"A sweet and innocuous musical...With only the safest explorations of its darker undertow...Sam remains the primary appeal...All you want is another peek at Sam's colorful inner life, dispensed by Pinkham in addictively entertaining spurts...It's when things flip back to traditional musical mode that ‘Benny & Joon’ loses its eccentric luster...Most of those unadorned moments unfortunately fall to Benny and his love interest...A dreary complement to the main event.”
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"his new musical enjoys outstanding direction by Jack Cummings III, clever choreography by Scott Rink, and top music direction by J. Oconer Navarro with orchestrations by Michael Starobin. The show's marvelous cast brings the honest, touching, and entertaining story to life...The musical numbers are a great fit for the story and the vocal performances couldn't be better."
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“’Benny and Joon’ isn't overly concerned with reality -- Most...problems were built into the source material, the 1993 film -- but musicalizing it accentuates them...’Benny and Joon’ has its offhand, off-the-cuff charms, but it is saddled with a too-sunny attitude about mental illness and a principal character who is spun out of pure celluloid. Even fairy tales need a kernel of truth if they are to be believed; this one has a prince who, despite a fine performance, tries too hard to be charming.”
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"Transcends expected limitations and serves as the basis for a highly styled, richly inventive, sad and funny fantasy which employs classic silent movie pantomime to create a magical world of its own...Bryce Pinkham's award-caliber Sam is the heart and soul of this production. He gracefully and gently coaxes all of the humor out of the comic routines which he performs without ever sacrificing the integrity of his characterization."
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"Except for a few minor additions and alternations, the book by Kirsten Guenther is respectful of its source. Audiences unfamiliar with the film will need time to adjust to the collaborators' deliberately soft-peddle approach to the material. Thanks to a delightfully quirky performance by Bryce Pinkham, the musical achieves most of its goal as an affecting oddity...The always affable score adds appreciably to the romance set in motion by the needs of two scarred and scared people."
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"This is a lovable, witty, spry musical with an incredible cast...Pinkham gives a deliciously physical, marvelous performance with astounding grace, sincerity and warmth. It’s truly Pinkham’s show...A gifted, mesmerizing performance...The production’s music...is delightful. It completely captures the whimsy and the serious-mindedness of the film. The lyrics are mostly rhyming couplets but it works...Cummings III keeps things moving at a sprightly pace...Highly enjoyable.”
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“The musical adaptation of the movie has found the way to cook up the flavor and the temperature that this fairytale-like story needs, taking the innocent wonder of the film, even though it and this musical has somewhat of an overly simplistic look at mental disorders and family dynamics, and turned it into a one-man pantomime...Bryce just can’t be outdone or ignored...Even when the show gives little time for his gorgeous voice, the performance dazzles.”
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"The result: Boring and Jejune...This musical treatment, directed by Jack Cummings III, misfires on all cylinders. Those unfamiliar with the film will most likely be left scratching their heads wondering why there is so little dramatic tension. An even bigger question that looms: What is the point of all this singing when few of the songs move the story forward?...Somehow, Elless manages to rise about the material...Pinkham’s Sam is also a delight."
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