When critics begin their review with the equivalent of “It would be churlish of me….” you can bet they’ve decided to go easy on a show they’d otherwise look at with a more jaundiced eye. Such is the case with “School of Rock,” the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that opened on April 7 to some of the legendary showman’s best reviews of his career, which is not saying much. Lloyd Webber has never remotely been a critics’ darling. But for this screen-to-stage transfer of the 2003 Jack Black film, directed by Richard Linklater, the New York reviewers were in a generous mood. Whatever reservations they had about this musical about a slacker who whips his fifth-grade preppies into a rock band were muted by the adorable charms of its pint-sized cast.Ben Brantley, writing in the New York Times, noted that Lloyd Webber’s return to school was “a good career move”; it had a “rejuvenating” effect on the composer who’s not had a Broadway hit since 1988’s “Phantom of the Opera.” The critic gave a gold star to the show’s Pied Piper, played by Alex Brightman, who, Brantley wrote, “… never makes the mistake of trying to upstage his young co-stars; he gets down with, and brings out the best in, them in a performance as notable for its generosity as its virtuosity.”While some reviewers carped that the book by Julian Fellowes and the direction by Laurence Connor were merely serviceable, Lloyd Webber’s new songs for the show, written with Glenn Slater, were praised for their spritely efficiency. Jeremy Gerard of Deadline predicted a long run for “School of Rock,” and it’s likely that the show will end Lloyd Webber’s long dry spell in New York. It has been grossing over a million dollars a week in previews and that number is likely to jump in the wake of the solid reviews, especially in the highly-trafficked holiday season. The rather warm welcome must be particularly gratifying to the composer who, as the lead producer, chose to develop and premiere this show in New York, a first for him. On the other hand, the critics had no problem being churlish — and then some — when it came to reviewing “China Doll,” the highly anticipated new work by David Mamet starring Al Pacino. What may have set their collective teeth on edge was an additional two-week delay in the long preview period of the production, while it continued to take in more than $1 million a week. Moreover, there were snide reports of the lead actor needing teleprompters to remember his multitudinous lines in what is virtually a one-person show. Add in Mamet’s hard turn to the political right and that whir you heard was the sound of knives being sharpened.Pacino plays Mickey Ross, a one-time business shark and billionaire who suffers a rude comeuppance when his last transaction turns sour. Jesse Green in New York Magazine observed that “China Doll” offered “flashes” of Pacino’s brilliance but, alas, “...between long mucky passages in which he appears to be hunting for the narrative, if not the next line. (He’s 76 and Mamet has given him what amounts to a 10,000-word speech; you try it.)”Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal was an outlier, as is often the case. He praised “China Doll” “…as a strongly wrought story of considerable moral complexity, one that will hold your attention all the way to the brutal end. I can’t yet tell you whether it has the legs of ‘American Buffalo’ or ‘Glengarry Glen Ross,’ but I do know that I want to see it again.”The poor reviews could have a chilling effect on the sale of premium seats to the limited engagement, especially in the post-holiday month of January. But “China Doll” is almost certain to end up as one of the fall season’s commercial hits. Pacino and Mamet are a potent combination, “mucky” or not, and, like Teachout, it is more than worth seeing again when the star may be more assured of hitting all his marks.
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