"A sweet, beautifully sung and only occasionally unsettling musical adaptation...Mr. Gordon’s music and lyrics have a charm and ease, though the songs can blur into one another in ways that are sometimes purposeful and sometimes not. Mr. Caird’s book is appealing and his direction more or less nimble. Seen through modern eyes, the story does have its creepy undertones, though Mr. Caird’s direction avoids the merest hint of sexual suggestion, which does a lot to de-sleaze the relationship"
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"It's engaging enough in the first act, but by the second half, the will-they-or-won't-they tension gets buried under too many reprises and a syrupy pace and tone. Save for diehard romantics, this may be one musical audiences will want to write off."
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"A pleasant, sweet evening, this 'Daddy Long Legs,' but painted on a very limited palette. And after this, can we just categorically state, epistolary musicals aren’t a very good idea?"
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"For several reasons, all amply demonstrated in the two-actor version of 'Daddy Long Legs' that opened Off Broadway tonight, the epistolary form is absolutely deadly for a musical — especially one with 27 numbers that is all but sung-through. In this configuration, a libretto cannot keep a secret; we know the identity of the benefactor from the start. (Hint: He is the guy onstage.) And where there is no surprise, there can only be interminable waiting."
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"The physical distance our lovers are required to maintain is one of the show's biggest hurdles, for which Caird finds creative solutions...The greatest impediment to their epistolary chemistry is the plot's crawling pace. Each letter nudges their relationship along, but rather than building layers of tension, the musical proves too slight to hold up under the burden of its two hefty acts."
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"The authors may sometimes have overindulged a bit; the leisurely first act is a little too meticulous about making, and remaking, its points...Still, everyone involved eloquently explores the contours of this strange relationship, in which intimacy and distance share an embrace, and they provide it with a most satisfying resolution. 'Daddy Long Legs,' for all its occasional air of old lace, proves to be a lovely little thing, and with a surprising amount of gumption, to boot."
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"There's little here that seems to crave this form of storytelling. Caird's staging of it all isn't bad, but it's necessarily restricted; he keeps us from being bored, but just barely, and doesn't take us much further than that. Over nearly two and a half hours of play time, that's not enough...This 'Daddy Long Legs' has some real virtues, but it may as well be marked 'return to sender.'"
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"'Daddy Long Legs' is beautifully cast...The singers' voices blend smoothly, and the vocal arrangements yield some felicitous surprises...It runs a trifle long in the final scenes, but only a trifle. There's so much that's engaging about the show."
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