"A warm-spirited and piercingly touching musical…Nicholaw evinces a natural feel for the tender emotional core of the material…The rather complicated story is cleanly shaped in Ms. Shear and Mr. Federle’s book…'Tuck Everlasting' can sometimes be a little ham-handed in addressing its central theme...Among the many refreshing surprises of 'Tuck Everlasting' is this reminder that a musical doesn’t necessarily have to sing or speak its truths to bring them home to us."
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"An earnest, somewhat attenuated musical…The philosophical aspect of the Tuck dilemma comes out in two brooding numbers. In these songs, Miller’s Celtic-flavored music and Tysen’s searching lyrics deliver emotionally, elsewhere they seem merely upbeat and serviceable...The lumpy book takes too long to establish tone and stakes in the first act, leaving a lot of mopping up in the second...I can admire several elements here; they just seem slightly misjudged or misaligned."
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"A ruthlessly by-the-book treatment of a high-concept, low-wattage fairy tale...The more Shear and Federle clarify the material the more ordinary and threadbare it seems, a problem that Casey Nicholaw’s staging mostly exacerbates in its dogged adherence to the conventions of Broadway storytelling…The homogenization feels deliberate, as if bits of 'Wicked,' 'Brigadoon,' and 'Carousel' had been dumped into a blender with skim milk to produce a smoothie that's way too thin."
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"A modestly proportioned, low-key Broadway musical...The results aren’t perfect by any means, and the pop-folk score owes far too much to 'Into the Woods' for comfort. Still, 'Tuck Everlasting' realizes enough of its ambitions to be watchable, and Casey Nicholaw’s staging is full of quiet delights, though his swirly choreography, especially in the show’s climactic ballet, is bland...I suspect this is the kind of children’s show that mothers and fathers will enjoy more than their kids."
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"A Broadway musical so treacly you may leave the theatre wanting to kick a puppy…Winnie is played by newcomer Sarah Charles Lewis and she is charmless, with all the attributes of an over-prepared, too-polished child actor...The best bit of casting is Terrence Mann as the evil Man in the Yellow Suit…Mann transforms a hopeless Act I into a nearly salvageable Act II. Still, unlike the unlucky Tucks, this material aged out long ago and far away."
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"A wholesome but hyperactive new Broadway musical...Authors Shear and Federle make some smart changes…Composer Miller and lyricist Tysen wrap the story up in a warm and folksy score. It fits the 19th-century time period…Characters are pretty sketchy, but the cast makes the most of what they’ve got…In a stirring climactic ballet...'Tuck Everlasting' is allowed to breathe. Like people, musicals need that to live."
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"Like the children’s book, the script fudges some narrative questions and complications and grapples ever-so-lightly with the complexities of infinite life. But the narrative, at least, is always buoyed by its tuneful folk-rooted score by Miller and Tysen...Director Nicholaw, here shows a more lyrical side, climaxing in a story-of-life dance number that packs an emotional wallop. At the show’s end, you’ll want to hug your family."
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"A sweet concoction that feels in over its head...The book is more serviceable than inspired...The tuneful country and folk music-influenced score is equally unmemorable. Director Nicholaw keeps things moving at a sprightly pace, although he overdoes the carnival-style dance sequences that are clearly intended to provide visual distraction. The design elements are impressive...The performers put the fanciful material over with admirable energy and emotional conviction."
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