FLOYD COLLINS Reviews

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 6:31pm

This is it! [cue yodeling]

10 PM embargo lift, per Feldman.

[bear88]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 7:19pm

As someone who very seriously considered seeing this show on my recent trip to New York City but decided against it, I am very curious about the critical reception - especially given the wildly divergent responses to the revival on the preview thread. 

[BETTY22]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 8:12pm

Can Jesse Green review this given his close relationship with the composers mother? 

Maybe, Elizabeth will be assigned this one. I must admit, i think she is a great critic. 

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 8:16pm

EDSOSLO858 said: "This is it! [cue yodeling]

Considering this is the only ad that YouTube every plays for me anymore (despite my best efforts), I’m triggered.

 

[corninthesky]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 8:20pm

BETTY22 said: "Can Jesse Green review this given his close relationship with the composers mother?

Maybe, Elizabeth will be assigned this one. I must admit, i think she is a great critic."

He didn’t review Days of Wine and Roses, so assume he won’t review this either. 

[Kimbo]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 8:31pm

corninthesky said: "BETTY22 said: "Can Jesse Green review this given his close relationship with the composers mother?

Maybe, Elizabeth will be assigned this one. I must admit, i think she is a great critic."

He didn’t reviewDays of Wine and Roses, so assume he won’t review this either."

Correct. Nor did he review Light in the Piazza at Encores two years ago. (He’s also on record as saying Floyd is one of his 25 favorite musicals ever, if my memory is right, per a New York Magazine piece from about a decade ago when they convened a panel to determine the best musical of all time.)

I could be wrong but my money would be on Laura Collins-Hughes over Elisabeth Vincentelli - she’s the one who reviewed Wine and Roses both off Broadway and on (and raved about it in both places). 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 8:47pm

Indeed, here’s that NY Mag article/discussion between Green/Rich/Tunick/Wolfe etc. Nice and long and good for bedtime reading or while waiting for the Floyd reviews! 

https://nymag.com/news/features/greatest-new-york/70476/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 9:59pm

TimeOut

Three stars

Floyd Collins

3 out of 5 stars

Musical notes from underground, but not much movement.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/floyd-collins-broadway-musical-review-jeremy-jordan-lizzy-mcalpine

"If you’re already a fan of Floyd Collins’s score, you are likely to enjoy this eminently respectable performance of it, and maybe even respond to it emotionally. If not, though—if, like Floyd or like me, you find yourself killing time without being moved—Floyd Collins’s admirable musical ambition may remind you that sometimes when exploring you make thrilling discoveries, and sometimes you just get stuck. "

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:02pm

NY Stage Review:

FLOYD COLLINS: WAIST-DEEP IN THE BIG MUDDY

By Bob Verini

★★☆☆☆ Overproduction cripples the Broadway debut of a much-admired intimate art musical

https://nystagereview.com/2025/04/21/floyd-collins-waist-deep-in-the-big-muddy/

 

FLOYD COLLINS: JEREMY JORDAN GOES DEEP AS A FORGOTTEN HEADLINER FROM 1925

By Michael Sommers

★★★★☆ Taylor Trensch, Jason Gotay, and Lizzie McAlpine are notable in LCT’s revival of a sorrowful musical drama

https://nystagereview.com/2025/04/21/floyd-collins-jeremy-jordan-goes-deep-as-a-forgotten-headliner-from-1925/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:03pm

The Wrap

‘Floyd Collins’ Broadway Review: Jeremy Jordan Soars While His Character Is Trapped

His great performance galvanizes a high-profile revival that further enhances the brilliance of composer Adam Guettel

https://www.thewrap.com/floyd-collins-broadway-review-jeremy-jordan/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:05pm

NY Daily News/Chicago Tribune

BROADWAY REVIEW: ‘Floyd Collins’ boasts strong score, but buried by weak staging

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/04/21/broadway-review-floyd-collins-boasts-strong-score-but-buried-by-weak-staging/

"“Floyd Collins” is not the first musical to set itself that problem: “Hands on a Hardbody,” an underrated show about contestants who had to keep their mitts on an automobile, struggled with the same issue. But the first time around with “Floyd Collins,” if memory serves, Landau better managed to center Floyd and thus help him to win over our empathy. This time, naturally with a different actor, that doesn’t work as well — a consequence, I think, of Lincoln Center’s massive stage and Landau’s understandable reluctance to just stick the guy in the middle of the stage."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:06pm

Variety

‘Floyd Collins’ Review: Jeremy Jordan and a Stellar Score Shine in a Shadowy Broadway Musical

https://variety.com/2025/legit/reviews/floyd-collins-review-jeremy-jordan-broadway-1236372883/

"In contrast with the often thoughtful use of space, the production is marred by a baffling design choice. Jeremy Jordan, our titular hero, spends almost the entire musical onstage, trapped by an invisible rock, oddly laying on what can only be described as a barely-disguised lounge chair. Jordan becomes a distraction during the above-ground scenes, reclining with his legs out on his perfectly-rectangular, deck chair-esque “rock” — though it is perhaps even more noticeable when he occasionally gets off it, highlighting the blocky, abstract design.

Thankfully, at least, the occupant of the chair gives us ample diversion. Though the role is slightly underwritten, Jordan finds depth in Floyd, taking him on a journey from a hopeful and plucky explorer to a scared, desperate, starving, lonely, and trapped man on the brink of both sanity and death. His clarion tenor soars through his many solos and duets, delivering the impressive vocals he has become so known for. "

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:07pm

Deadline

‘Floyd Collins’ Broadway Review: Jeremy Jordan Gives Life To Dark Tale Unearthed From History

https://deadline.com/2025/04/floyd-collins-broadway-review-1236372633/

"Notice, though, that I don’t say it will haunt everyone who sees it, and that’s simply because this musical is not without flaws, notably an overlong, repetitious book that can challenge patience, and a staging that scatters characters near and far on the massive Beaumont space. A musical tale as intimate as Floyd Collins would almost certainly benefit from a staging – and a stage – that reflects the small gem nature of its material.

Still, no one can argue with the performances here, notably Jeremy Jordan, the popular Broadway singer from Newsies and The Great Gatsby, here giving the performance of his career. In command of a voice that is called upon to do so very much in the musical, from melodic and enchanting yodeling (and then yodeling in a duet with his own cave-echo voice) to the plaintive (“And She’d Have Blue Eyes”) and the joyous (“The Riddle Song,” “How Glory Goes”), Jordan’s rich, affecting voice is a marvel of versatility."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:08pm

WSJ

‘Floyd Collins’ Review: Musical Highs From a Cave’s Depths

Jeremy Jordan and Lizzy McAlpine star in the first Broadway production of Adam Guettel and Tina Landau’s stirring, beautifully scored 1996 show about a man who gets trapped underground and becomes a national sensation.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/floyd-collins-review-musical-highs-from-a-caves-depths-c1fed676

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:09pm

It’s so interesting to me that Landau pretty impressively staged a show with a truly terrible score (REDWOOD) but seemingly fumbled the staging of a show with a remarkable score (FLOYD COLLINS). 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:10pm

Holdren in Vulture is mixed-to-mostly-negative

‘Floyd Collins’ Is Beautiful But Can’t Break Free

A few crucial staging choices by director and co-writer Tina Landau kneecap this production of 'Floyd Collins' from the start, undermining its epic tragedy.

https://www.vulture.com/article/floyd-collins-is-beautiful-but-cant-break-free.html

"But then disaster strikes, both inside and outside the narrative. Floyd gets wedged in a too-tight passageway and pinned by a rockslide that crushes his foot. It’s a heck of a staging challenge for a director — intimidating and exhilarating at once — but even though it’s a ball that Landau has thrown to herself, she drops it. Far over on stage right, Jordan pulls himself up onto what looks like a dentist’s chair for Fred Flintstone, a partly reclined seat made of stony slabs where he’s going to remain for most of the rest of the show. As the crucial image for this story of confinement, physical torment, existential terror and revelation, and the brazen frenzy of commercial and media hoopla that accumulates on the surface above, it’s hugely disappointing. Even while acting pain and fear, Jordan looks far too comfortable, an issue that seeps into the production as a whole, where a visceral sense of the stakes of Floyd’s predicament never really develops. He’s also been shunted into the margins when he needs to be centered. Yes, he’s ever-present, but it’s too easy to forget him, or to lose a sense of the horror of his situation: Other characters wander into his space, lean on his limestone La-Z-Boy, chat and play guitar, and wander away again. Would it be difficult to plant Floyd’s body in the middle of the stage for the entire show? Of course. Does it feel like the clear demand of the play that Landau and Guettel have created and one that this production has decided to shrink from? Also yes."

Updated On: 4/21/25 at 10:10 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:10pm

Theatrely

Jeremy Jordan Finds His Way In the Dark – FLOYD COLLINS — Review

https://www.theatrely.com/post/jeremy-jordan-finds-his-way-in-the-dark-floyd-collins-review

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:11pm

double post Updated On: 4/21/25 at 10:11 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:12pm

NYT Critic's Pick from Laura Collins-Hughes

THEATER

‘Floyd Collins’ Review: Trapped in a Cave and in a Media Circus

One of the wonders of this glorious-sounding new Broadway production is how far from claustrophobic this Kentucky cave saga feels.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/theater/floyd-collins-review.html

"Is this inspired-by-real-life story as clear and detailed as it needs to be? Nope. Do we, the audience, feel as profoundly as we might if its characters were more richly written? Possibly not, though that is arguably an upside; the public isn’t exactly crying out right now for sad stories that bore into our very souls.

Still, “Floyd Collins” reaches the sublime, and that is a rare achievement in any work of art."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:13pm

Theatermania

Review: How Glory Goes to Jeremy Jordan in Floyd Collins on Broadway

Adam Guettel and Tina Landau’s heartbreaking musical finds a home at Lincoln Center Theater.

https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-how-glory-goes-to-jeremy-jordan-in-floyd-collins-on-broadway_1771109/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:15pm

Daily Beast

‘Floyd Collins’ Review: Musical About Man Trapped in a Cave for 14 Days

The Broadway musical based on the plight of Floyd Collins, a cave explorer who became trapped underground in 1925, looks stunning. But what does it really want to show?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/floyd-collins-review-musical-about-man-trapped-in-a-cave-for-14-days/

"Floyd Collins is more meditative than propulsive, with an unhappy ending it doesn’t shy from. You feel for its main character, but Collins is also a strangely meek and receding focus in his own story. Simultaneously, both his plight and the show disappear from view."

[Kad]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:15pm

These certainly read like Jordan is now in a prime position for Best Actor, albeit in another year that is again shaping up to be rather unexciting for that category. Reviews overall don't seem to bode well for this becoming much of a hit with audiences or awards, though.

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:27pm

Anyone have a gift link of the NYT, critic's pick, review?

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 10:33pm

CoffeeBreak said: "Anyone have a gift link of the NYT, critic's pick, review?"
 

http://archive.today/2025.04.22-021204/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/theater/floyd-collins-review.html

Updated On: 4/21/25 at 10:33 PM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/21/25 at 11:02pm

Kad said: "These certainly read like Jordan is now in a prime position for Best Actor, albeit in another year that is again shaping up to be rather unexciting for that category. Reviews overall don't seem to bode well for this becoming much of a hit with audiences or awards, though."

I still wouldn't count out Tom Francis. Especially if the voters end up loving that revival. What he does every night is almost taken for granted at this point.