“Though it retains the premise of the original, it diverges smartly in both plot and milieu...Fontana gets just about everything right...Even though Horn’s book bristles with zingers, a lot of the humor is so rooted in story it doesn’t need words...Comedy rarely flows as smoothly as it does here. The secret is more than the book; it’s the songs...The staging and physical production of ‘Tootsie’ are so trite and vanilla...Happily, ‘Tootsie’ recovers, thanks in part to its excellent cast.”
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“’Tootsie’ is great for a laugh...Fontana, in the performance of his career to date, stars as Michael Dorsey...This is the rare musical in which the book outshines the score. At their best, Yazbek’s songs are densely wordy and nervy; elsewhere, they are merely agreeable, and sometimes a skosh underbaked. But ‘Tootsie' is packed with great zingers and character jokes, and director Ellis’s bright, snappy production has assembled a murderer’s row of actors to put them over.”
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"In the business of satirising show business itself, and the vanities and insanities of the people who work in it...The show stands or falls largely on the startlingly plausible shoulders of Santino Fontana...It's great to be having fun at a Broadway musical again, and this show is just the ticket for fans of old-fashioned musical comedy."
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"Despite its razzle-dazzle, 'Tootsie' feels empty at the center. It’s all but impossible to sympathize with the lead, and it’s hard to be that interested in the woman he falls for...Sour center or not, 'Tootsie’s' got bushels of exceptional talent toiling away on it, and these serious chops go a long way toward buoying up the show. I just can’t help wishing that we’d all start spending fewer resources on dragging the past, kick-lining and screaming, into the present."
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“Ellis’s staging is a graduate seminar in how to direct physical comedy so that every joke lands with a bang...The catch is that ’Tootsie' doesn’t need to be a musical...If you’ve never seen ‘Tootsie’, I expect you’ll enjoy the musical version. If you already know and love it, though, you’ll probably be laughing more at the movie you remember than the show you’re seeing on stage.”
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“This ‘Tootsie’ is a delight, a not-quite-blind date that plays out so much better than you could have imagined...You’ll witness a team at the top of its game...Yazbek’s score is maybe a bit too heavy on the mid-tempo numbers...Best of all is Horn’s dialogue, loaded with sitcom zingers...There’s not a weak link in this cast, though the whole thing belongs to Fontana.”
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“There really is much to like about ‘Tootsie’. Horn’s book is chock-a-block with digressive one-liners...The kinetic Yazbek score — jazzy, brassy and evocative of the ’80s in a gently satiric way — is also great fun, which is no slight...But ‘Tootsie’ struggles mightily to get past one problem...It needs to punish Michael for his ruse...And yet, the show well knows that everyone has come to see Dorothy Michaels...The show wants both to deconstruct 'Tootsie', and snag its nostalgic fans."
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“The new Broadway adaptation of ‘Tootsie’ is old-fashioned and proud of it — and it’s a surefire crowd-pleaser...The story holds no surprises for anyone who’s seen the movie, but Horn sprinkles the show’s book with clever one-liners...Well-cast character actors demonstrate their bankable skills at character acting...Each of the songs in the stage musical can make you choke with laughter.”
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