Guardians of the Galaxy last summer, but Broadway audiences may be treated to the 2011 PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive winner’s best performance of the year. Cooper’s portrayal of Joseph “John” Merrick in playwright Bernard Pomerance’s “The Elephant Man,” which officially opened on Sunday night, is being called “deeply felt and very moving,” with Deadline calling him “best Merrick yet.”

“The Elephant Man” centers on Merrick, a grotesquely deformed man living in a freak-show exhibit in late 19th-century England. He was rescued by Frederick Treves, a society doctor who introduced Merrick to London’s high society. Cooper says John Hurt’s portrayal of the character in director David Lynch’s 1980 Oscar-nominated The Elephant Man movie inspired him to become an actor. His master’s thesis in acting school was the Tony Award-winning stage version of Merrick’s true life story, and he played Merrick again two years ago at the Williamstown Theatre Festival before getting cast in the role again this year.

With a bent arm, a contorted mouth, twisted fingers and a hip-challenging limp, Cooper transforms himself into Merrick’s monstrous form without the aid of heavy makeup and prosthetics, forcing audiences to use their imagination to complete the illusion of his transformation from freak show spectacle to the toast of the town. David Bowie, Billy Crudup and Mark Hamill all took on the role, but The New York Times’s review of Sunday night’s debut calls Cooper “the first star of his stature to take on the part [of Merrick] in our post-Warhol world of celebrity obsession,” and says that Cooper “brings to this production the weight of years of being stared at as an adult. He is, as he should be, the elephant in the room.”

Variety’s review states that Cooper gives “a stunning performance,” and Entertainment Weekly calls him a “magnetic, surprisingly earthy stage actor” who “owns this production.”

This year’s revival of “The Elephant Man” is directed by Scott Ellis, with Timothy R. Mackabee leading the show’s scenic and projection design. Alessandro Nivola, Patricia Clarkson, Henry Stramm and Anthony Heald all star alongside Cooper in the production.