"Unfortunately, while aspects of Newton’s tale are indeed noteworthy, maybe even amazing, the musical itself unfolds as an overstuffed history lesson trimmed in melodrama, with a standard-issue romantic subplot and some dutiful attempts to explore the lives of the slaves... 'Amazing Grace,' thick with such moralizing, naturally concludes on a note of uplift, or rather many notes of uplift: a choral singing of the title song... The song is simple, beautiful, immortal; the musical, not so much."
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"There isn't an oven big enough for this turkey; a Sunday School polemic that beats you around the head with its message but fails to have any charm or memorable melodies...I can't imagine this subject matter ever being dealt with in a more elementary way – even a middle school assembly project would give a more insightful and educational exploration of the theme. The direction and staging heaves under the viscous book and uninspiring score."
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"Personally, I expect poetic license in the theater, but I expect it to serve a strong artistic or political vision. 'Amazing Grace' has neither. It comes out strongly against slavery; well done. But as with the recent, equally dismal, 'Doctor Zhivago', 'Grace' proves that folks are willing to burn piles of money trying to resurrect the 1980s-style megamusical. At best, the piece might move audiences to sympathetic tears, but in the end, it’s preaching to the choir."
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"The equivalent of a child’s drawing: naïve, sincere, glowing with an unimpeachable if hard-to-pin-down vision of what it wants to be...It is also a confusing cartoon so lacking in craft that it ruins any chance of being taken seriously. Certainly it can’t be recommended as history; it’s riddled with falsehoods that alone would sink it. But it also fails as musical theater, on two counts: the music and the theater."
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"It’s not so much a musical as an antislavery pageant, with innocuous songs by Christopher Smith and a vertiginously high-minded book by Mr. Smith and Arthur Giron. ... Whatever its weaknesses, this is one of the best-looking musicals to reach New York in recent seasons...I can’t imagine that 'Amazing Grace' will last long on Broadway, but it’s a perfect fit for the drama departments of Christian high schools and colleges, where it will doubtless have a profitable afterlife."
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"Epically bad show...If you’re going to make a musical about one of the best-known and most-loved songs of all time, you’d better be equal to the task. That, fundamentally, is not the case with this earnest but cringe-inducing freshman effort...Finally, however, we do get what we’ve paid for: that sinuous melody, those elegantly simple words. The closing scene is as powerful as it is predictable, as the hymn builds to its climax, sung by the entire company. Everything that has come before is instantly forgotten."
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"It’s a remarkable moment — the show’s only one, alas — in this fact-fudged telling of a historical figure’s life. Otherwise, this earnest but plodding musical needs lifelines of its own. Songs are serviceable but lack significance and surprise. You can hear the boilerplate lyrics coming a mile away. Even the potential power ballads don’t have the structure to make an impact. The jumbled book is another issue. The creators have good instincts about a story worth telling. But their reach exceeds their grasp."
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"There’s an audience out there for 'Amazing Grace,' flawed as it is. Christian congregations and other faith-based groups should respond to this epic-scaled saga of how John Newton, an 18th-century British slave trader played by Josh Young, experienced a 'miraculous' religious conversion, became an Anglican minister, and went on to write 200 church hymns, including the stirring title piece. But ye of little faith will find it tough sledding."
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