"As embodied by Michael Urie in the happy revival of Harvey Fierstein’s 'Torch Song,' Arnold is just the guy and gal to pull you out of your election-season weariness...Mr. Kaufman’s staging now feels smoother and quicker on its feet. It also feels, well, bigger...That’s Ms. Ruehl’s part, which she walks, not runs, with and nearly steals the show in an expertly coiled performance."
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“’There’s something mechanical about the production’s particular brand of glossy camp...I kept wanting ‘Torch Song’s’ flow of winks and witticisms to feel a little less automated, a little more undergirded with real stakes, anguish, and risk...Without more ferocity and friction under the facade, the play’s hijinks start to feel less like a statement about how gay men find and protect their power and more like a series of hat tips to an audience who’s come looking for a laugh.”
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"Mr. Fierstein’s play might not have been quite so radical as it once seemed...‘Torch Song’ is looking more like a commercial comedy about a nice Jewish boy and his impossible mother—and a pretty good one, too...The only thing wrong with Second Stage’s off-Broadway revival of ‘Torch Song,’ which has been very effectively directed by Moisés Kaufman, is Mr. Urie, a fine actor who is miscast as Mr. Fierstein."
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"Director Moisés Kaufman and Fierstein have streamlined things, not ideally but smoothly enough. The play’s connective tissue was always more spirit than plot anyway. And even with the cuts, 'Torch Song' seems like the pal you haven’t seen in ages, forgotten charms resurrecting themselves before your eyes...The creeping feeling that 'Torch Song' is more dated than we’d hoped takes hold...As if to confront and wrestle down any datedness head-on, Kaufman and his cast go broad."
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“An affectionate if ill-considered revival…As imperfectly directed here by Moises Kaufman, Urie has made little attempt to make the role of Arnold his own…The trimmed-down show has kept its basic storyline but lost some of its grace notes…Arnold’s story is as sweet as ever…Does this history piece hold up? Yes, in the sense that the show is kind to its characters and true to its dated sensibilities. No, in the sense that the characters are unbelievably sweet and its sensibilities are dated.”
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"Perhaps there's something liberating about being back within these historically significant walls that has coaxed Michael Urie out from behind the author's shadow to seize ownership of the heart-on-his-sleeve protagonist in a virtuoso turn... Not only does he now feel more like a flesh-and-blood person, but the staging has acquired greater fluidity and emotional richness...Kaufman and his cast hit every note of humor and heartache in a durable work."
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"On Broadway, the heart always has sold the most tickets and this show has all the right feels...Under-appreciated for years, Urie is a fantastic physical actor — an atypically precise and detailed master farceur as adept at physical shtick as at making you care about his eminently lovable character...Miscast Jack DiFalco, who does not come off even remotely as a teenager...But even this unfathomably bizarre choice does not change the play’s poignancy."
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"In the exquisite new Broadway revival, Michael Urie establishes himself as a fearless and compelling leading man — delivering a master-class in physical comedy and dramatic authenticity that, in the play’s most gripping scenes, brings laughter and tears nearly simultaneously...Some of those cuts are missed, though 'Torch Song‘s' flame still burns bright. This fresh production, skillfully directed by Kaufman, shows that Fierstein’s words are as poignant now as they were then."
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