NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT Reviews

Today is Tuesday, April 24, marking the official opening night of Nice Work If You Can Get It on Broadway, which borrows the Gershwin brothers' show tunes from the '20s and '30s. Kelli O'Hara plays a bootlegger who falls for a tipsy playboy played by Matthew Broderick in the new plot created by Tony Award winner Joe DiPietro. The musical recently picked up nine Outer Critics Circle nominations, the most of any production of the season.

I have a feeling this will turn out to be the surprise hit of the season! Wishing them all the best.

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I have a ticket for May 18th (thanks to WAT for running to the box office for me). I'm really looking forward to this.

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I wish Matthew and Kelli all the best! Break-A-Legcast and crew!

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I loved every single thing about this production. At the very least, I'm hoping for rave reviews for Kathleen Marshall's work. Congrats to all involved, and here's hoping this turns into a hot ticket.

I was completely surprised by how much I loved it. I hope it's a big, fat hit.

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Unlike the LED theme park over at the Lunt, this one deserves great reviews. Wonderful production.

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Has anyone posted a list of the musical numbers?

^ AP and Huffington Post are the same review, just posted on both sites.

Thank you. Much appreciated.

Variety is mixed to positive, it seems. Correct me if I am wrong:

"The newly manufactured 1920s-set musical "Nice Work if You Can Get It" crams vintage Gershwin songs into a bubbly crowdpleaser, enchantingly rendered by thesps Kelli O'Hara, Michael McGrath and Judy Kaye. Mix in staging and choreography by Kathleen Marshall ("Anything Goes") and a cheerfully screwball if somewhat creaky new book by Joe DiPietro, and you've got what might be termed a good new old-fashioned musical. If only its likable, hard-working leading man -- a miscast Matthew Broderick -- didn't seem to be painfully concentrating on his next step, all night long."

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117947441?refCatId=33

Updated On: 4/24/12 at 08:57 PM

Philadelphia Inquirer is positive!

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/148675025.html

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Updated On: 4/24/12 at 09:13 PM

The Chicago Tribune is mixed :

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/theaterloop/sc-ent-0424-nice-work-broadway-review-20120424,0,2028515.column

"But for all DiPietro's stylish jokes and other amusements, and despite O'Hara's lovely voice and Marshall's fresh choreographic stylings, the show somehow doesn't hang together in a fully satisfying way. You struggle to fully buy the story, which gets fractured between too many locales and takes turns that leave you scratching your head. Overall, the book feels as if it was designed to accommodate the musical numbers. That might well have been the way the sausage was made, but we need to feel more as if it was the reverse. And everyone involved often gets caught between wanting to do something totally different with these famous songs — O'Hara, who doesn't always feel well-used, sings "Someone to Watch Over Me" while holding and cocking a gun, and "I've Got a Crush on You' is camped up mercilessly — and letting them work their natural charms.

Overall, the show is too afraid of emotional engagement, which is silly when you have these songs and O'Hara's voice and Broderick's likable self to deliver them. More truth and honesty would make the work considerably nicer — and, for the audience, easier to get."

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Updated On: 4/24/12 at 09:18 PM