Amazing Grace NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (194)
See it if you like classical music and you want to learn more about slavery
Don't see it if you want to be connected to the main characters
See it if If you like entertaining music and great performances. (specifically, Josh Young shirtless) and a stunning act 1 finale.
Don't see it if If you want a strongly written book. Read more
See it if You want to know the story behind the song. That was a revelation to me.
Don't see it if You are overtly cynical, an atheist, hate historical musicals, are expecting the next Le Miz.
See it if want to see this awesome cast and enjoy historical musicals.
Don't see it if do not like historical musicals.
See it if you can
Don't see it if you dont want to
See it if you don't want to be the dummy who missed Erin Mackey's performance.
Don't see it if you're expecting too much. It's competent, but nothing more.
See it if you want to see a highly flawed, yet highly ambitious, show that has some deeply disturbing slavery themes and depictions, and great sets
Don't see it if a show that tried too hard to be everything, so ended up with a lack of a good central focus, leaving it unsatisfying at the end
See it if you'd like to see a so-so musical of the story behind the man who composed Amazing Grace
Don't see it if you're expecting a show about the creation of the song 'Amazing Grace'
Critic Reviews (68)
"'Amazing Grace' may have the noblest intentions of any major musical I've ever seen...The close of 'Amazing Grace' is every bit as stirring as you'd expect. It's everything the show needs to be, and enough that those in search of nothing more won't leave the theater feeling cheated. But this elevation does not come without a cost: Saving this song of all songs for the very end only emphasizes how thoroughly what precedes it fails to meet the composition's heaven-high standards."
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"Far from light-hearted but deeply felt and spiritedly envisioned, 'Amazing Grace' is another stirring historical period musical adventure...It remains to be seen whether his lilting arias and stirring anthems and the the impressive text will ultimately validate him as a major musical find. What I do know is that Smith and his production associates have given us an amazing show with an abundance of grit and grace."
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"An ungainly pastiche of different genres, part 1776, part Tarzan movie, part Horatio Hornblower, part Titanic...It’s flatfooted and crude...There’s just too much that’s derivative in this show."
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"The production has sweeping and emotionally resonant themes that never seem to find cohesion in the book, music and lyrics. Nor is director Gabriel Barre able to harness spotty performances from his leading players...'Amazing Grace’s' message of redemption and change is a beautiful one. Unfortunately, its delivery feels less than inspired."
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"The show is definitely blessed with a number of virtues that many will find sufficiently entertaining to keep them in their seats, including an important historical lesson , several big-chested songs, a remarkable underwater special effect, and, among other things, the beloved eponymous hymn...On the other hand, this tale is a fictionalized distortion of what actually happened, its narrative is awkward and clichéd, its characters broad stereotypes, and its wit almost an afterthought."
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"It is an amazing story, but it is told on stage mostly in less than an amazing way. The new musical combines a coming-of-age tale, love story, slave narrative, costume drama, and Saturday morning adventure serial. It tries to do many things at once. For all that, we don’t actually learn much about the song... Much time, talent and money has gone into this well-meaning project to tell the story of John Newton. But it’s a musical hobbled by a misunderstanding of what makes good theater."
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"'Amazing Grace' has as strong a finish as any musical in recent or distant memory...but is it enough to forgive what’s gone before? With little reluctance, I have to say it isn’t...Audiences are required to sit through two dubious acts before being so rewarded...The prosaic rhyming is careless, the tunes Les Miserables-generic, and the emotions fall far short of what is needed for the characters to express themselves as they must."
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"The show postpones Barack Obama’s favorite tune to the finale, offering a long and dull history lesson with a score heavy on bombastic anthems. In Hollywood parlance, they call it “medicine”: a movie or TV show that’s good for you, that teaches you something, that hopefully leaves you inspired. 'Amazing Grace' is definitely medicine... But is 'Amazing Grace' inspirational and, more important, does it hold one’s interest?...In their final exchange, Mary asks Newton why “it took you so long” to give up his slave-trader ways. Theatergoers will be asking that question much earlier."
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