The reviews for Lysistrata Jones are out, and critics universally feel this Off-Broadway transfer probably should have stayed Off. Suffering the fate of many other transfers, the campy and quirky qualities that made it endearing in its original run, seem frivolous and over-the-top under the lights of the Great White Way. Critics did feel Patti Murin, who plays the title role, has improved since the Off-Broadway run, and that the show captures the spirit of the younger generation – that embodied by shows like “Glee” and “High School Musical”. But the silly, one-liner script largely disappointed and the production as a whole lacked the brillance one expects of a Broadway show. Have you seen it? What did you think?

NEW YORK TIMES

Lysistrata Jones brings to mind the distant era of the college frolic “Good News” (1927) and “Babes in Arms”(1937), perishable good-time shows in which peppy kids delivered of-the-moment jokes and lively dances…. All the cast members effortlessly inhabit that happy dimension where cartoon is made flesh and vice versa…. But it turns out there’s tasty substance beneath the froth, just enough to keep you hooked.

Click here to read the full Lysistrata Jones review.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

After a successful run last summer at the tiny gym of Greenwich Village’s Judson Memorial Church, the goofy pop musical Lysistrata Jones has advanced to the big leagues of Broadway. Why? I have no idea. It’s a little like a solid junior-high basketball team playing Madison Square Garden.

Click here to read the full Lysistrata Jones review.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Do they give Tony Awards for best abs? If so, there’s really only one clear winner so far this season – Lysistrata Jones…. The musical itself, though, needs some more time in the gym. While no theatrical air ball, Lysistrata Jones isn’t a slam dunk, either. It’s got terrific songs by Lewis Flinn and an energetic cast, but the book is too derivative, a few of the actors seem overmatched, the choreography from Dan Knechtges is merely serviceable, and there aren’t enough killer jokes. … The show is now wilting under the white lights of Broadway and the air is seeping out of the ball.

Click here to read the full Lysistrata Jones review.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn’s musical update on the Ancient Greek sex comedy has its bubbly charms, but it also demonstrates the challenges of transferring scrappy downtown stage successes to Broadway’s less forgiving environment. That doesn’t mean the show’s entertainment value has been erased. But its more insubstantial qualities are magnified, demonstrating that commercial transfers are rarely an automatic slam-dunk.

Click here to read the full Lysistrata Jones review.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

The original play combined subversive comedic antics with hefty stakes. The derivative combines campy comedic antics with no stakes whatsoever…. Without some viable equivalent of something big to play for, Lysistrata Jones, its amusements and imagination aside, plays very thin and contrived — albeit with thick Broadway prices

Click here to read the full Lysistrata Jones review.

The reviews for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever are in, and though they aren’t the worst we’ve seen this season, they are nowhere near rave reviews. With some very intensive script-changes that throw gender-bending into the mix, critics found the new book almost as problematic as the original. The biggest upset was the splitting of the main female character’s multiple personalities into multiple cast members, rather than keeping it a showcase of one actress’ abilities. Most agree that Christine Jones’ sets and the songs themselves were the greatest stars, but overall were underwhelmed by this “reincarnation.”

NEW YORK TIMES

Toward the long-awaited end of the new semirevival of “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” which opened on Sunday at the St. James Theater, an eminent psychiatrist proposes that what we have been watching was perhaps only “my own psychoneurotic fantasy.”

Click here to read the full “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever” review.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The diagnosis is in for Harry Connick Jr.’s Broadway musical about a psychiatrist undergoing a psychic meltdown: It needs more time on the couch.

Click here to read the full “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever” review.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Respect to director Michael Mayer and playwright Peter Parnell for their audacious attempt at reinventing a problematic musical in the Broadway revival of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. The 1965 show has always been much loved for its lush Burton Lane score but denied the stamp of greatness by Alan Jay Lerner’s over-complicated structural mess of a book.

Click here to read the full “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever” review.

VARIETY

The play initially was constructed as a vehicle for a star singer/comedienne (played by Barbara Harris on stage, Barbra Streisand on screen). The challenge and the fun came from watching an insecure neurotic instantly and repeatedly transformed through hypnosis into her glamorous, past-life self. Mayer has seen fit to divide this star part in half and have it played by two actors, removing the one element that thoroughly worked in the original.

Click here to read the full “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever” review.

NEWSDAY

It’s a relief and a special pleasure to report that Mayer, in a square-cornered turn from his smart-rock productions of ”Spring Awakening” and “American Idiot,” has joined playwright Peter Parnell to change an unworkable plot into a more-than-serviceable gender-bending framework. There’s a mostly-classy cast, a fantasy op-art set and almost two dozen wonderful songs from the Broadway production and the film.

Click here to read the full “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever” review.

The reviews for Bonnie & Clyde are in, and though they’re not the worst Wildhorn has seen, they are far from positive. Reviewers did find some redeeming qualities in the show’s cast, but found the story and songs simply didn’t deliver. Unoriginal and uninspired, most of them left the theatre asking the question: “Why?”

NEW YORK TIMES

That Clyde Barrow is such a cutup. Why, the boy will do most anything to stir up his sluggish fellow Americans: slap at them, tickle them, shoot them in cold blood. He’ll even punch his fist clean through a wall and drive a big old car right onto the stage, just to try to get a rise out of somebody. But Clyde, honey, t’ain’t nothing you can do to raise the pulse of something that’s as near to dead as the show you’re in.

Click here to read the full “Bonnie & Clyde” review.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Of all the legendary real-life outlaws who have cemented their place in the pages of classic Americana, few have been as iconically brought to life as Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in the landmark 1967 Arthur Penn film. So it takes a bold creative vision to put a fresh stamp on the doomed Depression-era felons. The new musical Bonnie & Clyde assembles four talented leads in a good-looking production, but its trite storytelling leaves them shooting blanks.

Click here to read the full “Bonnie & Clyde” review.

VARIETY

Boy meets girl on a deserted road in Depression-era West Dallas, and sooner than you can say “Warren Beatty,” they’re rolling in the hay — or rather, the dust. Seeing as how his name is Clyde and hers is Bonnie, the eventual outcome is no surprise here, and indeed the dead-end story trajectory grows burdensome, as does the fact that unschooled white-trash gunslingers generally aren’t loquacious enough to steal the spotlight. For all that, three exciting performances and a better-than-usual score from Frank Wildhorn combine to make this an arresting if problematic new musical.

Click here to read the full “Bonnie & Clyde” review.

WALL STREET JOURNAL

‘Bonnie & Clyde’ isn’t the worst musical to open on Broadway in the past decade. It isn’t even the worst Frank Wildhorn musical to open on Broadway in the past decade. (That would be “Dracula.”) It is, however, quite sufficiently bad enough to qualify for the finals of this year’s What-Were-They-Thinking Prize. Why would anyone not obviously deranged put money into a show with music by a composer whose last three Broadway outings tanked? And who thought it was a good idea to write a commodity musical whose title gives the impression that “Bonnie & Clyde” is based (even though it isn’t) on a 44-year-old movie that is no longer well remembered save by upper-middle-age baby boomers? Nor have Mr. Wildhorn and his feckless collaborators managed to beat these long odds: “Bonnie & Clyde” is so enervatingly bland and insipid that you’ll leave the theater asking yourself why you ever liked musicals in the first place.

Click here to read the full “Bonnie & Clyde” review.

NEWSDAY

There should be — and I’m guessing there will be — a place on Broadway this season for “Bonnie & Clyde.” Certainly, Arthur Penn’s 1967 film masterwork of violence and gorgeous outlaws does not cry out to be a musical. And, if it did, vanilla-pop composer Frank Wildhorn would not appear on most lists of feasible adapters.

Click here to read the full “Bonnie & Clyde” review.

The reviews for Godspell are in and they are not what Producers were hoping to see. Though some of the cast, like Telly Leung and Lindsay Mendez, get some nice shout outs, reviewers all agree – the show is simply trying too hard and better belongs Off-Off-Off-Off-Off-Off Broadway, at your local high school or community theatre, than at the Circle in the Square. With glitter and choreography that includes the Macarena and trampolines, the show skews young and is generally is not these reviewer’s cup of tea. That said, we’ve seen many a show continue on to great success, regardless of reviews because the youth element latched on so strongly (Wicked, anyone?). Perhaps this show will surprise every one of them and the ADHD energy that was too much for these reviewers is the perfect recipe for success among the coveted younger audiences.

The New York Times:

Go easy on the caffeine if you’re heading to the Broadway revival of “Godspell” that opened on Monday night at the Circle in the Square. The cast of this relentlessly perky production of the 1971 musical, which transformed parables from the Gospels into a series of singable teaching moments, virtually never stops bopping, bouncing, bounding, even trampolining across the stage and up the aisles of the theater. It’s like being trapped in a summer camp rec room with a bunch of kids who have been a little too reckless with the Red Bull.

Read the full review

The Hollywood Reporter/Reuters: 

Prepare ye the way for disappointment. Goldstein approaches it all like a Children’s Television Workshop special. Maybe it’s appropriate for a show so widely performed in schools, but this feels indeed like a high school production staged by the wacky new drama teacher. (Think Mr. G. on HBO’s under-appreciated Summer Heights High.) Christopher Gattelli’s choreography also throws a million ideas at the stage in the hope that something sticks. The strength of some of the second-act songs such as “On the Willows” ensures that a depth of feeling does eventually coalesce. And the crucifixion is arrestingly staged, albeit with cheesy simulated slo-mo from the disciples during the finale’s wailing guitar breaks. But my chief takeaway from this was the tarnishing of a treasured theater memory. Now, let’s see how Jesus Christ Superstar holds up in the spring.

Read the full review

Associated Press: 

“Godspell,” which has long been a standard show put on in colleges and high schools, captures the best of the old and embraces the new: At intermission, some cast members stay on stage for the traditional boogie with the audience – yes, free wine is handed out – and yet this new version has the parable about Tribute to Caesar illustrated by Jesus putting a coin in a tip jar. Costumes by Miranda Hoffman remain true to that dynamic, with the use of multicolored pants and suspenders as a nod to the hippy past, and prom dresses, sneakers, a bowling shirt and leopard prints a sign of the new. It all ends badly, of course – for Jesus, not the show. The second act is a bummer, though Jesus’ death is sensitively handled. But as his followers carry his body away – their faces glisten with sweat and they are visibly moved – it’s clear that “Godspell” has anointed a new group of Broadway stars and we are the richer for it.

Read the full review

Newsday:

The nine performers are talented young people who get less cloying in the second act, when they stop trying so hard. They begin in business clothes, talking into cellphones, but soon change into ragtag thrift shop/fairy-tale style. They dance the Macarena, shoot confetti at us from pop guns and, in one of the better numbers, jump on trampolines revealed under trap doors.

Scrupulous journalism requires me to report that Friday’s audience leaped to its collective feet, roared with approval and many even went onstage for thimbles of wine at intermission. At the risk of appearing to kick a puppy, I admit I was not among them.

Read the full review

NY Post: 

Goldstein and choreographer Christopher Gattelli milk the in-the-round staging for all it’s worth. The band members are scattered among the audience, the actors often run up and down the aisles and volunteers are invited onstage for games of charades and Pictionary. Clean-cut and colorful, this production skews young. It’s great for teens, but adults may find its hyperactivity a bit numbing.

Read the full review

Variety: 

Strongest aspect of the affair is the casting: This “Godspell” is especially well sung. Standing out are Lindsay Mendez (on “Bless the Lord” and elsewhere) and Telly Leung (on “All Good Gifts”). The one big letdown comes from Hunter Parrish, the Jesus of the occasion. Parrish has an innocent smile, big blonde hair, and plenty of teeth; he doesn’t look like a Ken doll, exactly, but he sings like one. Wallace Smith, as John/Judas, is marginally stronger but not up to the level of the ensemble. One of the surprising bright spots is the entr’acte reprise of “Learn Your Lessons Well,” sung by Leung (at piano) with Mendez and Smith. Yes, there is an audience for this “Godspell,” and perhaps they can be reached. But the strengths of the original have been so weighted down by mirthless improvements that it makes for a very long two hours.

Read the full review

Bloomberg News:

0 stars. Updating the show with mobile phones and references to Donald Trump makes it no less creepy. Jesus (Hunter Parrish) can’t sing. The band sounds muddy. David Korins’s set and Miranda Hoffman’s costumes replace primary colors with dull tones. There’s one standout among the dreary supporting players: a star-quality mimicker named Telly Leung.

Read the full review

NY Magazine:

The music’s been given a once-over, as well, with sometimes radically tricked-out new undercarriages: Gone is the granola folk of “God Save the People,” replaced by an almost- reggae lilt; “We Beseech Thee”‘s gospel revival has been canned in favor of neo-country (and is now performed on, gulp, trampolines). And yet, for all that’s changed, it’s still much the same spell. “Bless the Lord” is still the first number to bring down the house (especially as performed by the redoubtable Lindsay Mendez), and incandescent individual performances (Telly Leung’s magnificent “All Good Gifts,” for example) elevate songs that might, in less expert hands, show their age.

Read the full review

NorthJersey.com:

The show’s songs, including “Day By Day” (warmly sung by Anna Maria Perez de Tagle), “Learn Your Lessons Well,” “By My Side” and “All for the Best,” are well-served by Michael Holland’s dynamic orchestrations…It’s clever, but the message intended by the parable gets lost. That’s the evening’s biggest problem: Instead of the show’s style enhancing the delivery of its substance, it often obscures it.

Read the full review

Time Out:

Reorchestrated and sound-designed for young, modern ears, this Godspell sounds like a born-again Glee, and several performers have moments to shine (including Uzo Aduba, Telly Leung and the wonderful Lindsay Mendez). Capering through Christopher Gattelli’s joyous choreography, on David Korins’s continually surprising set, the actors are nothing if not energetic. But for all the copious tributes paid to him, Jesus is a thankless role, and Hunter Parrish is this production’s sacrifice to it; with a voice and presence as light as his ultra-blond locks, Parrish preaches softly and wears a creepily forced smile. This is Jesus as Stepford twink, and it’s regrettably in keeping with a show that, in its combination of bathos and kitsch, is a model of bad faith.

Read the full review

Backstage:

Instead of allowing the concept, of a childlike Christ leading a gaggle of puppyish disciples through the parables, to stand on its own, Goldstein has added a plethora of gimmicks, including audience-participation charades and Pictionary, as well as topical references to everything from Donald Trump to Facebook to Occupy Wall Street. When the cast hauls out the glitter cannons at the end of the first act, you know they’re trying too hard. “Godspell” is a popular choice for high school and community theaters because it has a simple, laid-back charm and opportunities for the cast of 10 to stand out, with each receiving at least one lead vocal part in the bouncy, infectious score, here rocked up and amped by orchestrator Michael Holland and sound designer Andrew Keister. Goldstein would have done better to reduce the volume and let the young ensemble rather than the jazzy staging take the spotlight.

Read the full review

The Village Voice:

But the show’s switches from goofy to glum are as awkward as ever, and while the Jesus (the surfer-dude-looking Hunter Parrish from Weeds) has a silkily beautiful voice, he can’t make the dramatic parts as profound as they want to be.

Read the full review

NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW:

“There is something to be said for those dangerous flying objects — excuse me, I mean actors — that keep whizzing around the Foxwoods Theater, where the mega-expensive musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” has entered the latest chapter of its fraught and anxious existence. After all, if you’re worried that somebody might fall on top of you from a great height, the odds are that you won’t nod off. “

Click here to read the full “Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark” review.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS REVIEW:

“The problem with expensive leftovers is that they’re bound to go bad if you don’t put them to good use. “

Click here to read the full “Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark” review.

WASHINGTON POST REVIEW:

“When last we left Spidey, boy oh boy, was he in a pickle. Rampaging super-villains are one thing — they come with the territory. But those reviews! Holy clock-cleaning!”

Click here to read the full “Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark” review.

BACKSTAGE REVIEW:

“What an improvement. The tangled plot threads that made the new musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” a sticky mess during its record-breaking preview period have been unraveled and woven into an exciting web of wonder.”

Click here to read the full “Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark” review.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY REVIEW:

“Early in Act 2 of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the genetically altered villain Green Goblin (Patrick Page) sings, ”I’m a $65 million circus tragedy — actually, more like 75.” Yes, that’s a wink-wink nod to the show’s notorious crawl to opening night following months of delays, budget overruns, cast injuries, and the exit of original director and co-creator Julie Taymor. “

Click here to read the full “Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark” review.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW:

“The Bottom Line: The costliest, most ambitious endeavor in Broadway history, “Spider-Man” finally gets off the ground but fails to soar. “

Click here to read the full “Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark” review.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE REVIEW:

“”Spidey 2.0,” as the once-pretentious, hitherto-arty, forever-costly musical called “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” is now colloquially known, is quite startlingly different from the disastrous original incarnation of the comic-book musical that humbled Bono and The Edge and ate Julie Taymor alive.”

Click here to read the full “Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark” review.

AM NEW YORK REVIEW:

“Anyone who sat through an early preview of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” before the show went on a three-week hiatus and Julie Taymor was forcibly removed as its director is sure to notice how substantially the show has been improved.”

Click here to read the full “Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark” review.

NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW:

“When Donna Murphy time travels, she packs light. A pair of glasses, a shawl, maybe some lipstick: that’s all this chameleon actress requires to step over the chasm that divides two chapters of one woman’s life in “The People in the Picture,” a sincere and queasy new musical about mother love, Yiddish theater and the Holocaust that opened on Thursday night at Studio 54. “

Click here to read the full “The People In The Picture” review.

BACKSTAGE REVIEW:

“The enormous gilt frame that greets theatergoers as they enter Studio 54 for Roundabout Theater Company’s new musical “The People in the Picture” should give them an indication of the evening ahead—too big, too ornate, just too much. Another clue would be the name of the book writer and lyricist: Iris Rainer Dart.”

Click here to read the full “The People In The Picture” review.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW:

“The Bottom Line: Donna Murphy’s customary poise and humor bring some unifying force to a tonally discordant show heavy on clichés. “

Click here to read the full “The People In The Picture” review.

THEATERMANIA REVIEW:

“Other than the creation of the State of Israel, the greatest and most profound reaction to The Holocaust has been the extraordinary outpouring of art that has attempted to come to terms with this horrible event, from The Diary of Anne Frank to Cabaret to Schindler’s List.”

Click here to read the full “The People In The Picture” review.

ASSOCIATED PRESS REVIEW:

“Donna Murphy often gets compared to Meryl Streep. Now the two-time Tony Award winner is getting to do her own “Sophie’s Choice.”"

Click here to read the full “The People In The Picture” review.

NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW:

“Mama said there’ll be shows like this. But she didn’t tell me there would be quite so many, or that any one of them could be this dismal.”

Click here to read the full “Baby It’s You” review.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY REVIEW:

“It is almost eerily fitting that Baby It’s You should be playing at the Broadhurst Theatre. That places it opposite Rock of Ages (which, like Baby It’s You, is a jukebox musical) and next to Memphis (which, like Baby It’s You, is a story set in the early days of the pop business with a mixed-race love story at its center).”

Click here to read the full “Baby It’s You” review.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE REVIEW:

“Oh, the wretched unfairness of it all. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons get a thrilling jukebox celebration. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis at least had their music treated with respect and artistry. But the Shirelles, one of the greatest girl groups of all time (heck, they were covered by the Beatles), get a show of such total ineptitude and cynical profiteering that your mouth pretty much dangles open in disbelief for the duration of the entire tawdry proceedings. “Baby It’s You” makes “Million Dollar Quartet” look like “Three Sisters.””

Click here to read the full “Baby It’s You” review.

NEWSDAY REVIEW:

“When a short-lived 1985 bio-revue called “Leader of the Pack” used hits from the early ’60s to trace the pop-producing/composing career of a Brooklyn woman named Ellie Greenwich, we didn’t even have a term for jukebox musical.”

Click here to read the full “Baby It’s You” review.

THEATERMANIA REVIEW:

“Baby It’s You, the sporadically entertaining new jukebox musical now at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre, mines the song catalog of the The Shirelles — as well as other big hits of the late 1950s and the early 1960s — as the musical tells the story of Florence Greenberg (Beth Leavel), the New Jersey housewife who discovered the girl group. “

Click here to read the full “Baby It’s You” review.

NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW:

“When the wimples start quivering, the pinched mouths break into sunbeam smiles, and the nuns start rocking to raise the Gothic rafters, all’s right in the kingdom of musical comedy at “Sister Act.” Who could resist the vision of a stage full of saintly sisters flaring their gams in unison like the Rockettes, or swiveling their hips, Supremes style, to the silken beat of an R&B tune? Presumably nobody in the audience at the Broadway Theater, where this latest stage adaptation of a hit movie opened on Wednesday night. “

Click here to read the full “Sister Act” review.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW:

“The Bottom Line: Whoopi Goldberg’s absence is felt, but this bouncy musical eventually gets into the habit in a good way. “

Click here to read the full “Sister Act” review.

AM NEW YORK REVIEW:

“This has not been a great season for Broadway musicals based on movies. “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” was a total bust, and “Catch Me If You Can” was a disappointment, too.”

Click here to read the full “Sister Act” review.

VARIETY REVIEW:

“Whoopi Goldberg looms large over the new musical comedy “Sister Act,” and that’s part of the problem. While she co-produced, Goldberg isn’t onstage, and the outsized sense of hilarity mixed with humanity she brought to the 1992 motion picture is sorely missed. Patina Miller makes an altogether impressive Broadway debut as diva-on-the-run Deloris Van Cartier, singing up a veritable storm, but the decision to plaster Goldberg’s name on numerous signs outside the theater raises comparisons that flatter neither Miller nor this garish production.”

Click here to read the full “Sister Act” review.

THEATERMANIA REVIEW:

“There’s a lot of fun to be had at Sister Act, the new musical at the Broadway Theatre, based upon the 1992 movie of the same name, which has arrived in New York having undergone a number of changes since its recent London mounting. “

Click here to read the full “Sister Act” review.

NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW:

“If only little Alice, dozing away on the riverbank before sliding down the rabbit hole, had an inkling of the deeper import of the zany adventures that were to come. All those talking animals, querulous playing cards and animated chess pieces were not just peculiar, slightly menacing playmates, according to the new Broadway musical “Wonderland.” “

Click here to read the full “Wonderland” review.

BACKSTAGE REVIEW:

“If you put the script of “The Wiz,” a self-help book, every pop tune of the past 10 years, and some lame jokes about easy targets like the Tea Party and Disney into a blender, the result might resemble the gloppy mess on stage at the Marquis Theatre. “

Click here to read the full “Wonderland” review.

VARIETY REVIEW:

“There is a distinct lack of wonder in “Wonderland,” the new Frank Wildhorn musical at the Marquis. Unless one was to wonder how a big, Broadway musical based on Lewis Carroll’s wildly inventive and delectably fantastical characters can be so utterly devoid of the aforementioned elements. Or to wonder why — after a full-scale 2009 presentation in Tampa Bay and Houston — the producers saw fit to remount this less-than-scintillating, $15 million tuner on Broadway. “

Click here to read the full “Wonderland” review.

THEATERMANIA REVIEW:

“There’s little rhyme or reason to Wonderland, the splashy, high-tech new musical extravaganza now playing at Broadway’s Marquis Theatre. Given that the show is a contemporary variant on Lewis Carroll’s fantastical stories about Alice’s trip down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass, this may seem like a compliment. But, unlike these deliberately crafted classics, there’s nothing precise or controlled about this show’s randomness. “

Click here to read the full “Wonderland” review.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW:

“The Bottom Line: What’s curious and curiouser is how this tedious mess ever made it to Broadway. “

Click here to read the full “Wonderland” review.

NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW

“As befits a lad of the 1960s with a talent for smooth come-ons, Frank Abagnale Jr. prefaces the story of his life with the promise that it will have “more curves than a Playboy bunny.” But as presented in the new musical “Catch Me if You Can,” which opened Sunday night at the Neil Simon Theater, this portrait of the con artist as a young man (portrayed by Aaron Tveit) seems to consist mostly of straight lines, like the kind you use to connect the dots in picture puzzles. “

Click here to read the full “Catch Me If You Can” review.

ASSOCIATED PRESS REVIEW

“New Broadway shows this spring are lousy with cads. There’s J. Pierrepont Finch in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” Harry Brock in “Born Yesterday” and pretty much all the dudes in “That Championship Season.” With the hero of “Catch Me If You Can,” add one more scoundrel.”

Click here to read the full “Catch Me If You Can” review.

VARIETY REVIEW

“In “Catch Me If You Can” — the new musical based on the 2002 Steven Spielberg film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks — teenaged conman Frank Abagnale Jr. recounts his daring escapades in the format of a 1960s TV spectacular; each step in crime is shown as a perky-but-flat variety-show production number. That’s the conceit of the new tuner, and the problem as well. Impressive star performances from Norbert Leo Butz and Aaron Tveit, a lively production, the best sounding new music currently on Broadway — all built around a succession of glossily frenetic, non-compelling production numbers.”

Click here to read the full “Catch Me If You Can” review.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW

“The Bottom Line: This musical adaptation of the Steven Spielberg film scores on showmanship but shortchanges its lead character. “

Click here to read the full “Catch Me If You Can” review.

NEWSDAY REVIEW

“News that the guys from “Hairspray” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” were making a musical based on the movie “Catch Me If You Can” raised a couple of intriguing — also daunting — questions. How? And why?”

Click here to read the full “Catch Me If You Can” review.

AM NEW YORK REVIEW

“”Catch Me If You Can,” the eagerly anticipated Broadway musical based on the breezy 2002 Leonardo DiCaprio film, is a product of essentially the same creative team behind the mega-hit “Hairspray.” It’s even playing in the same theater as “Hairspray” and shares an early 1960s setting.”

Click here to read the full “Catch Me If You Can” review.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE REVIEW

“The key to turning “Catch Me If You Can” into a Broadway musical was within the very title of the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie that served as the source. It encapsulates the thrill of the chase, a quality sadly lacking in the show that opened Sunday night at the Neil Simon Theatre. And it conveys the slippery charm of the lovable trickster rogue — in this case, Frank Abagnale Jr., the youthful master forger of those predigital swinging ’60s, a guy who fooled banks and airlines but was eventually brought down by his own need for love.”

Click here to read the full “Catch Me If You Can” review.