"Empty-headed entertainment...Originality isn’t novelty, and the show is such a calculated rehash of a million tired tropes that it can best be described with Broadway math: 'School of Rock' plus 'The Fully Monty' divided by 'The Wedding Singer' — and multiplied by zero...Here the obviousness of the characters and the outcome of the plot give the songs almost nothing to do, and here I’m able to say that Mark Allen, who wrote the music and lyrics, is equal to the task."
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"A community-theater vanity production that has somehow surfaced at a Broadway house, it is schlocky at every turn. In essence the show is a fusion of 'Rock of Ages,' minus the hit songs, with 'The Full Monty,' minus the sincerity, charm, and character development...Aspires to a knowing attitude toward its own silliness...But it’s not sharp enough to pull off the gambit; you can’t tell if it’s winking or just has something weird in its eye. Even the show’s best bits get pounded flat."
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"'Gettin’ the Band Back Together' is marketing one of my least favorite kinds of fun: the sentimental myth of the 'do over'...Its writers seem to be laboring under the misconception that because something actually happened to you, it’s not a cliché. The play they’ve put together, from its plot to its sense of humor, feels like the theatrical equivalent of one of those movies that metastasizes out of a mis-chosen SNL sketch."
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"What it’s doing on Broadway is hard to figure, but the members of the cast of 'Gettin’ the Band Back Together' are so amiable that it’s not too unpleasant—up to a point—to spend an evening watching them tell corny jokes and sing Mark Allen’s lame but innocuous songs...While I certainly don’t recommend that you spend your own money on 'Gettin’ the Band Back Together,' it won’t kill you should you be forced to see it on somebody else’s dime."
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"The playful musical is more infectious than you might expect. Be warned, though: Enjoyment of 'Gettin’ The Band Back Together' will be in direct proportion to a tolerance for not-so-young guys making guitar faces and devil horn hand gestures for two and a half hours...Davenport’s book lets few jokes go unrepeated...And given the musical’s two-or-three year gestation period, director Rando had plenty of time to trim the repetitions."
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"Although simplistic by design, the script is funny without being hilarious, grooving along mainly on its many goofy throwaway lines...Nunes delivers a cool performance and a killer musical turn, and runs away with the show...Cheap laughs? You bet, but even cheap laughs count; and let’s admit it—it feels so good to laugh real laughs on Broadway."
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"Technically speaking the show isn't based on a pre-existing movie or literary property. But if there's one thing 'Gettin' the Band Back Together' isn't, it's original...To say that the humor is unsophisticated is an understatement...But some of the comic bits, both physical and verbal, are very amusing. You may find yourself laughing a lot, although you won't be proud of it afterwards...The score is strictly generic pop-rock but bouncy enough."
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"Sweaty, janky garbage fire...The plot feels like a bottom-shelf Ben Stiller–Owen Wilson vehicle from 2006, one that ranks below 'Little Fockers' at that...Klaitz, wild-eyed and roly-poly, gets a tacky but enjoyable Meat Loaf-ish wailer...Such moments, if there were more, could have saved the show, especially with a cast this appealing and given John Rando’s bright, comic staging. But there’s the music. Such crummy music."
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