SOUL DOCTOR Reviews

[LimelightMike]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#1

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

Post 'em here! :)

[iluvtheatertrash]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#2

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

"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman

[iluvtheatertrash]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#2

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

[IMG]

"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman

[ACL2006]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#3

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

A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.

[iluvtheatertrash]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#4

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

"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman

[jnb9872]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#5

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.

Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.

[PlayItAgain]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#6

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

anything yet?

[dramamama611]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#7

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

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

[dramamama611]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#8

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

Negative.
The Hollywood Reporter

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

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

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#9

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.

Formerly gvendo2005
Broadway Legend
joined: 5/1/05

Blocked: After Eight, suestorm, david_fick, emlodik, lovebwy, Dave28282, joevitus, BorisTomashevsky, Seb28

[goldenboy]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#10

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]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#11

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]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#12

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.

"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle

[jnb9872]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#13

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

Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.

[darreyl102]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#14

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

Darreyl with an L!

[everythingtaboo]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#15

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

"Hey little girls, look at all the men in shiny shirts and no wives!" - Jackie Hoffman, Xanadu, 19 Feb 2008

[PlayItAgain]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#16

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

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

[After Eight]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#17

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]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#18

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

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

CHURCH DOOR TOUCAN GAY MARKETING PUPPIES MUSICAL THEATER STAPLES PERIOD OIL BITCHY SNARK HOLES

[elimeyer]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#19

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

SOUL DOCTOR Review @ broadwaykingdom.com

-elli- Visit me @ http://www.thekingofbroadway.com "They say that life is 'Tit for Tat' and thats the way I live, so I deserve a lot of 'TAT' for what I've got to give!!!"

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

[aaronb]

SOUL DOCTOR Reviews#20

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