Entertainment Weekly

As musicals go, the story couldn't be simpler. Yet the material couldn't be richer...As Violet travels from the Blue Ridge Mountains to Memphis to Tulsa, the music moves from warm, soul-stirring folk-the bulk and heart of the score-to smoky R&B and blues to full-throated gospel and back again. It's impossible not to get swept up by rousing numbers...And, more important, you'll have to imagine Violet's facial scar, the result of an ax blade swung accidentally by her father when she was a girl; Foster's face remains unblemished. Of course, from the start, you know she's on a fool's journey. But you'll never regret taking the ride.