TOOTSIE Reviews

[Robbie2]

[Fredrich Yeager]

https://nypost.com/2019/04/23/tootsie-review-new-musical-is-no-drag-its-funnier-than-the-film/

This review was also just posted.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

In the movie version, I absolutely loved "It Must You".  Is that song included in the show?

[Jordan Catalano]

No, that song isn’t included.

[Marlothom]

In the movie version, I absolutely loved "It Must You".  Is that song included in the show?

Not included, kinda like Pretty Woman did not include "Pretty Woman" - all new score.   

So thrilled for this show - saw it five times in Chicago and was happy to see they had fixed some of the issues when I saw it in New York.  Also digging how so many reviewers take the opportunity to give props to The Prom.  

[CurtainPullDowner]

Children, I think we have a race.

 

[Menken Fan]

I'm also thrilled (and relieved) to see the very positive reviews.  Especially after reading many posters here heavily criticizing the score, the book and the message, and generally having a very different experience than mine.  I saw the show 4x, including 3x during Chicago tryouts, and can't remember the last time I've laughed so much from start to finish.  Ok, I do remember - Avenue Q and Book of Mormon.  So glad the reviews are good, that more people will be compelled to go see it, and that it will now have a very nice run.

[Jordan Catalano]

Let me say that I get them not using that song for this show. However, there is NO excuse for not using the title song in “Pretty Woman”.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

A good night to be backstage!

[Menken Fan]

Chris Jones - Chicago Tribune

Musical 'Tootsie' on Broadway is great fun — but gender swapping has gotten tricky

""Tootsie the Musical" is the work of top-drawer Broadway craftspeople. It is very funny. It just cannot please everyone. Try as it might."

[dougs9797]

Glad to see that Jesse Green appreciated the score as opposed to the early naysayers on here. Today's musicals require more than just songs you can hum on the way out the door. 

[Charley Kringas Inc]

The score isn’t as good as Band’s Visit but, overall, I prefer it to Verge. Michael’s song about hitting 40, Sandy’s panic song, the Juliet song, “I Like What She’s Doing”, the act two opener, and the song about becoming an actress are all standouts, plus the club number, the torch song, and “Unstoppable” are all quite good as well. I fondly recall more numbers from this than I do Kinky Boots or Come From Away - there’s a real sense of stand-out-ness to the numbers in this that I appreciated.

[Fredrich Yeager]

A pretty solid constant I've seen throughout all the reviews - good and bad - is praise for the cast, especially Santino Fontana and Sarah Stiles. They both are stand-out actors performing particularly hard parts. I definitely got "Not Getting Married Today" vibes from Stiles's neurotic audition song, and Santino is legendary in a ridonkulously hard role.

In my opinion, the only thing between Santino and his Leading Actor Tony now is whether he's going to make it alive to the awards ceremony or if he'll die of exhaustion first. 

[Broadwaybri2]

Dumb question- how do critics review so fast? Saw people going in for this at 7pm tonight- do critics review based off a preview and wait till opening night to see if any changes that impact their opinion and then publish?

[Miles2Go2]

Fredrich Yeager said: "In my opinion,the only thing between Santino and his Leading Actor Tony now is whether he's going to make it alive to the awards ceremony or if he'll die of exhaustion first."

Oh, if the role kills him, he’s definitely winning that Tony  

 

[Miles2Go2]

Broadwaybri2 said: "Dumb question- how do critics review so fast? Saw people going in for this at 7pm tonight- do critics review based off a preview and wait till opening night to see if any changes that impact their opinion and then publish?"

They see it in previews after the show is “frozen” then hold their reviews until opening night   

 

[Marlothom]

Dumb question- how do critics review so fast? Saw people going in for this at 7pm tonight- do critics review based off a preview and wait till opening night to see if any changes that impact their opinion and then publish?

Reviewers usually see the show during previews, then submit their reviews during opening night. 

[brdway411]

Great book. Really would have enjoyed it more if it was a straight play. The music was not my favorite.

[IdinaBellFoster]

I think we actually have a race for Best Musical.

[Robbie2]

Miles2Go2 said: "Fredrich Yeager said: "In my opinion,the only thing between Santino and his Leading Actor Tony now is whether he's going to make it alive to the awards ceremony or if he'll die of exhaustion first."

Oh, if the role kills him, he’s definitely winning that Tony

"

[RippedMan]

I guess I'm in the minority with Santino's performance. Her vocally struggled with bits of the score when I saw it, and just didn't give me that OOMF I wanted from the performance. Again, I wish they had lowered the keys to a more Lupone-esque diva quality instead of this head voice/falsetto they're doing now. 

[Big Apple2]

Glad to see all the positive reviews. Can’t wait to see this next week! Based on the earlier reviews here, I was beginning to doubt if I made a mistake buying the tickets weeks in advance. I just knew those pre-Broadway reviews couldn’t be all wrong.

[nycward]

I caught the final preview and was pleasantly surprised at the wit and sheer energy of the production. My biggest quibble was with the ending. This production sets the show today on broadway and for the most part the adaptation lands but somehow for the ending it feels as if they reverted back to the 1982 film. I was a bit confused. Did he actually quit the show which apparently was still running when he and Julie meet which was the context of the final scene in the film. Could this show within the show actually survive with Michael’s understudy once that huge reveal hit the media as was presented in the actual show? Does anybody buy that in the present environment of sensational media fueled hype? Wouldn’t one think that the producer would have forced him to honor his contract and he would subsequently be a huge star? I can visualize Julie Halston exploding in that scene. Sure, it would change the ending but Michael and Julie might still get together in a totally modern perspective as was the tone of the whole show. Anyone have thoughts on this or am I alone here? 

[bk]

dougs9797 said: "Can we please please please just drop it with the weak score comments? If a show has a good book as this one does it is immediately criticized for having a weak score. And please spare me the "I don't remember any of the songs." The reason audiences remembered Some Enchanted Evening and other great Rodgers and Hammerstein songs when they left the theater is because the audience had played the melody twenty times! New musicals aren't built that way. Composers give their audiences more credit today and are rewarded with what? Comments like "I don't remember a single song!""

Parroting Stephen Sondheim doesn't make this correct.  He said it, not you.  You agree with it, but a weak score is a weak score.  I'm not commenting on Tootsie, as I haven't heard it, but I have heard PLENTY of weak scores, especially musicals of the last twenty years and no number of reprises or playing the tune would ever make those scores less than weak.

[bear88]

Sara Holdren admires a lot of the performances in Tootsie, and she even likes the score. That said, she doesn't like the main character and finds the show to be hopelessly dated (even while predicting it will be a hit).  "It’s got call-outs and teaching moments galore, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still the story of an egotistical dude who puts on a young Betty White wig and somehow becomes World’s Best Feminist."

https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/theater-review-can-tootsie-work-when-its-not-1982.html?utm_source=nym&utm_medium=f1&utm_campaign=feed-full