"'School of Rock' doesn’t strain to mix whimsy with grandeur...For its first half, at least, it charmingly walks the line between the cute and the precious…In the more lazily formulaic second act, you can taste glucose in the air. But mostly, 'Rock' is surprisingly easy to swallow, in large part because everyone involved seems to be having such a fine time...Family audiences should be grateful for a Lloyd Webber show that only wants to have fun and hopes that you do, too."
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"It worked for the movie, and wow, does it work on Broadway, a double jolt of adrenaline and sugar to inspire the most helicoptered of tots to play hooky and go shred an ax…This is one tight, well-built show: underscoring the emotional arcs, and knowing when to get out of the way and let the kids jam. 'School of Rock' has absorbed the diverse lessons of 'Rent,' 'Spring Awakening' and 'Matilda' and passes them on to a new generation."
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"'School of Rock' has a fair amount to offer...The kids are terrific: They sing very well and play their own instruments…Webber grabs whatever tropes seem handy, from power to glitter to punk, garbling our understanding of Dewey’s inner soundscape...Anyway, Lloyd Webber isn’t the problem.The problem is what the point is, and that falls on Fellowes, who has not resolved, but rather exposed, the confusions latent in the material."
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"Turning 'School of Rock' into a musical isn’t the worst idea in the world, and if you need a safe, undemanding show to take your baby-boom parents to see over the holidays, it’ll do perfectly fine—but if that sounds like lukewarm praise, it is...I’ve seen worse and so have you...Just be forewarned: This is the kind of musical that sends you home wanting to rent the movie. I don’t know about you, but that’s not why I go to the theater."
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"Exuberantly loud, high-spirited and upbeat...While none of the songs is equal to Webber’s best they’re more than good enough...The show mirrors a little too baldly the 'Kinky Boots' thing of having a nasty bitch of a fiancée drive the plot, and the stereotyping of the boy-who-would-be costume designer is de trop. These are not small issues, but they’re subsumed by the fact that this is a fable…You may have forgotten all of it before you leave, but you will be leaving with a big smile."
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"The impressively pedigreed creative team of this wildly energetic but uneven show hews close to the source…Most of the new songs tend to be just okay at best. Kids singing about parents who ignore them for them feels generic. And at many points during Act I, the music is just too loud for its own good, suppressing what may be decent lyrics under amplified purple haze…The show wants to rock your socks off, but it just moves in fits and starts and feels labored."
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"An exuberant feel-good musical…A cast of super-talented kids who rock out on the kind of songs you always wished had been in the movie…Webber has the ideal sensibility to relate to children whose freakish talents might make them seem a little bit…peculiar…Thankfully, nothing savage has been done to the original film story…The creatives have given the children a sensitive backstory about their parents and home lives that’s missing from the movie."
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"It might sound lame to suggest that 'School of Rock' works in large part because of the charms of a bunch of adorable kids. But their infectious delight as they etch their distinct personalities and seize both their individual and collective right to be heard is irresistible…Some of Lloyd Webber's more traditional numbers feel like filler…The direction of Connor is not always the most elegant…But the minute they launch into ecstatic head-banging, pogoing release, all is forgiven."
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