I agree with many of the previous comments (but, keeping in mind that I saw the last show in Chicago, so I don't know what's changed for Broadway...):
- The score itself was uneven with mostly forgettable songs (I, also can’t recall one number from the show - and I generally like Yazbeck’s music).
- Many of the book scenes are very funny (I laughed a LOT! …but my laughter was mostly spurred by very clever “jokes”, as opposed to character-driven humor, or plot situations.)
- it was bogged down by a pretty generic and [borderline] awful score. (I wouldn’t say, “awful” so much as I thought it seemed very paint-by-number. Model Behavior 2.0 is a very good description, and example of this.)
In a Chicago Tribune article that was referenced in a different thread, Ellis is quoted as saying, "This is one hundred percent not your grandfather’s Tootsie." For me, that's the very reason why I was so disappointed in this musical version. Being of grandfatherly age, and a big fan of the movie, ALL of what made the movie so good is missing from the musical.
In the movie, the leading characters of Micheal and Julie are changed for the better in the end.
Micheal grows as a man in regards his relationships with women - Julie, in particular. He does so by using the obnoxious character trait (his offensively obsessive attention to detail, as an actor) that instigates his need to masquerade as a woman.
Julie grows into a woman who will no longer allow herself to be belittled, or used by men. She does so via the relationship she forms with another woman (Dorothy). ...and for all practical purposes, Dorothy IS a woman, because Michael Dorsey is that obsessive about his craft.
Movie-Micheal decides to call it all off because he realizes how much he is hurting people he cares about.
In contrast, the Michael in the musical version becomes even more despicable. He masquerades as a woman for his own selfish purpose (as does movie-Michael), but he lacks the opportunities movie-Michael has that teach him respect for women - to learn how to be non-sexually intimate, nurturing, empathetic to the misogynistic situations women find themselves in on a daily basis.
He doesn't have those opportunities because musical-Julie is ALREADY a strong, independent woman. Musical-Julie sings a song about her troubled past, but had she not sung it, I wouldn't have known, 'cause it doesn't show up in her character outside of that angle number.
Musical-Julie grows in a different direction. No spoiler, but her arc made me think, "huh?" Unfortunately, musical-Julie may not have the same opportunity for a happy ending that we see with movie-Julie. It's very unclear what musical-Julie's next step might be regarding a relationship after her reveal.
Musical-Michael uses his disguise to get what he wants. He's a man taking advantage of the empathy of another woman (Rita Marshall), and he's getting away with it because he's masquerading as a woman (would Rita be such a champion of Dorothy's ideas if she knew he was a man?).
And then there's musical-Michael's biggest reason for calling it all quits. He does not want to spend the rest of his career as a woman. Very different from movie-Michael's motivation - and maybe a bit insulting (?).
The best thing the musical has going for it (IMO) is the humor. Again, I did laugh out loud quite a bit. I also LOVED John Behlmann's performance as Max. To be honest, I wanted Max and Michael to get together in the end, but that's mostly because I wanted to get together with Max. As for the other leading characters, I wasn't really invested.
When movie-Dorothy became Edward Kimberley, I mourned her passing throughout the remainder of the film. I wanted to see her again. That's how invested I was in that character. That didn't happen for me in the musical.
