Posted: 7/16/15 at 10:43pm
OUCH Time out NY
"Sadly, a complete showbiz neophyte decided to turn it into a Les Miz-style melodrama, and the crude result has been buffed to a high sheen by a talented cast and crew with $16 million at their disposal. If only some of that filthy lucre had gone to script doctors and ghostwriters instead."
Posted: 7/16/15 at 10:46pm
The Post is undoubtedly a pan, and yet she gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars.
Overall these reviews aren't as catty as they could have been. There's even some legit pull quotes.
Posted: 7/16/15 at 10:47pm
"OUCH Time out NY
"Sadly, a complete showbiz neophyte decided to turn it into a Les Miz-style melodrama, and the crude result has been buffed to a high sheen by a talented cast and crew with $16 million at their disposal. If only some of that filthy lucre had gone to script doctors and ghostwriters instead.""
THAT is more like what I was anticipating from the Times.
Posted: 7/16/15 at 10:49pm
"The Post is undoubtedly a pan, and yet she gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars.
NY Post
Overall these reviews aren't as catty as they could have been. There's even some legit pull quotes."
It's a 2.5 out of 4, actually.
Posted: 7/16/15 at 10:55pm
Oops, thanks gypsy.
Posted: 7/16/15 at 10:56pm
"yeah it wasn't the nicest review, but all he basically kept saying is that the show is overstuffed. Idk, if you're gonna talk about how not good the show is, tell us whats not good about it. He probably secretly liked it just like he liked The Realistic Joneses, but was scared he would be the only one again lol"
Did you even read the review? He calls the script anachronistic, implausible and unsubtle; the score merely "serviceable"; the characters "minimally drawn"; the transitions clunky; and the overall story an "overstuffed history lesson trimmed in melodrama, with a standard-issue romantic subplot."
Posted: 7/16/15 at 10:58pm
"Did you even read the review? He calls the script anachronistic, implausible and unsubtle; the score merely "serviceable"; the characters "minimally drawn"; the transitions clunky; and the overall story an "overstuffed history lesson trimmed in melodrama, with a standard-issue romantic subplot.""
Maybe he just didn't want people to know he liked it!
Posted: 7/16/15 at 11:04pm
"One way to understand the main problem facing "Amazing Grace," the very sincere new musical with Broadway aspirations, is to imagine a version of the Academy Award-winning movie "12 Years a Slave" wherein the protagonist is not Solomon Northup, the free-born American sold into slavery, but the Brad Pitt character, the white abolitionist Samuel Bass. Should such a movie have been made?"
Well, that's a little difficult. I don't want to be in a place where we're banning stories from being told and in this case he's not a random abolitionist in the background of someone else's story but the man who wrote Amazing Grace. I have my problems with Miss Saigon but I don't think it's a story that should never have been told.
"Epic musicals like this, Dr Z & Rebecca (if & when it ever opens) will always get crap reviews."
It is annoying to see all these very different musicals compared to Les Mis.
I'm still interested in seeing this because the people who loved it really loved it but if it announces a closing date soon I probably won't go out of my way to catch it. If someone wanted to offer me a comp I would take it.
Posted: 7/16/15 at 11:07pm
DC Theatre Scene review (plus 11 photographs):
It is an amazing story, but it is told on stage mostly in less than an amazing way. The new musical combines a coming-of-age tale, love story, slave narrative, costume drama, and Saturday morning adventure serial. It tries to do many things at once, in other words...
For all that, we don’t actually learn much about the song
Updated On: 7/16/15 at 11:07 PM
Posted: 7/16/15 at 11:56pm
I know a few people in this show and sad to see these (expected) reviews. I was surprised they decided to go forward with a Broadway run after Chicago and expected significant changes (including a musical doctor) which never happened.
Posted: 7/17/15 at 12:07am
And the Broadway Beat Facebook page gives a cumulative review grade of C. Better than Zhivago, but only a little. Rough night for Amazing Grace
Posted: 7/17/15 at 12:43am
I'm actually surprised. I mean, the NY Post actually liked the set? I mean the whole thing was set on a boat? No one is calling out Josh Young for being a terrible actor? No one is calling out the fact that the show is about a song writer who is never seen writing music? It's just bizarre.
Posted: 7/17/15 at 1:00am
John Newton wrote the lyrics to the title song, not the familiar tune. William Walker is credited with that, decades after Newton's death.
Updated On: 7/17/15 at 01:00 AM
Posted: 7/17/15 at 1:10am
Erin Mackey is such a talented and likable actress. How unfortunate she seems to find herself after Chaplin in another show that will have a very brief run. Hoping she next finds herself as part of a huge Broadway hit.
Posted: 7/17/15 at 2:18am
She's a stand-out in this, and I can't remember her in Chaplin. It's a shame she kind of comes off as serviceable. I don't really see her having a "break-out" moment. But then again, maybe we haven't seen all she can do?
Posted: 7/17/15 at 2:37am
"She's a stand-out in this, and I can't remember her in Chaplin. It's a shame she kind of comes off as serviceable. I don't really see her having a "break-out" moment. But then again, maybe we haven't seen all she can do?"
I'm not saying she's the next Sutton Foster but I think she's talented and would like to see her in something good that will have a lengthy run. In your comment, you say she's a standout in this but then say she comes off as serviceable. A standout is more than serviceable, no?
Posted: 7/17/15 at 2:43am
Closely intertwined with the concept of grace in Christian theology is that of redemption. The former is a straightforward notion, the latter is more complicated.
It has been pretty clear since before the trucks pulled up in front of the Nederlander that Amazing Grace was not going to find Broadway redemption, and it didn't take these reviews to tell us that. It would have taken divine intervention for the reviews to have been favorable. Well meaning as this enterprise is, it is not redeemable in Broadway terms and if you understand Christian redemption, it is not lined up for that either. Why? Because a condition precedent to redemption is that mortals are powerless to overcome the "sin" that is under consideration. Mortals were not powerless to craft an effective show: we see mortals do it all the time. These mortals however did not, and frankly could not have been expected to. And so instead of Christian charity, these many millions have been spent on a failed enterprise. I feel bad for those behind this project, because what they did can receive no redemption.
Posted: 7/17/15 at 3:21am
"Via their YouTube page. Some of the audience response's seem honest while others to me seem insincere.
"
Can't believe they could afford to pay everyone for this
Posted: 7/17/15 at 8:06am
I was expecting this to close on Opening Night... reviews aren't as bad as I thought... but with the terrible sales it can't or at least SHOULDN'T stay open past Sunday. Some shows overcome bad reviews... this won't be one of them because there is absolutely NO buzz on the streets of Times Square with the tourists.
Love this cast, loved the design... sorry to see this happen to good people. I hadn't heard that they didn't bring in a musical doctor before the Broadway run. That seems like a terrible choice, though I did hear good things from Chicago so...
Posted: 7/17/15 at 8:57am
I know someone in Amazing Grace, a very talented gal. This is her first broadway show. I hope it isn't going to close soon, as I can imagine her disappointment. If it does, I'm sure she'll be back on broadway before long. 
Posted: 7/17/15 at 9:15am
We all seem to know someone connected to this show, an odd 6 degrees thing suddenly working. I know someone very involved (whose talent I much respect otherwise), and feel sad so much work and expense have been lavished. Moving on, who thinks this has a profitable future in the amateur market? The problem with high schools: the show requires a diverse student body from which to draw its cast, yet if you have the musical theater people for this show, frankly wouldn't you seek a better one? (RAGTIME?) It has no name recognition, save the hymn, which in a public school isn't exactly a calling card. I don't know who the show will appeal to, but I can't imagine teens leaping in, thrilled to bring it to life (on the other hand, the lugubrious CHILDREN OF EDEN is done all the time. I'd rather be anywhere than in an audience for that show; yet kids seem to like it.)
The amateur market is different today. Churches don't regularly produce full length shows requiring elaborate period attire and sets. So it's still an open question as to how well this will score in the subsidiary markets, once Christian colleges perform it (and that's assuming they all have diverse student bodies; not so much, if you actually check out the webpages of their drama programs.) Even conservative towns have a range of better material to choose from. So I'm curious as to the dollars and cents future here.
Posted: 7/17/15 at 10:49am
Interesting that all TDF dates have been pulled. I would find it hard to believe that all tickets available were sold. Could be very telling of what the producers are thinking in terms of making decisions about the longevity of the show.
Posted: 7/17/15 at 10:58am
I think the decisions were made already after the reviews came out. Another show bites the dust.
Posted: 7/17/15 at 11:51am
I don't live near NYC, but just like with all the shows you say are fantastic, in a weird way your negative opinions of this show are making me want to see it. I feel like it can't be as bad as you all are saying!
Posted: 7/17/15 at 11:57am
Shows generally are not that bad (or good). Some people and critics have an ax to grind. I do not pay attention to anyone. If a show or actor interests us, we see it if we can.
If the subject matter interests you, see it before it closes. If you can not make it you can't
