"The show’s mismatched creators — apparently assembled by random spins of a Rolodex — call the result a kung fu musical. I can report that what the director Chen Shi-Zheng and the 'Kung Fu Panda' writing team of Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger have come up with does involve martial arts and tonal sounds. But to the extent kung fu usually provides thrills, and musicals usually tell stories through song, the new genre is a misnomer if not an outright lie."
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★ "A ludicrously awful dud assembled by a coterie of international artists who seem to have collaborated via Google Translate. The leads can’t sing, the fights are lackluster, and the highly touted aerial sequences are done in slo-mo, so the only danger is that you’ll fall asleep."
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"Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise at the Shed Is Cirque du Soleil's Low-Rent Cousin The writers of Kung Fu Panda created a martial arts musical using Sia songs. Yes, you read that correctly."
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"★ The latest commissioned endeavor in the Hudson Yards arts space is an incredible mishmash of martial arts, pop songs, and a silly story"
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"Sometimes you don't need a long, complex story - or even an engaging one - to hook an audience. At the showing of 'Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise' at The Shed that I attended, audiences clapped and hooted for heroes and villains alike, despite being given no logical reason to do so. The heroes and villains possessed no distinguishing character traits, other than differing accents, and they voiced no discernible reasons to be fighting. The fighting was just that awesome."
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"A lot to take in. The internationally renowned director Chen Shi-Zheng and his collaborators want to serve up the theatricality of Cirque du Soleil, offer a display of martial arts that honors the legacy of Bruce Lee, and create a tale of family and morality that appeals to all ages that combines the sincerity and pathos of a Broadway musical. As it sounds, this is a tall order, and while the show succeeds in achieving some of its goals, it often remains frustratingly earthbound."
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..too long, too confusing, in places tedious, in other places overwrought and even creepy…its songs are paltry and its underscoring persistently annoying ... HOWEVER, amid the awfulness there are a scattering of impressive moments — of visual splendor, awesome stagecraft, and exciting dance and martial arts choreography… enough of them to make me glad that I can say I saw this first theatrical spectacle in The Shed’s inaugural season.
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"A stage that pools with water and floor traps bursting into flames can't fix an artistically disparate 'Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise' at The Shed. The venue is still in its infancy, like a baby screaming to be fed. But with any new parent, what goes in the bottle is up for debate."
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