SOUL DOCTOR Reviews

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 2:43pm

Post 'em here! :)

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 2:53pm

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 2:53pm

[IMG]

[ACL2006]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 3:15pm

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 3:30pm

[jnb9872]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 3:32pm

If the previews thread is any indication, I'm not predicted scorched-earth epic pans for this. I don't really expect anything positive, but I'm not anticipating the gloves'll come off for these reviews.

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 7:18pm

anything yet?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 8:55pm

There's a few.

Not loving it, not hating it. One of the most boring reviews ever.
Assoc. Press

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 8:58pm

Negative.
The Hollywood Reporter

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 9:02pm

Not loving it, not hating it. One of the most boring reviews ever.

Change "reviews" to "revues" and you've got a one-sentence capsule review of the show.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 9:47pm

I wouldn't say Hollywood Reporter was negative...more mixed. Although he said making a Broadway Transfer was ill advised, he liked the music and David Schecter's lyrics and has this to say about the leads.

"Anderson delivers a terrific performance in the central role, beautifully suggesting Carlebach’s gentle, shambling appeal as well as the low-key charisma that made him an unlikely recording star whose output consisted of some 25 albums. He delivers the songs in assured fashion, and is particularly moving in depicting the performer’s struggle to reconcile his progressive brand of Judaism with the traditional beliefs with which he was raised."

Certainly some pull quotes there.

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 9:48pm

Perhaps it is not desirable, or even possible, to fit the full measure of a complicated person such as the real Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach within the narrow form of musical theater. But it is possible, and desirable, to bring his beautiful, spirited music to Broadway.
Soul Doctor Review: Rabbi Rocks Broadway

[CapnHook]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 10:59pm

There is SO much in this show that doesn't need to be in it to tell the interesting, compelling story of Schlomo's life. They could have cut 40-60 minutes from this. THEN it could have been a more worthy show.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 8/15/13 at 11:20pm

Isherwood in the Times is Mostly Negative

If I may borrow a Yiddishism Shlomo favors throughout “Soul Doctor”: gevalt.
NYT

[darreyl102]

Posted: 8/16/13 at 12:02am

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 8/16/13 at 1:01am

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 8/16/13 at 1:44am

and the notice goes up in 3,2,1....

[After Eight]

Posted: 8/16/13 at 3:56am

No, it wasn't good, but it was good-hearted and sincere, thereby assuring its critical drubbing. You see, it lacked that gratingly obnoxious "gee-look-how-clever-I-am" "coolness" of far worse and more insufferable entities like Nobody Loves You and Love's Labour's Lost that makes our wannabe-cool critics gush with praise.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 8/16/13 at 12:47pm

Yeah! Just like that gimmicky, deceptive, theme-park show, ONCE!

[elimeyer]

Posted: 8/16/13 at 1:41pm

SOUL DOCTOR Review @ broadwaykingdom.com

Updated On: 8/16/13 at 01:41 PM

[aaronb]

Posted: 8/23/13 at 1:51am

To paraphrase Roger Ebert: I hated, hated, hated this musical.

"In Soul Doctor, the word heart is used with as much reckless frequency as is the word c--t in any work by Henry Miller. There are hearts for love and hearts for hate. Two hearts beat as one. And the rhythm of music does not come from the percussion but from (you guessed it) the heart. Shlomo Carlebach (Eric Anderson) must be the happiest Jew in the history of the race. His journey from yeshiva bochur in Nazi Germany to rock star rabbi in sexually liberated San Francisco has supplied him with the mantras 'We don’t get high on drugs, we get high on Shabbos!' and 'May every tear of sorrow turn into a tear of joy.' This latter thought is in direct contradiction to his childhood teacher (Ron Orbach) who, in the musical’s only truthful moment, tells him, 'Being a Jew is about pain and suffering. Joy is for the Gentiles.' Perhaps he should have listened—normally his brand of asinine self-help is cute if painfully naïve. But in the shadow of Dachau it is downright offensive."
My review of SOUL DOCTOR