A Little Night Music

GRADE: B-


Photo by Joan Marcus

By Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler. Directed by Trevur Nunn. Walter Kerr Theatre.

Full-throated yea-sayers are in the minority for this long-overdue Broadway revival of Sondheim and Wheeler's frothy yet acerbic 1973 musical. Imported from an acclaimed chamber production at London's Menier Chocolate Factory, this Night Music acquired two marquee names along the way: Angela Lansbury, universally praised for her turn as Madame Armfeldt, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, unanimously lauded for her beauty but receiving mixed notices for her earthy take on Desiree, the middle-aged actress at the center of the action. Though a few critics find director Trevor Nunn's mix of stark design and broadly drawn characterizations sobering and provocative, most deplore both the somber sets and the exaggerated, even crude comic style of most of the cast aside from Lansbury, Zeta-Jones, and Alexander Hanson, as Fredrik. And nearly every critic slams the orchestra, a little for its playing (the tempi are apparently sluggish) and a lot for its size (a mere eight players!). For the record, two British papers also sent writers to cover the opening but we found them difficult to grade.

New York A
(Scott Brown) “Perpetual sunset,” the chorus sings, “is rather an unsettling thing.” So is this beautiful re-Bergmanized revival of Hugh Wheeler and Stephen Sondheim’s elegiac sex farce (based on Smiles of a Summer Night), with its restored Nordic tilt, its bracing draughts of carnal realpolitik, and its ghostly blue ache of some-requited love...Lansbury, who capsizes the theater with every roll of those outsize eyes, hurls mots from her throne like thunderbolts—not a single line lands askew. ALNM is among Sondheim’s near-perfect creations, but it’s not without its challenges, over and above the complexity of the music: Maunder overmuch and the show’s a drag; shine up the comedy and it risks coming off as a yuppie you-can-have-it-all manifesto. Maintaining that balance is the job of Desiree and Frederik, and Zeta-Jones—a tremendous presence here, in great voice—mates up with Hanson perfectly.

New Jersey Newsroom A-
(Michael Sommers) Looking as elegant as the musical she graces, Catherine Zeta-Jones makes a smashing Broadway debut in a wistful revival of "A Little Night Music"...A sophisticated musical in every respect — don't take anyone under the age of, say, 30 — "A Little Night Music" boasts a wry, well-turned text by Hugh Wheeler and an exceptionally lovely score by Stephen Sondheim that wafts the bittersweet story along in lilting waltz time...Staged more as a rueful comedy with music, this show unfolds quietly against a flexible setting of duskily mirrored panels that later opens to disclose a modest view of birch trees...Zeta-Jones is handsomely partnered by Hanson, a British actor also making his Broadway debut...Scarcely a dancing show in spite of its waltzes, the production moves smoothly at a leisurely pace that allows one to savor the words, music and evolving mix of emotions...Not everyone will enjoy the deliberate moodiness of this revival. Still, like the black gown Lansbury initially wears — gleaming with tiny brilliants on its bodice — the pensive quality suffusing Nunn's low-keyed production serves admirably as a background for a wonderfully iridescent score and a thoroughly adult story.

Backstage A-
(Erik Haagensen) A persuasive and entertaining account of a great American musical. The show runs longer this time around, a good three hours, due to the wealth of subtext being played in the scenes and slower tempos for the songs. The pace may be more deliberate, but the acting is richer, and interest never flags. One dividend is the attention being paid to Sondheim's phenomenal lyrics: I have never heard them get more laughs than in this production, aided by Jason Carr's elegant and supportive eight-piece re-orchestration. The generally excellent company is led by three top-flight performances...Zeta-Jones zeroes in on the fun Desiree and Fredrik had with each other during their affair. It makes for a unique and memorable creation...Alexander Hanson is every inch her equal...Angela Lansbury is enjoying another late-career triumph...Moments such as the soaring finish of "A Weekend in the Country" may not pack as much punch due to the reduced circumstances, but there are plenty of countervailing new pleasures to be found in Nunn's thoughtful take on this Broadway classic.

Theatermania A-
(David Finkle) Mostly effective...Catherine Zeta-Jones is even more beautiful in set-and-costume designer David Farley's Edwardian frocks and in the creamy flesh than she is on screen. Although her stage technique is still a bit rusty, and the role of frustrated actress Desiree Armfeldt is undoubtedly more complex than the song-and-dance parts she played in her earlier career, she does well by the play's pathos and wit...The reemergence of the tuner as a chamber musical...is a smart notion, well realized...No matter who's playing these comic figures immersed in their self-regard and unwitting buffoonery, the evening's heroes will always be Wheeler, who improved on the Bergman screenplay, and Sondheim, who in limiting his composing to 3/4 and 6/8 time rose to the challenge with some of his most beautiful and languorous melodies and some of his most consistently exquisite lyrics.

NY1 A-
(Roma Torre) Beautiful and deeply resonant, hitting every note with stunning honesty...Angela Lansbury's performance as Madame Armfeldt is magnificent. She nails her lines with the precision and killer timing that's likely to make her a contender for a sixth Tony Award. She also captures in Sondheim's music and Hugh Wheeler's book the overriding tone of the work -- a profound sense of longing, regret and sensuality. She is well-matched by Zeta-Jones, making a flawless Broadway debut with a performance that is also destined for a Tony nod...Her co-star Alexander Hanson, who originated the role of Desiree's former lover, lawyer Henrik Egerman in the London production fills out the starry trio with tremendous charisma and talent. Trevor Nunn's direction cut right to the soul of this work meticulously casting great voices all equally adept as actors...The show is long -- three hours with intermission and there are spots that could be cut. Too much of a good thing perhaps. But Sondheim being Sondheim, the virtues far outweigh the flaws.

USA Today B+
(Elysa Gardner) Lansbury, in an incandescent performance, lets us savor her haughty wit and see the fading but still defiant life force behind it. But Lansbury's is not the only marquee name in this production, or even the biggest. Catherine Zeta-Jones is cast as Night's true female lead, Madame Armfeldt's daughter Desiree, an actress facing middle age. The character is often played by older and less robustly sensual women; Zeta-Jones brings great warmth and vitality to the role and makes it easier to see why Desiree's old lover, Fredrik — the male lead, played with suave brio by Alexander Hanson — would vie with a blustering dragoon for her affections. Zeta-Jones is less effective, though, at suggesting Desiree's weary, rueful edges...This might owe something to Nunn's direction, as other performances here flirt with overzealousness...None of them, of course, blend wit and poignancy better than Lansbury — or Sondheim's score, for that matter. They are, without question, the two best reasons to see this revival.

Newsday B+
(Linda Winer) One of the most delectable musicals ever written, by Stephen Sondheim or anyone else. Angela Lansbury is giving a performance that deserves to be part of theater legend. Catherine Zeta-Jones is earthy and poignant in her confident Broadway debut. With all that, it is easier to live with—if not really forgive—the visual drabness and heavy hand of this gorgeous musical's first revival since its Tony-winning 1973 premiere. Director Trevor Nunn's skimpy production, conceived last year for London's tiny Menier Chocolate Factory, arrives with another of those scandalously reduced orchestras that Broadway producers try to pass off these days as innovation.

Financial Times B+
(Brendan Lemon) The intense pleasures of Sondheim’s wordplay and dazzling use of waltz time are expertly conveyed: Hanson and Catherine Zeta-Jones...bite off their lyrics with drilled precision. The roving lieder singers comment on the action with linguistic acumen. A distinct neither/nor quality, however, hovers in the atmosphere. The production is neither on the grand string-of-pearls scale of recent opera-house versions, nor of the one-bright-gem quality of recent chamber versions. The new, sometimes frustratingly dark Broadway set – smoked-mirrored panels in the first act, opening partially to birch trees in the second – is neither clever enough to embed the sophistication nor redolent enough to convey the summer-nights scenario. The costumes are lovely...The actors’ inability to flood the songs with emotional meaning makes the evening satisfying more than magical...Only Angela Lansbury, at 84 an old pro if ever there was one, is exactly where she should be at all times emotionally.

The Faster Times B+
(Jonathan Mandell) I understand some of the criticism. There are just eight members of the orchestra...The set consists mostly of a large wall that folds one way or another depending on the scene...In addition, the lighting is deliberately dark and the costumes lacking color, and some of the minor characters are directed to be broad and bawdy in ways that are at times distracting. Little of this dampens the experience for those of us who appreciate above all three (of course) elements of this production: Sondheim’s songs, Catherine Zeta-Jones’ allure, and Angela Lansbury’s majesty.

Variety B
(David Rooney) Director Trevor Nunn brings a blunt, heavy hand where a glissando touch is required, but the wit and sophistication of the material are sufficient to withstand even this phlegmatic staging. A handful of magnetic leads provides further insurance against the uneven production. At the center of that bright cluster is the luminous Catherine Zeta-Jones...Bewitching, confident and utterly natural, she breathes a refreshing earthiness and warm-blooded sensuality into the part...The production's real jewel is Angela Lansbury as her worldly mother...It's a marvelous role, and Lansbury's sublime performance in it alone makes this production unmissable. There's also a lovely three-generational throughline completed by the charming Keaton Whittaker's preternaturally intelligent Fredricka, who figures as Puck in this Scandinavian "Midsummer Night's Dream"...The monochromatic staging is further encumbered by stiff, presentational blocking that amplifies the operetta aspects but imposes a stodginess on the human drama, even when Nunn leans hard on the comedy...What's remarkable, given its unsatisfying elements, is that this "Night Music" still seduces.

Time Out NY B
(David Cote) Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. The orchestra is small, synthetic-sounding and weak; the set drab and dinky; and the pacing of songs often far too slow. Some cast members have been allowed to mug and simper for comic effect...On to good news: Catherine Zeta-Jones blazes with charisma, verve and wit as Desirée...If you’ve never seen a production of this romantic classic, by all means, go. The principals are suave and poised, and although Nunn seems to have encouraged them to sing their lyrics somewhat pedantically over the music, they sparkle and charm. Not to be missed is the venerable Lansbury putting her personal stamp on another Sondheim character. Alexander Hanson is a dashing figure, the sort of mature leading man we hardly ever see on Broadway. Would someone please steal his passport? Even so, let’s not expect the English to save Sondheim for us.

The Hollywood Reporter B
(Frank Scheck) Whatever its flaws, it's nonetheless a welcome return of a show that has inexplicably not received a Broadway revival since the original Hal Prince production in 1973...Nunn's minimalist approach contrasts sharply with Prince's original opulent staging, with mixed results. There will be many who bemoan the visually drab sets (largely composed of a large shifting wall and multiple mirrors) and monochromatic costumes, which add an unnecessary level of literal darkness to the proceedings. Even more painful to endure is the reduced, mere eight-piece orchestra which, despite the undeniably skillful orchestrations, simply doesn't do sufficient justice to Sondheim's magnificent, Tony-winning score. On the other hand, this intimate version does a wonderful job of accentuating the emotional complexities and endlessly witty dialogue of Hugh Wheeler's book, even if some of the overly broad performances by the supporting players threaten to overwhelm it. Zeta-Jones, younger than the performers who have traditionally played the role, is captivating as Desiree. The actress has musical theater experience, and it shows; she has terrific stage presence, unlike so many movie stars who tread the boards, and she sings and moves beautifully...Alexander Hanson, the sole carry-over from the London productions, is superb...Lansbury uses her well-honed theatrical instincts to perfect effect.

Lighting & Sound America B
(David Barbour) This melodic high comedy needs a high-style presentation, but style is a thing that comes and goes in Trevor Nunn's hot-and cold-running revival. Act I is enough to drive you to despair...Things improve markedly in Act II...Zeta-Jones relaxes into her role and strikes a real rapport with Alexander Hanson, the production's exemplary Frederik...Throughout the show's many ups and downs, Angela Lansbury's Madame Armfeldt remains in a class by herself...The rest of Nunn's production doesn't make the best case for an intimate staging of A Little Night Music. The pacing, particularly in Act I, is sluggish, and Jason Carr's cut-down orchestrations are a hit-or-miss affair...We don't get A Little Night Music so often that one can afford to ignore a major revival such as this. And, when Zeta-Jones and Hansen connect, or when Lansbury is working her magic, or when Sondheim's score takes flight, the show has its near-heavenly moments. But there's an element of style missing throughout.

New York Post B-
(Elisabeth Vincentelli) Lansbury's even better--if a tad too broadly comic--than in "Blithe Spirit," and it's a treat to hear her sing on Broadway for the first time since a short-lived "Mame" in 1983. Her "Liaisons" is a marvel of resourceful, inventive interpretation, lyric manglings be damned. But Madame Armfeldt is merely a supporting character. The star here is Zeta-Jones. She's radiant, yet doesn't shed much light on Desirée. Zeta-Jones is one of the few movie stars these days with golden-age Hollywood charisma...This is perfect for Desirée, who traffics in desire, but the character has more than one side. When she lets down her guard on the heartbreaking "Send in the Clowns," the fracture is unexpected here: Until then, we had no idea there were cracks under Zeta-Jones' breezy demeanor. But then Trevor Nunn's murky-looking production (did he and lighting designer Hartley T A Kemp take the "night" in the title literally?) isn't particularly subtle or graceful. Lacking both nuance and energy, it struggles to match the sophistication and gamesmanship of Sondheim's score, which evokes the effervescence of love, the abject pain it can cause, and the melancholy of its aftermath -- sometimes all in the same song.

Talkin' Broadway C+
(Matthew Murray) Catherine Zeta-Jones, as the famed actress Desirée Armfeldt, and Angela Lansbury, as Desirée’s mother, instinctively understand and project what Nunn and most of the rest of his cast do not: This show is not a turgid, angry tragedy, but a saucy lark that’s all about celebrating, as someone sensibly sings, “everything passing by"...Though Desirée is frequently portrayed as straight-up and stately, Zeta-Jones plays her as vivacity personified...Whereas Lansbury and Zeta-Jones land every lyric, line, and emotion, their castmates are lucky to eke out 65 percent most of the time. Hanson, who originated Fredrik in this production in London, is so stodgy and unappealing, it’s unclear why either Desirée or Anne would think twice of him...One suspects that Nunn is downplaying the show’s musical values in order to amplify its intimacy, which he practically confirms by so cranking down the tempos that most of the numbers barely step livelier than hangover slurring...Fortunately, this reconfiguring of the show’s basic nature is somewhat less harmful here than was the case in Nunn’s 2002 solemnizing of Oklahoma!. It’s still possible to have a good time.

The New York Times C
(Ben Brantley) A smirk shrouded in shadows. An elegiac darkness infuses this production...But the behavior of the characters who wander through a twilight labyrinth of passion in early-20th-century Sweden has the exaggerated gusto of second-tier boulevard farce, of people trying a little too hard for worldliness...In addition to being drop-dead gorgeous in David Farley’s wasp-waisted period dresses, Ms. Zeta-Jones brings a decent voice, a supple dancer’s body and a vulpine self-possession to her first appearance on Broadway...Her Desirée, to be honest, is much like her Velma: earthy, eager and a tad vulgar...Such traits lend a not always appropriate edge of desperation to the droll Desirée...Though Mr. Hanson turns in a suitably suave, measured performance as the middle-aged lawyer hoping to reclaim his youth, many of the other cast members exaggerate their characters’ defining traits to the bursting point...[The design's] somber, less-is-more approach could be effective were the ensemble plugged into the same rueful sensibility. But there is only one moment in this production when all its elements cohere perfectly...“Where’s discretion of the heart, where’s passion in the art, where’s craft?” Madame Armfeldt sings in lamentation. Looking at the production she appears in, I’d say she has a point.

Bloomberg News C
(John Simon) The show is based on one of Ingmar Bergman’s masterpieces, “Smiles of a Summer Night,” but the libretto that Hugh Wheeler adapted from it is little more than hack work. There is, though, Sondheim’s great score to balance things out...Lansbury is commanding as always, making Madame’s words, spoken and sung, resonate with multiple meanings...Zeta-Jones, on the other hand, is all artifice, whether in the play-within-the-play, in which Desiree is a notorious seductress, or offstage, when she is supposed to be her irresistible self. Words are delivered in a stilted rubato, oozing self-satisfaction, with affected facial expressions that are smug and patronizing...Alexander Hanson, a British import, is a persuasive, well-sung Egerman, sardonic, fatherly, boyish and mellow by judicious turns. Some other characters suffer from Nunn’s tendency to exaggerate the farcical...A mixed bag, then, made desirable by Sondheim’s music -- far from little and equally good for night and day.

The Daily News C
(Joe Dziemianowicz) Dim and downsized...It doesn't do justice to Stephen Sondheim's most elegant musical...Though the show is mostly well sung, the small orchestra sounds thin. The scenery recalls department store windows - nothing romantic in that. Sluggish pacing makes it feel like "A Lotta Night Music" and performances are too modern for a tale of romantic entanglements in late-19th century Scandinavia...Zeta-Jones, a London theater vet and an Oscar winner for "Chicago," knows her way around a stage and a musical. She looks ravishing, and although she's very emphatic in the show's famous number, "Send in the Clowns," she's got a pretty voice that serves her and the show well. But there's nothing world-weary about her Desiree to indicate she's ready to settle down...Also odd is Zeta-Jones' skittering accent, which wanders from Wales to mid-America to the Deep South.

Associated Press C-
(Michael Kuchwara) A curious affair. There are some lovely moments, most of them supplied by Angela Lansbury, but too much of this adult, sophisticated show, which opened Sunday at the Walter Kerr Theatre, seems forced, boisterous and a little crude...Zeta-Jones...is gorgeous, looking just right as this ripe, alluring woman who has never shirked from the way of all flesh. Zeta-Jones has a throaty, sensuous voice which she uses to good, flirty effect. But her acting, particularly in the first act, seems overdone, too strenuously self-aware...As Desiree's mother, the luminous Lansbury is a wonder...The aging process has never been more eloquently put on display...Hanson gives stalwart, gentlemanly support to the production's two leading ladies, and he plays Fredrik, the weary lawyer, with a just the right amount of knowing resignation...Where this production collapses is in the performances of the young people. True, they are supposed to be impetuous and, of course, foolish, but in this revival, Nunn has allowed them to become extravagantly cartoonish and unlikable.

Bergen Record D+
(Robert Feldberg) This gossamer, cynical look at love, based on Ingmar Bergman's 1955 film comedy "Smiles of a Summer Night," doesn't offer many points of emotional entrance...The mostly tiresome revival...doesn't give much reason for reappraisal...Rather than inducing a concentrated focus on the characters, the scenery is stifling, as well as bland...Whether at Nunn's behest, or on their own, many of the actors, including Zeta-Jones, work too hard to sell their characters. Even outfitted with a generic red wig, Zeta-Jones is a dazzling-looking woman. And playing Desiree Armfeldt, a celebrated actress who's had many lovers, she's amiable, amusing and exudes a very appealing lustiness...Making her Broadway debut, Zeta-Jones seems to feel the need to imprint her character on us. There are lots of over-animated facial expressions, and the frequent use of jagged gestures to punch home dialogue. You want to remind her of the old advice: Don't just do something. Stand there...Lansbury, playing Desiree's elderly, world-weary mother, delivers a sophisticated, delightfully piquant performance. So what else is new?

The Washington Post D
(Peter Marks) An actress radiating youthful vigor and sensuality is not a great fit for Desiree Armfeldt, the soignée Sondheim heroine whose most ravishing days are behind her. So it's an unfortunate truth that Catherine Zeta-Jones is not ideally cast as regretful, wistful Desiree in Trevor Nunn's virtually never-right revival of the suavely farcical "A Little Night Music"...When all is said and done, she is revealed as one of the less ill-suited elements of the production...The very best working part is five-time Tony winner Angela Lansbury...For this elegant Scandinavian roundel of amour, of foolish old lovers and foolish young lovers, of characters who couple for sex or for vanity or for an annuity, Nunn takes us on what feels like a cheap date.

New York A 13; New Jersey Newsroom A- 12; Backstage A- 12; Theatermania A- 12; NY1 A- 12; USA Today B+ 11; Newsday B+ 11; FT B+ 11; Faster Times B+ 11; Variety B 10; Time Out NY B 10; The Hollywood Reporter B 10; LS&A B 10; New York Post B- 9; Talkin' Broadway C+ 8; The New York Times C 7; Bloomberg News C 7; The Daily News C 7; Associated Press C- 6; Bergen Record D+ 5; The Washington Post D 4; TOTAL: 198/21=9.43 (B-)

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West Side Story

GRADE: B-


Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Arthur Laurents. Dir. Arthur Laurents. Chor. reproduced by Joey McKneely (original chor. Jerome Robbins). Palace Theatre.

Once again the disparate responses of the critics results in a B- grade. The reviews of this anticipated revival are positive overall, especially for Karen Olivo as Anita. Many critics also fell in love with newcomer Josefina Scaglione as Maria. While less enamored with Matt Cavenaugh's Tony, reviewers warm to their on-stage chemistry. James Youmans receives praise for his gritty sets, as does Joey McKneely for his recreations of Jerome Robbins' choreography. Although critics do not embrace all of Arthur Laurents' decisions, most notably the new ending, they also credit him with the success of this production. Some critics completely buy into a darker West Side Story, while others think that the clean-cut Jets undermine Laurents' attempts at realism. As for the much-hyped Spanish translations, they are deemed in most reviews to be an unnecessary gimmick.

Back Stage A+
(David Sheward) It happened for me during "America." I forgot I was sitting in a Broadway theatre watching professional actors in a revival of West Side Story. I was spying on a group of high-spirited girls kidding each other about living in New York after enduring the poverty of their native Puerto Rico. They weren't executing Jerome Robbins' classic choreography, as re-created by Joey McKneely, on James Youmans' darkly evocative ghetto set; they were flouncing their skirts, jumping on stoops, and inhabiting a specific place and time. This authenticity is only partially due to the Spanish translation of many of the Latino scenes and two of the songs ("I Feel Pretty" and "A Boy Like That"), by Lin-Manuel Miranda of In the Heights fame. The scenes are so real that no English supertitles are required to convey their meaning.

The New Yorker A
(John Lahr) From the musical’s first beats—which tone down the finger-snapping thrust of Bernstein’s signature prologue with pauses that allow us to take in the individual gang members—Laurents announces his intention to leave his fingerprints on the classic. They don’t smudge its beauty; in fact, his attempts to heighten the show’s realism only enhance it. In his version, the gang members actually look like teen-agers; the Latina chorus girls are not Broadway beautiful; the costumes (by David C. Woolard) and set designs (by James Youmans) explore the subtle, shadowy ranges of a color palette that takes the show away from glitzy spectacle and toward a grittier, more muted stylization. By eliminating blackouts between scenes, Laurents also adds to the story’s tension. The evening as a whole feels sculpted—no gesture, no word, no visual choice is arbitrary or wasted. Laurents’s most innovative touch is to have the Puerto Ricans sometimes speak and sing in Spanish. Fifty years on, in a multicultural America, this decision makes the production feel fresh; it also allows the show to dispense with some of Sondheim’s rookie mistakes.

Variety A
(David Rooney) Following his emotionally charged "Gypsy" revival last season, book writer Laurents has again dusted off one of his classic shows for a new generation, remaining faithful to the original conception while adding new textures to the drama. Most notable innovation is the choice to translate (via "In the Heights" composer Lin-Manuel Miranda) much of the Puerto Rican characters' dialogue and songs into Spanish. This heightens the division in the turf war between rival gangs the Sharks and the Jets, and is far less artificial than forcing people to convey extreme passion or grief in their second language. Audiences with no knowledge of Spanish will hardly feel adrift, however, in that the stakes in this urban "Romeo and Juliet" update are rendered more lucid by the dramatic integrity of the staging. And the feelings of lovestruck joy conveyed in "I Feel Pretty," or of bitter sorrow dueling with the conviction of the heart in "A Boy Like That," all but transcend words.

CurtainUp A
(Simon Saltzman) Much credit is due In the Heights writer Lin-Manuel Miranda for integrating Latino Spanish so expertly into the libretto. Apparently English supertitles (projected translations) were tried in Washington and quickly deemed unnecessary. The only other song in which Spanish has completely replaced English is "A Boy Like That," Anita's passionately sung rebuke to Maria for choosing a native New Yorker over a Puerto Rican. Her rage is more intensely empowered by her cultural identity. Perhaps even more courageous are the stretches of Spanish dialogue that now work splendidly to further define the Jets in a community that treats them as intruders and second-class citizens. In Laurents' care and firmly committed direction, the tragic underpinnings that gird the plot remain as passionately considered as are the tender and soaring romantic episodes. Laurents and choreographer Joey McKneely (who has reproduced Robbins' original choreography) have fired up the large and terrifically lean, mean and good-looking company into a formidable confederation of Jets and Sharks. The violent rumbles seem more violent than ever, the pulse-quickening challenge dance at the gym, Tony and Maria's lyrical escape dream ballet and all the other integrated dances embrace the show with both moments of grace and bolts of danger. For all its tinkering, the success of this revival is that it remains in synch with the heartbeat of the original.

Village Voice A
(Michael Feingold) The darkening touches that librettist-director Arthur Laurents has added seem natural rather than intrusive: the cops more nakedly bigoted than of old, the "Somewhere" dream and the ending more overtly hopeless. With a story and score so widely familiar, putting much of the Boricuan song and speech into Spanish adds a salsa flavor instead of confusion. Are the rival gangs too clean-cut, their behavior too show-bizzy, their dialogue too tidily arranged? Get real: Injecting an old romantic tale with street smarts doesn't make it a documentary; romance is its basic purpose. When the panther-leap syncopations of Leonard Bernstein's score grab you, and the sudden lunges of Robbins's dancers rivet you, romance doesn't turn socio-analytical; it lives refreshed.

Bloomberg News A-
(John Simon) In this staging, there are notable improvements, starting with the danced Prologue, in which the Jets and Sharks seem more numerous and threatening than ever before. Similarly, the near- rape of Maria’s friend Anita is more realistically terrifying. Maria and the Latino girls who sing the comic song “America” are shown doing things, such as nail polishing. Each gang member now has more of an individual personality. It was worth going to Argentina to find Josefina Scaglione for Maria; besides operatically trained singing and wonderfully spontaneous acting and dancing, she looks like innocence personified. As the more realistic Anita -- a role in which Chita Rivera, Rita Moreno and Debbie Allen have at various times dazzled, Karen Olivo manages to be perhaps even more impressive... James Youmans’s scenery, especially for the rumble under a bridge, is totally effective, and David C. Woolard’s costumes, with patches of the gangs’ defining colors popping up in unexpected bits of clothing, are always appropriate. Howell Binkley’s often expressionistic lighting is equally flawless. For me, the show’s ending has always been a bit of a letdown. Starting with Tony’s rather hugger-mugger shooting and ending with Maria’s distraught gun-brandishing, some music is needed here. Bernstein did attempt four or five musical endings that didn’t pass muster; perhaps he should have tried a few more. Still, such cavils are trifling. Next to the original production, this one, over half a century later, will prove by far the best revival any of us will get in our lifetime. See it and cherish it.

American Theater Web A-
(Andy Propst) To say that the world, or the show, "went away" – to borrow from one of Sondheim's lyrics for "West Side" – after Scaglione and Cavanaugh delivered a ravishing "Tonight," would not be entirely accurate, but I will admit to tearing from Scaglione's first notes, and eagerly anticipating the next moments in which Maria would sing. Before and after this duet, the pleasures of "West Side" are considerable and even if Scaglione were less movingly impressive, this revival is vital and vibrant. From the moment the curtain rises on James Youmans' black and white rendering of city buildings and the old elevated train tracks – expressionistic to start but made more so by Howell Binkley's striking lighting design – the production captivates and the menace that dooms Tony and Maria's sweet love is palpable.

Chicago Tribune A-
(Chris Jones) Fortunately for a new generation yet to see this show produced at this level, it retains the heart, soul and original moves and sounds of a theatrical masterpiece with Leonard Bernstein melodies so beautiful they reverberate deep in your chest. And yet this new production also radically updates and rejuvenates the show’s social milieu. It’s an ensemble-driven change—rather than the individual lead performances—that dominates the feeling and impact of this production. Most strikingly, the Puerto Rican members of The Sharks (all played by performers who are actually of Latin descent) are allowed to speak their native Spanish. For the most part. The show makes the serious mistake of backing away from that conceit when characters say things apparently deemed too important to the narrative—and when it does so, the effect is to remind everyone that it does not entirely have the courage of its own very smart convictions.

Time Out New York A-
(Adam Feldman) A longer review might permit more attention to the intelligent design of Howell Binkley’s lighting, James Youmans’s set, David C. Woolard’s costumes and Dan Moses Schreier’s sound; to the expert turns in small roles by Michael Mastro, Greg Vinkler, Tro Shaw and others; to the sheer excitement of seeing the huge cast in Robbins’s spectacular dances, and hearing Bernstein’s majestic score played by a full orchestra. This is Broadway in very fine form: standing up to face darkness head on, and unafraid to be a thing of beauty.

New York Post B+
(Elisabeth Vincentelli) The work of Bernstein and lyricist Stephen Sondheim is 75 percent of the reason this often-frustrating revival gets three stars: You can't underestimate the pleasure of hearing those songs played at full volume by a 30-piece orchestra. Add Jerome Robbins' iconic choreography (reproduced here by Joey McKneely), and you have lightning in a bottle. Yet at least one person thinks the aforementioned elements aren't the point: Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book back in 1957 and directs this production, has snipped that "the original was about dancing and singing."... What do we remember of this production, then? Laurents may not like the answer, but it's precisely what the original was about: the singing and the dancing. "West Side Story" had not been seen on Broadway in almost three decades. For a new generation to discover it live is almost good enough.

The New York Times B+
(Ben Brantley) The best news is how newly credible and affecting the show’s central love story becomes in this context, with Matt Cavenaugh and Josefina Scaglione as the doomed Tony, an idealistic Polish-American, and the virginal Puerto Rican Maria. As Mr. Sondheim has observed, “There are no characters in ‘West Side,’ nor can there be.” They are by necessity, he said, “one-dimensional characters for a melodrama.”... For me revisiting “West Side Story” has always meant tolerating the woodenness of its lovers to get to the good stuff: the score, the kinetic fireworks of the dancing and the brash vibrancy of Maria’s best friend, Anita (played here by Karen Olivo, who delivers big-time). But this “West Side Story” is most enthralling when Tony and Maria cross the ethnic divide to pursue the pipe dream of happiness together. Mr. Cavenaugh (on Broadway in “Urban Cowboy” and “Grey Gardens”) and Ms. Scaglione (a 21-year-old newcomer from Argentina) fulfill the starry-eyed obligations of playing young folks struck by a love that arrives like a lightning bolt, propelling them into an enchanted, oblivious world of purple declarations of passion. But they also provide specific and surprising shadings of character that make Tony and Maria at least partly responsible for their fate instead of passive victims.

Theatermania B
(David Finkle) In revising West Side Story to guarantee it feels as persuasive as possible, Laurents does make a few missteps. The most obvious is the scene at the very end when Maria is tending to Tony's fallen body in the playground. Originally, members of both chastened gangs formed a respectful retreat while the policemen looked on. Now, claiming that no law enforcement officer would allow such a brazen removal of evidence, Laurents has trimmed the number of witnesses and keeps them on the spot. At the very least, he should have brought all gang members back -- and contrite -- at the slow curtain. But although Laurents dilutes the ending of his own work, he nonetheless retains the heated theatrical magic that always was and always will be West Side Story.

Entertainment Weekly B
(Melissa Rose Bernardo) Finally, everyone can stop complaining about ''I Feel Pretty.'' Stephen Sondheim has said his lyrics made him ''cringe'' (example: ''I feel pretty/Oh, so pretty/I feel pretty and witty and bright/And I pity/Any girl who isn't me tonight''); librettist Arthur Laurents thought it never belonged in the show. In the new Broadway revival of West Side Story, it's called ''Siento Hermosa,'' as translated by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony-winning composer-lyricist-creator of Broadway's hit In the Heights: ''Hoy me siento tan preciosa/Tan graciosa que puedo volar/Y no hay diosa/En el mundo que me va alcanzar.'' It's rendered irresistibly by Argentine ingénue Josefina Scaglione — this production's enchanting Maria — and her sassy backup singers (Jennifer Sanchez, Danielle Polanco, Kat Nejat). So much so that it becomes more than a mere throwaway song for a simpering love-struck teen, more than just an upbeat start to Act 2 to distract the audience after Act 1's deadly finale. Now it's a revealing character song, a cheeky girl-group number, and a giggly slumber-party scene rolled into one.

Los Angeles Times B
(Charles McNulty) The show’s indestructibility, if ever in doubt, is now beyond doubt. Laurents’ direction, while not a miscarriage, is extremely patchy, particularly when the plotting gets complicated. As with his recent Broadway staging of “Gypsy,” that other bellwether of the American musical he co-authored, the blocking of key narrative moments can get smudgy. Fortunately, just as you’re noticing that Scaglione’s singing is a whole lot better than her acting and Cavenaugh is about as tough as a lanky J. Crew model, a Jerome Robbins dance number, vibrantly reproduced by Joey McKneely, whisks you into an ecstasy zone where all such complaints seem trivial. Unfolding on an impressionistically grimy New York set designed by James Youmans and lighted by Howell Binkley to suggest an urban inferno, the musical manages to stay one step ahead of its production’s shortcomings... Laurents is smart to up the vicious criminal ante, but he’s not able to make sense of “Gee, Officer Krupke,” the song in which Bernstein and Sondheim impose a bit of vaudevillian shtick on the Jets. Played with less musical theater relish than usual, the number fails as both sociological portraiture and comic relief. But who cares? “West Side Story” still tops nearly every other musical that’s followed it. Laurents’ uneven production may be noteworthy for the way characters slip in and out of Spanish, but the show continues to seduce in a theatrical language that remains universal.

Washington Post B-
(Peter Marks) To put it plainly, the Jets, those angry, sneering products of America's social breakdown, have been miscast. They come across in this version as if they were the kinds of classroom scamps who were candidates for detention rather than three-to-five in the state pen. Sure, it's a challenge, embodying a thug while singing Leonard Bernstein's satiny music and leaping gazelle-like to Jerome Robbins's balletic choreography. And yet, they don't for a minute allow us to believe that they could sow violence at the slightest provocation... What you have, then, is a "West Side Story" that fulfills many of the basic requirements -- it's even more exhilaratingly danced and sung than in Washington -- without the urban insouciance that first stamped the musical as one-of-a-kind. It is left to the captivating Karen Olivo, in the surefire role of Bernardo's girlfriend, Anita, to vent all the restlessness and fire of these young people, fighting the tides of 1950s privation and intolerance.

NY1 C+
(Roma Torre) Laurents injected added realism by having the Sharks speak in their native Spanish much of the time. And Lin Manuel Miranda of "In the Heights" fame had the task of translating two very familiar songs, "I Feel Pretty" and "A Boy Like That" into "Siento Hermosa" and "Un Hombre Asi." The result is very effective and certainly deepens the characters. The problem is the renewed focus on gritty realism forces more scrutiny on the rest of the elements. The gang members are hardly threatening at all. Only Action, played by the terrifically versatile Curtis Holbrook, suggests any real violent menace. And in a case of unfortunate miscasting, Matt Cavenaugh playing heartthrob and former gang leader Tony seems all wrong. His testosterone level is lacking, not to mention any romantic chemistry with his leading lady.

The Daily News C+
(Joe Dziemianowicz) Forget the Sharks' and Jets' bad boys. It's the girls who rule in this uneven new Broadway production of "West Side Story," which manages only intermittently to take us "somewhere" special. Karen Olivo, as Anita, gives the show's most thrilling performance. With her hair, skirt and legs flying and her voice soaring, she all but achieves liftoff during the dazzling "America."... Unfortunately, the principal guys don't fare as well, starting with Maria's ill-fated love, Tony. Matt Cavenaugh has a fine tenor, but his body language and diction, with its odd hints of New England, seem out of place on Manhattan's mean streets, if not in Maria's arms. By acting every note of "Something's Coming," he turns optimism into spun sugar.

Newsday C+
(Linda Winer) As promised, new director (and original author) Arthur Laurents has darkened the violence in his bilingual revival of the 1957 landmark musical that transports Romeo and Juliet to mean-street Manhattan. The discovery, also as promised, is Josefina Scaglione, the young Argentine beauty who plays Maria with a luminous girl-woman impetuousness and a luscious, easygoing high soprano. But except for the statuesque Karen Olivo as a spectacular space-eating Anita, the casting is just all right. The physical production is surprisingly conventional - modest in imagination if not in budget. And despite the tougher edge in Joey Mc-Kneely's reconsideration of Jerome Robbins' character-defining choreography, the second-act ballet sequence, "Somewhere," is as sappy as a love-in and sung by a boy soprano. Why do the Jets pretend to row a boat in a hard-hitting "Gee, Officer Krupke"? And how are we to buy the concept's gritty new realism when the Jets have the same artfully applied smudges on their faces throughout the show?

Associated Press C+
(Michael Kuchwara) The production is under the direction of Arthur Laurents, the man responsible for the musical's original book. He's done some tweaking of the star-crossed tale of Tony and Maria, young lovers from the two different New York gangs, but it still seems a little sketchy and slow, even with some surprising innovations. And its emotional impact is oddly muted. Not so those Robbins' dances, which grab you right from the show's Prologue and then explode periodically throughout the evening. One such detonation is the Dance at Gym when the rival gangs go head to head in a swirling, temperature-raising contest; another is "America," a high-kicking salute by the spirited Anita and the other Puerto Rican girls to their adopted country. Robbins' choreography, recreated here by Joey McKneely, defines both character and story. Watch the movement that accompanies "Somewhere," a hymn for a better future, first sung by Tony and Maria and then danced by the company as an expression of hope.

NYMag C+
(Stephanie Zacharek) This production exposes too baldly the central flaw of the libretto: Tony and Maria, the Romeo and Juliet stand-ins (played here by Matt Cavenaugh and Josefina Scaglione), may be nice kids, but they’re also the show’s least interesting characters; Tony, in particular, is something of a drip. Cavenaugh and Scaglione transmit the required innocence and purity, but neither is charismatic enough to make the production feel fully alive. Standing with his fists clenched, his inverted triangle of a torso displayed beneath a fitted shirt, Cavenaugh has the faux-casual air of an underwear model from a sixties Sears catalogue. That can hardly be Cavenaugh’s fault: More likely, Laurents’s original conception of Tony is so comfortably familiar to him that he can hardly envision the character any other way. (Clips of Larry Kert’s Tony, from the original production, show him standing with the same stiff, assertive posture.) On the other hand, as Anita, Karen Olivo—with the feline sauciness of Eartha Kitt, and legs as long as Central Park—is the show’s most vital presence: In the still brashly effective “Tonight” quintet, she stands in silhouette dressed only in a skimpy chemise, looking forward not to the upcoming rumble between the rival gangs, but to the action she’ll see afterward, with her boyfriend, Bernardo. She’s a girl with an appetite: Not only does she like to live in America, she’s ready to eat it whole. And although the show’s newly translated dialogue comes off, overall, as more novelty than meaningful reimagining, when Anita sings “A Boy Like That” in Spanish (“Un Hombre Así”), her derision and fear are so vivid they bust through the confines of language. Olivo gives West Side Story its percussive pulse. In her, the spirit of 1957 lives.

AMNY C
(Matt Windman) “West Side Story” is a dated but great show. Little else can compare with its incredible integration of song, movement and dialogue. And the ingredients and production values necessary to make an outstanding production were definitely present. Unfortunately, Arthur Laurents’ ego ruined it for everyone. The performances vary in success. Matt Cavenaugh is truly miscast as Tony, looking far too clean and aged for the role and singing in an ugly vocal style. 21-year-old Josefina Scaglione sings sweetly but her acting is unnaturally forced. However, Karen Olivo is fiery, sexy and vigorous as Anita, Maria’s mature companion. And anger runs through Curtis Holbrook as Action like an electric current.

Hollywood Reporter C
(Frank Scheck)The idea that a musical as brilliant as "West Side Story" would require reinventing seems a bit dubious, and the doubts are confirmed by the new Broadway revival. Reconceived and staged by its original book writer Arthur Laurents to achieve a new level of grittiness, this production features a lot of tweaks -- most notably the use of Spanish for two of the songs and some of the dialogue -- that don't add appreciably to its impact. And unlike the 91-year-old Laurents' recent smash revival of "Gypsy," this production is further undercut by some significant deficiencies in the staging and performances.

Hartford Courant C
(Malcolm Johnson) There are two songs in Act Two: "Siento Hermosa" ("I Feel Pretty") and "Un Hombre Asi" ("A Boy Like That"), both translated from Stephen Sondheim's lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of "In the Heights." The original words appear in the program, but there are no supertitles for those ignorant of Spanish. A greater problem is the inconsistency of the use of Spanish. When Anita sings "America" with Rosalia and the Shark girls, the lyrics are in English. Spanish words are sprinkled throughout Act One, but when Maria and Anita converse in the bridal shop, it is mostly in English. The failure to use Spanish naturally exposes the device as flimsy, gimmicky. This split personality is unfortunate, because the new production staged by the librettist, Arthur Laurents, has much to commend it.

The Record C-
(Robert Feldberg) The revival of “West Side Story” that opened Thursday night at the Palace Theatre was advertised as a grittier and tougher – more relevant – version of the landmark 1957 musical. It isn't... The problem starts, in retrospect, at the very beginning of the show when Maria, newly arrived from Puerto Rico, speaks English – very good English — with her friend Anita (Karen Olivo) for an entire scene. Later, when the pair, and others, converse in Spanish, you wonder what that early English scene was all about. Sometimes, Spanish dialogue is awkwardly mixed with English – most likely to explain what’s happening to audience members who don’t understand Spanish – and sometimes the Spanish is accompanied by exaggerated gestures or miming to get the meaning across.

USA Today C-
(Elysa Gardner) West Side Story didn't need a culturally correct face-lift. While the film adaptation has its cartoonish aspects, as Laurents has duly noted, the musical is and always has been fundamentally anti-xenophobic. We root not for the Jets or the Sharks but for Tony and Maria, who want to reject the fear and small-mindedness surrounding them. It's certainly not hard to root for Matt Cavenaugh's handsome, likable Tony, or the angelic but warmly coquettish Maria of Josefina Scaglione, whose sterling lyric soprano is perfectly suited to the role. Karen Olivo's witty, fiery Anita is another asset; she may not be the best dancer to ever tackle the role, but Joey McKneely's reproduction of Jerome Robbins' choreography lets her shine and the others soar. To a point, that is. The irony is that Laurents' attempts to be inclusive and grittily realistic — the final scene in particular suffers for his insistence on technical accuracy — make the show seem no fresher, only a tiny bit less magical.

Wall Street Journal F+
(Terry Teachout) Mr. Laurents's down-and-dirty approach might have been made to work if he'd scrapped Robbins's dances and had the whole show rechoreographed from scratch. Even so, he would have had to reckon with the blandness of his stars. The only one who stands out is Karen Olivo, lately of "In the Heights," who is blowtorch-hot as Anita. Not so Matt Cavenaugh (Tony), Josefina Scaglione (Maria) and Cody Green (Riff), all of whom are competent but uncharismatic. Nor are James Youmans's big, ugly inner-city sets an improvement on the stylized fire escapes and chain-link fences that Oliver Smith created in 1957. I give Arthur Laurents credit for wanting to make "West Side Story" new -- especially given the fact that the Robbins-supervised 1980 Broadway revival, a carbon copy of the original production, wasn't very successful -- but no amount of tough-guy retouching can make "West Side Story" into anything other than what it is, a starry-eyed group portrait of a bunch of basically nice kids who find themselves caught up in an unforgiving world of violence and hate. To pretend otherwise, as this staging mostly does, is to get wrong what Mr. Laurents and his collaborators got so gloriously right a half-century ago.

Talkin' Broadway F+
(Matthew Murray) The impact of Robbins’s advancements has been dulled over the last five decades: by time, by countless other productions and a famous film version, and by the many musicals and choreographers that Robbins’s work inspired. And, unfortunately, West Side Story without genre-overturning choreography is really not much of a story at all, composed almost exclusively of one-dimensional characters acting on their most primal lusts. So although this isn’t a show that’s dated in the traditional sense (it’s a shade too fantastical for that), and Leonard Bernstein’s music still retains for most a glorious romantic sweep, it’s not exactly relevant to the world or the theatre of today. It’s hardly a surprise, then, that Laurents, who as a director transformed Gypsy into a Gorgonian mugfest last season, would attempt to revise and reconceive this one as well. He’s exerted a stronger hand on his actors and made tiny adjustments to his book, but his most daring choice has been to have the Sharks speak and sing in Spanish. Although a fascinating idea, especially as implemented by the fearless young Lin-Manuel Miranda (a 2008 Tony winner for his music and lyrics for In the Heights), in practice the notion strips the show of what little complexity it had.

Nytheatre.com F
(Martin Denton) The set, by James Youmans, is big and ugly, leaving little room on the stage for movement. The costumes, by David C. Woolard, are of no particular period: Anita and the Shark girls wear clothes appropriate to the '50s, when West Side Story was written, but the Jets' girls are in mini-skirts from a decade later and the boys' attire (and haircuts) feel very much of today. (Why?) Laurents has not altered the show's book very much, except to have the Puerto Rican characters sometimes speak in Spanish. This has been the most commented-upon aspect of this revival; it feels like a gimmick, and a poorly applied one at that. These people chat in Spanish to each other but when their emotions peak they revert to English, which is helpful to the audience but the opposite of what would happen in real life. The construct completely falls apart in Act 2, Scene 3, when Maria asks Anita to deliver a message to Tony: there's a policeman in the room with them, and Maria doesn't want him to know what she's talking about. Wouldn't this be the ideal moment for her to switch to Spanish?

Back Stage A+ 14; The New Yorker A 13; Variety A 13; CurtainUp A 13; Village Voice A 13; Bloomberg News A- 12; American Theater Web A- 12; Chicago Tribune A- 12; TONY A- 12; New York Post B+ 11; The New York Times B+ 11; Theatermania B 10; EW B 10; LA Times B 10; Washington Post B- 9; NY1 C+ 8; The Daily News C+ 8; Newsday C+ 8; Associated Press C+ 8; NYMag C+ 8; AMNY C 7; Hollywood Reporter C 7; Hartford Courant C 7; The Record C- 6; USA Today C- 6 Wall Street Journal F+ 2; Talkin' Broadway F+ 2; Nytheatre.com F 1; TOTAL: 253/28 = 9.04 (B-)

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Road Show

GRADE: B-

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by John Weidman. Dir. John Doyle. Public Theatre. (CLOSED)

Sondheim returns and the fans are divided. Would we expect it any other way? In this case, though, his long-gestating musical with John Weidman about the legendary American con men, the Mizner Brothers, has been around the block so many times (under three separate titles) that some critics went into John Doyle's minimalist new production already wary. Even admirers of the show found it "minor Sondheim" but captivating nonetheless, while the remainder of critics fell between dutiful reverence and outright disgruntlement.

USA Today A
(Elysa Gardner) Though set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Road Show is as deft an indictment of capitalism run amok as any recent political missive...It's a briskly entertaining, haunting, cautionary tale for those who would covet riches recklessly or with shallow motives...Let's hope, given our own tough times, that Road Show can find another home when it completes this limited run.

Associated Press A
(Michael Kuchwara) A small show about big ideas, an intelligent, fascinating examination of the American psyche, both good and bad...In this latest incarnation, director John Doyle has made an enormous contribution...He's helped Sondheim and Weidman clarify the story, stripping it down to essentials...Sondheim's flavorsome score includes his customary tricky wordplay and several haunting melodies.

Philadelphia Inquirer A
(Toby Zinman) A thoroughly contemporary and deeply thoughtful entertainment...Just as Road Show deconstructs the American Dream, so it deconstructs the American musical. John Doyle's risky direction and set design make sure that happens: no costume changes, no set changes, a big cast that never dances and much of the time stands still and silent, looking on. The songs are oddly catchy, tuneful but difficult...All of which is to say that Road Show is wonderfully surprising and enjoyable, and provocative in many ways.

Los Angeles Times A-
(Charles McNulty) The work has the misfortune of being good without being sensational, artistically fascinating yet somewhat choppily constructed. Most damning of all, it refuses to pander, a sin that certain types of theater buffs consider unpardonable. Ask me, I think it's one of the most compelling chamber musicals I've seen in ages...Minor Sondheim is infinitely more interesting than the major offerings of most anyone else who passes for a musical-theater composer these days.

Backstage A-
(David A. Rosenberg) Is it flawless? Well, no, not exactly. But Road Show, as the musical is now called, is more focused and richer than when it was known as Bounce. The new production plays to the strengths of John Weidman's book and director John Doyle’s penchant for the presentational. But the evening defiantly belongs to Sondheim...The score, as orchestrated by the great Jonathan Tunick, is ablaze with signature Sondheim brilliance...The production...is stunning.

Newsday B+
(Linda Winer) Small and sweet and relatively slight. Despite the themes of greed and the betrayals and that ol' demon cocaine, Road Show is that rare creature...a light musical comedy...Doyle, the director who turned actors into the orchestra in Sweeney Todd and Company is a laser of visual and emotional economy. Alexander Gemignani is disarmingly virtuosic as Addison...Michael Cerveris' Wilson, the dark side of American opportunism, slinks resiliently through scams with the exhilaration of the fox pursuing Pinocchio. The actors, Sondheim specialists...play off one another's expertise as if part of a dream of a Sondheim repertory company.

Chicago Tribune B+
(Chris Jones) Wilson and Addison Mizner were minor figures in American history...But they surely outwitted John Weidman and Stephen Sondheim. The distinguished theater duo of Weidman and Sondheim has spent years trying to nail the Mizner brothers, years trying to turn their eccentric, all-American lives into a metaphor on which to hang a new American musical...The show contains more infectiously beautiful, curious and resonant music and lyrics than any listener has a right to expect...The Mizners have the last laugh, but defeat rarely sounded better.

CurtainUp B+
(Elyse Sommer) Weidman's tightened script for the book and Doyle's streamlined helmsmanship are likely to prompt some nitpicking about unclarified details. But not from this critic...With Michael Cerveris and Alexander Gemignani, both seasoned Sondheim interpreters...the leading roles couldn't be in better hands. Add Jonathan Tunick's fine orchestrations and a golden-voiced ensemble, and Road Show, even though it shows some signs of having been diddled with a bit too much, is a welcome addition to the Sondheim's cannon.

Variety B
(David Rooney) An intimate, almost whimsical musical...Both Cerveris and Gemignani are seasoned Sondheim performers, and each brings his own slightly sour charm to characters we never quite get to know well enough...Less complex than many of his scores, the songs are nonetheless unmistakably Sondheim...Road Show could have used more emotional texture and lucidity in papering its themes onto the brothers' post-mortem, but it's an alluring odyssey...Imperfect as the show is, nobody who cares about musical theater should miss it.

Village Voice B
(Michael Feingold) Unable to dig dramatic developments from this inherently undramatic setup, Sondheim and Weidman sensibly compress it to a bare minimum, then urge us to view it as an American allegory...Fortunately, the show's brevity and speed keep it from becoming laborious. The tone of Doyle's production, harsh and monochrome like its color scheme, rarely enhances but also never hinders the story's onrush. The four principals all mercifully escape the surrounding one-note frenzy...Road Show comes from a lower shelf in Sondheim's cabinet. But it still comes exquisitely, with the artistry of a man whose handiwork is never second-rate...Road Show may disappoint; Sondheim never does.

New Yorker B
(Hilton Als) A potentially complex portrait that isn’t borne out by the text. Weidman gives us sketches, while Sondheim is intent on making a painting. The actors are caught between these two extremes, as is the audience, unsure where to focus...Still, there’s Sondheim to listen to here—all that thought crowding in on itself like a rushing stream. He’s a genius, and no single failure can take that away from him.

Hartford Courant B
(Malcolm Johnson) Rolls merrily along for a time, but finally tilts off the rails...Road Show proves a fascinating work as an essay on the failures of the American Dream. There is wit aplenty across the intermissionless evening, but the sense of misanthropy undercuts the fun. Yet Doyle's staging, which often has the agile Cerveris capering over the bureaus and file cabinets, gives the production a kinetic momentum that is sometimes exhilarating.

Theater News Online B
(Mervyn Rothstein) It's an hour and forty minutes, without intermission, and it seems to fly by so quickly, jumping from one episode to another in the story of the brothers' very American lives. Some of it works, some of it doesn't—and the speed is part of the problem, as it never allows the show to journey much beyond the superficial...Cerveris and Gemignani are just about perfect in their roles, and sing with charm and beauty...Alma Cuervo as their mother is luminous.

The New York Times B-
(Ben Brantley) Murmur a world-weary greeting, if you will, to the trimmed-down, toughened-up and seriously darkened new edition of the musical formerly known as Bounce (in 2003) and Wise Guys (1999) and somewhere along the way, Gold. And, yes, its current version could be said to hold a mirror to a nation in a recessionary hangover after years of overindulgence. But the show’s greatest interest for fans of Mr. Sondheim lies in seeing how what was once meant to be light and buoyant fare has been reshaped into something more somber...The problem is that this musical’s travelogue structure precludes its digging deep. It hints at dark and shimmering glories beneath the surface that it never fully mines.

The Daily News B-
(Joe Dziemianowicz) After all the time and tweaks, the revised version, which opened last night at the Public Theater, is a low-key and modest production...The score is filled with moody melodies and harmonies, as well as phrasings and lyrics that are quintessential Sondheim...What’s missing are numbers with points of view that extend beyond the plot...The show’s bigger sticking point is that it’s built around colorful characters who emerge as pale to the point of being bleached.

The Journal News C+
(Jacques Le Sourd) Though every Sondheim fan will want to see this show...this small show remains oddly tentative...Essentially a 90-minute flashback with music, of the two men's manic, tragic itinerary. Song follows song, with Sondheim's always deft lyrical stylings set to somehow forgettable tunes.

NY Observer C+
(John Heilpern) An honorable misfire...What was intended as a tale of dizzying fraternal ambition and debauchery is a repetitively sour 100-minute slog....This isn’t one of Mr. Sondheim’s masterly scores...but Road Show does include memorable songs...Mr. Doyle has...directed a glumly lifeless production with a static all-purpose set.

New York C
(Eric Grode) Doyle’s austerity jostles uneasily against Sondheim’s boisterous melodies. The top-hat-and-hair-shirt look is no more graceful than it sounds. As before, the predominant musical idiom is the strain of jouncy, vaguely ironic Americana that Sondheim deployed in Assassins...The ensemble work is surprisingly uneven, and [Doyle's] stage conceits—money repeatedly tossed all over the stage, actors screwing in footlight bulbs and then removing them—saps Weidman’s snappy script of the globe-hopping effervescence it once had.

Time Out NY C
(Adam Feldman) Second-rate Sondheim is still better than most people’s best work, but it is weighed down in Road Show by other disappointments. John Weidman’s pell-mell book—which tells the story of William and Addison Mizner, peripatetic brothers in the early 20th century—bears the scars of multiple surgeries: It can’t settle down into any particular style. And John Doyle—who always seems terribly embarrassed to be directing a musical at all—leaches the material of its comedy and vaudeville flair, bathing the production in a glum, brown wash.

The Wall Street Journal C-
(Terry Teachout) I wish I could say it was worth the wait, but Road Show isn't up to the high standards of the creators of Pacific Overtures. The book is flat, the score fluent but pale, and my reluctant guess is that the Public will be the last stop on its long trip.

The Record C-
(Robert Feldberg) The musical, rewritten yet again and with radically new scenery and direction by John Doyle, still doesn’t work. It isn’t terrible; it’s just not very interesting. The show’s subject and its presentation seem to be in basic conflict.

AM New York C-
(Matt Windman) Was it worth all the wait? It pains us to confess that after so much rewriting and so many directors (Sam Mendes, Hal Prince and John Doyle), Road Show probably is the least interesting show in the exalted Sondheim canon...Though the score is character-driven and intelligent, it bears none of the incredible ballads that have sparkled Sondheim’s best musicals. Still, let’s remember that most of Sondheim’s musicals have not received great reviews in their original productions. Down the road, perhaps we’ll change our minds about Road Show.

Washington Post C-
(Peter Marks) Visitors to the Kennedy Center version will recall Bounce as a somewhat jaunty, overblown evening, with a theme that had something to do with the resilience of the brothers...The significantly revised show has dialed down the comic portions and pumped up its more salacious and lugubrious tendencies...The show's streamlinin --it runs under two hours--is a positive step, though even at that length, the story of the Mizner boys overstays its welcome. To be sure, a Sondheim score is as close to a rock-solid insurance policy as the musical theater offers. Still, like so much of what's chronicled in Road Show, it's an asset that the Mizners manage to squander.

Theatermania D
(David Finkle) The unpleasant news about this slaved-over property...is that whatever Sondheim saw in Addie and Willie and their early 20th-century exploits he's unable to project to the audience. The American-dream-as-nightmare thesis that Sondheim and Weidman promoted in their not-dissimilarly-themed Assassins...is trotted out again on wobbly colt's legs...Perhaps the most potent measure of the tuner's deficiencies is something no reviewer thought he'd ever report about Sondheim: The lyrics aren't very good.

Bloomberg News D
(John Simon) Bounce, which I saw in Washington, had commendable aspects: a peripatetic heterosexual love interest in the delightful Michele Pawk, and wonderfully cheeky scenery by Eugene Lee, which turned the Mizners' travels to Alaska and various other countries into colorful vignettes...The worst thing is the new staging and design by Doyle...Road Show is unable to make the Mizners as fascinating as they doubtless were. It remains a seriously ailing proposition for which Doyle has served as overeager gravedigger.

New York Post D-
(Frank Scheck) A major disappointment. This show about the notorious Mizners...never finds the thematic focus it desperately needs...Presented as a sort of vaudevillian musical revue, the show spans multiple decades and locales ranging from Gold Rush-era Alaska to Guatemala. But Weidman's narrative is loose and disjointed, and we feel no emotional involvement in either its characters or situations. The score contains flashes of Sondheim's melodic and lyrical genius...Doyle's staging...is both repetitive and static.

Talkin' Broadway D-
(Matthew Murray) The last thing a musical needs if it's been gestating for 10 years is direction by John Doyle, who has yet to demonstrate with any musical he's helmed in New York that he's had any clue what their creators actually wrote...Composer Sondheim and librettist Weidman...[have] spent so much time rewriting and rethinking, the trouble is no longer that their show isn't any good—though it isn't—but that it's no longer much of anything at all.

USA Today A 13; Associated Press A 13; Philadelphia Inquirer A 13; Los Angeles Times A- 12; Backstage A- 12; Newsday B+ 11; Chicago Tribune B+ 11; CurtainUp B+ 11; Variety B 10; Village Voice B 10; New Yorker B 10; Hartford Courant B 10; Theater News Online B 10; The New York Times B- 9; The Daily News B- 9; The Journal News C+ 8; NY Observer C+ 8; Time Out NY C 7; New York C 7; WSJ C- 6; The Record C- 6; AM New York C- 6; WashPo C- 6; Theatermania D 4; Bloomberg News D 4; New York Post D- 3; Talkin' Broadway D-3; TOTAL: 232 / 27 = 8.59 (B-)

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Gypsy

GRADE: A-

Book by Arthur Laurents, Music by Julie Stine, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Directed by Arthur Laurents. (CLOSED)

When the lowest grade a show gets is a B-, you can be sure that its cup runneth over with critical acclaim and enthusiasm. If there were an A+++ rating, we'd have to assign it to Adam Feldman's review in Time Out, where his love of the musical on every level (writing, directing and performance) shines through. Shockingly for a show that's normally a star vehicle for whoever is playing Momma Rose—in this case, Patti LuPone—there's plenty of huzzahs left over for the supporting cast. The closest to a negative review the show is from New York Magazine's Jeremy McCarter, who confesses "of all the canonical musicals, this one leaves me coldest." Note: A few reviews are missing because they covered the earlier City Center Encores series production, not the Broadway version. While they are quite similar, we consider them distinct enough (especially since the Times' Ben Brantley did a 180 on his opinion of the show) to leave them out.

Time Out NY A+
(Adam Feldman) Wow. Wow. Wow. The Broadway revival of Gypsy, starring the astonishing Patti LuPone, has now arrived at the—wow—at the St. James Theatre, and from the moment the—wow. Sorry, but: wow. There are times when a critic can calmly analyze the assets and demerits of a production; and there are other times, thrilling and rare, when a show slaps the sense clean out of him, and when the proper reaction is awe, delight and gratitude. This Gypsy is a stunner: an achievement that no one who loves musicals, no one who loves theater, no one at all should miss.

NY Times A+
(Ben Brantley) A great Momma Rose is usually enough for a thoroughly compelling Gypsy. But this one has so much more. Mr. Laurents and his cast have applied the same careful analysis to all the major characters. As a result we become newly sensitized to Gypsy as a sad story of colliding desires, of people within an extended family vainly longing for love, for security, for recognition from one another. And this production makes us painfully aware of the toll exacted by repeatedly missed connections.

NY Daily News A
(Joe Dziemianowicz) Momma Rose, the stage mother from hell at the center of Gypsy, obsesses about dreams. She mentions them about 30 times. It's fitting that the revival of the backstage classic at the St. James Theatre starring Patti LuPone has the stuff Broadway dreams are made of: an electrifying leading lady and bangup supporting cast (kids included), making good on the show's implicit vow to entertain you and make you smile.

Associated Press A
(Michael Kuchwara) Gypsy has been a regular visitor to Broadway in the nearly 50 years since it first opened there in 1959 with Ethel Merman as Rose. Actresses as different and distinct as Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Linda Lavin and Bernadette Peters have taken on the role. LuPone is a more-than-worthy successor, doing glorious and equal justice to both story and song.

NJ Star-Ledger A
(Michael Sommers) Gangway world, get off of her runway -- Patti LuPone pulls out all the stops in her thrilling performance as the fearsome stage mama Rose in Gypsy and sets the Tony Award bar extremely high for every other leading lady on Broadway. From its pulse-racing overture to its knockout finale, Gypsy is one those great, glorious musicals that can be enjoyed repeatedly thanks to its tremendous score, compelling showbiz story and splendid opportunities for front-rank artists to strut their stuff.

The New Yorker A
(John Lahr) This dynamic production is a conclusive answer to the British director Sam Mendes’s lethargic, miscast 2003 revival. “I thought Sam did a terrible disservice to Bernadette and the play,” Laurents has said. “I wanted a Gypsy seen in New York that was good.” His version puts an American sizzle back into the score and into the musical’s dramatic stakes.

Variety A-
(David Rooney) Everyone remembers a great musical by its songs, but the key to a really great musical, and arguably the hardest part to get right, is the book. It needs to feed the narrative and develop the characters and their relationships without decelerating the momentum, leaving you tapping your foot impatiently waiting for the orchestra to spark up again. Watching Arthur Laurents' riveting revival of the show he wrote and premiered in 1959, it's clear that Gypsy has the dramatic vertebrae of a superior species. This is not your everyday canned tuner; in this production it's an incisively acted musical play with as much emotional resonance as showbiz pizzazz.

Village Voice B+
(Michael Feingold) Demonstrates the work's sturdiness by, at times, pushing so hard against it that a less sturdily built object would topple over...The three leads, miraculously, have slipped out from under Laurents's hard-edged insistence...Patti LuPone has enriched and refocused her performance till it actually deserves some of the torrents of gush the press has poured over her...Even so, Laurents rides her psychopathy into overemphasis.

LA Times B
(Charles McNulty) What distinguishes LuPone’s accomplishment is the fiery fusion of music and drama that she pulls off with seemingly spontaneous expressiveness....Laurents... isn’t always adept at handling the tale he so creatively derived from the memoirs of burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee. The storytelling is rather choppy in the first half. LuPone’s scene with Pop (Bill Raymond), her naysaying dad, who won’t give her the 88 bucks she needs to get her kids on the Orpheum Circuit, strangely misfires until she starts singing “Some People,” the anthem decrying ordinary oblivion as a form of death.

USA Today B
(Elysa Gardner) Laurents, of course, also wrote the libretto for this classic show, based on burlesque icon Gypsy Rose Lee's account of the relentless mom who tried to make her a child star. And in revisiting it, he clearly is determined to convert those who would dismiss the old-school musical as escapist fluff. This Gypsy is as serious as a heart attack, and about as subtle.

New York Magazine B-
(Jeremy McCarter) At the St. James, Patti LuPone sings with force and poise. She flits from high and operatic one moment to low and torchy the next, to the delight of her voluble fans. But her charm works against her, as she loses a little of the vulgarity that makes Rose the vaudeville answer to Richard III and that might have—just maybe—made the whole evening as fascinating as Benanti’s performance.

TONY A+ 14; NYTimes A+ 14; NY Daily News A 13; Associated Press A 13; NJ Star-Ledger A 13; New Yorker A 13; Variety A- 12; Village Voice B+ 11; LA Times B 10; USA Today B 10; NYMag B- 9; TOTAL = 132 / 11 = 12 = A-

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