Review Roundup: Robin and the 7 Hoods

The World Premiere of Robin and the 7 Hoods - A New Musical featuring a book by Tony Award winner Rupert Holmes and songs by four-time Academy Award winners Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen. Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, with musical supervision and vocal and incidental arrangements by John McDaniel, the Broadway-bound musical comedy will run in the Old Globe Theatre through August 22. For more information, visit www.TheOldGlobe.org.

 

Based on the classic Rat Pack film, Robin and the 7 Hoods takes the Robin Hood legend and gives it an early-sixties spin. Set in Chicago, when "Mad Men" reigned supreme and martinis flowed freely, the musical features such classic Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen tunes as "My Kind of Town (Chicago Is)," "Call Me Irresponsible" and "All the Way." When Robbo, a suave, fast-rising entrepreneur in Chicago's sophisticated nightclub scene, tries to re-organize organized crime, he finds himself wanted by both sides of the law. He and his merry band quickly learn that a few wrongs - and a few songs - could make things right.

The cast of Robin and the 7 Hoods features Will Chase (Little John), Adam Heller (Lieutenant Nottingham), Rick Holmes (P.J. Sullivan), Jeffrey Schecter (Willie Scarlatti), Eric Schneider (Robbo), Amy Spanger (Alana O'Dell) and Kelly Sullivan (Marian Archer) with Timothy J. Alex, Clyde Alves, Graham Bowen, Andrew Cao, Cara Cooper, Paige Faure, Lisa Gajda, Stephanie Gibson, Carissa Lopez, Vasthy Mompoint, Beth Johnson Nicely, Aleks Pevec, Sam Prince, Tally Sessions, Brian Shepard and Anthony Wayne (Ensemble).

Charles McNulty, LA Times: "Right now the offering is a cross between a "Guys and Dolls" rip-off and a "Mamma Mia!"-style smorgasbord of hits. Yet the songs are so criminally entertaining-such a step up in originality and surprise from anything written for today's cheesy Broadway-that Friday's opening night audience at The Old Globe didn't seem to mind the shoddy construction of this Robin Hood revamp."

James Hebert, San Diego Union-Tribune: "Nicholaw's snazzy, imaginative dance sequences help drive this jukebox saga set to tunes from the matchless catalog of lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jimmy Van Heusen, the team behind such Sinatra hits as "Ain't That a Kick in the Head," "High Hopes" and "My Kind of Town (Chicago).""

Bob Verini, Variety: "Much of The Old Globe's "Robin and the 7 Hoods," an adaptation of a clumsy 1964 movie musical, plays like a big fat hit. That hit is "Guys and Dolls," whose characters and tone are shamelessly mimicked -- until one particular Casey Nicholaw staging of a Sammy Cahn/Jimmy Van Heusen song starts to lend the tuner a distinctive glow, prominently visible thereafter."

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