Broadway Blog - PROMISES, PROMISES Review Roundup

It's Manhattan. It's the '60s. And the city is back in full swing, in Broadway's first-ever revival of Promises, Promises - starring Emmy Award winner Sean Hayes as the enterprising associate on the way up, and Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth as the cafeteria waitress whose romantic troubles have got her down. It's a smart and sexy musical based on the Oscar-winning Billy Wilder film, The Apartment.

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: "...comes fully to life only briefly, at the beginning of its second act, when a comic volcano named Katie Finneran erupts into molten hilarity. Otherwise the white-hot charms this musical is said to have once possessed are left sleeping."

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: "While there are plenty of quibbles to be found in this production directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford and starring Sean Hayes (in his Broadway debut) and Kristin Chenoweth, it's a generally winning evening that restores a much needed dose of musical comedy to Broadway."

John Simon, Bloomberg News: "Problems, like promises, abound. First, adultery seems very nearly to have exhausted its talent to titillate. Next, Big Business has produced far bigger scandals than the peccadilloes on display here. Finally, musical comedy has evolved well beyond these cookie-cutter songs, however cute (not to mention the two unrelated Bacharach-David hits uncomfortably shoehorned into the show). There are further drawbacks. Fran is supposed to be a sweetly ordinary basic innocent. Chenoweth, however, oozes star glamour in looks, getup, demeanor and song delivery. As Chuck, Hayes, though likable, is being a comic (every line a gag) rather than a comedian (an actor embroiled in a comic situation)."

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: "The hypnotic Burt Bacharach beat remains undiminished some four decades after it was unleashed in "Promises, Promises," the 1968 musical now getting an agreeable if not altogether transporting revival on Broadway."

Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune: "therein lies the problem with Hayes’ key performance in Rob Ashland’s intermittently amusing but emotionally unsatisfying revival. This invulnerable Chuck feels pre-packaged and self-contained. He doesn’t seem to want or need anything, including that troubled waitress. And although Hayes’ Chuck talks to us all night, you never really feel that anything has been revealed. “Promises, Promises” badly need a transfusion of that missing romantic heart."

Erik Haagensen, Backstage: "For this story to work, both Chuck and Fran must be young and dewy-eyed, just like the movie’s radiant Shirley MacLaine (25 at the time) and charmingly vulnerable Jack Lemmon (34 but seeming years younger). If the characters are older and thus more experienced, their actions become off-putting. Neither Hayes nor Chenoweth can conjure such youth believably. Chenoweth often seems at sea in the book scenes, unsure of just who Fran is. Hayes creates a winning bond with the audience in his fourth-wall-breaking asides (the best and most original part of Simon’s work), but his Chuck seems too much of a nebbish, who probably deserves his lack of success on the cusp of 40."

Richard Ouzounian, Toronto Star: "But it all went wrong. Not hold-your-head-in-your-hands-and-moan wrong, but — even worse — deep into that melancholy Neverland of what might have been."

Michael Sommers, NJ Newsroom: "Far from being silly on "Will & Grace," an immensely appealing Sean Hayes is terrific in a nice guy hero role created by Jerry Orbach. A miscast if winsome Kristin Chenoweth creates a few lovely moments as Hayes' leading lady but her positive Breck Girl presence and unwise tinkering with the script and score throws the show off balance."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: "Playing the beleaguered corporate climber Chuck "C.C." Baxter, the role introduced on stage by Orbach (and on screen by Jack Lemmon), Sean Hayes has some endearing moments. But Simon's quaint zingers stretch the limits of his charm and comic panache. Kristin Chenoweth is cast as the object of Chuck's unrequited affection, Fran Kubelik, a drippy damsel in distress who in no way accommodates the actress' natural effervescence. Chenoweth does at least manage to bring some torch and twang to her songs — among them the Bacharach/David classics I Say a Little Prayer and A House Is Not a Home, both of which were added for this production."

Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times:  "“Promises, Promises” doesn't exactly fulfill them, but its compensations are so vivid that it's impossible to walk away feeling entirely cheated."

Linda Winer, Newsday: "BOTTOM LINE Too lame, too late"

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: "Still, as directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford, the show forges ahead through the sheer force of design elegance, dance-floor stamina, performance energy, and the quick thinking of Hayes. The actor is nimble, funny, likable, and much more asexually wholesome than one might expect given that his character has agreed to allow his philandering bosses to use his midtown apartment for trysts in hopes of securing a promotion. While his performance style flips the calendar ahead to 1990s sitcoms that break the fourth wall, Hayes buoys the show with his generosity. He also compensates for Chenoweth's discomfort in her role (and unflattering wig!) as his love interest, the seemingly innocent coworker who turns out to be yet another company superior's plaything."

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: "The new production, directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford, is stylish and handsome, but only occasionally memorable."

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: ""Promises, Promises" is a candy-flavored ride that more than delivers on its title."

Robert Feldberg, Bergen Record: "In a demanding role that requires him to be onstage for most of the 2-hour, 40-minute show, Hayes sings and clowns capably. But his main quality is a good-natured blandness, which is not exactly riveting. It keeps Chuck from being completely despicable, but that's about it."

Steven Suskin, Variety: "Burt Bacharach is back on Broadway, and his music for "Promises, Promises" -- which he wrote in 1968 with lyricist Hal David and bookwriter Neil Simon -- sounds just as good and bright and joyfully tuneful as it did back in 1968. Sean Hayes, from "Will and Grace," makes a smashingly good Broadway debut as the likable nebbish of a leading man. But the show doesn't play anywhere near as well as it once did; changes have been made to the material that turn out to be ill-advised -- changing the emphasis, slowing the momentum, and throwing sand into the gears of Simon's laugh machine."

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