"Aggressively mediocre new musical...Andy Sandberg’s directing doesn’t help clarify the incoherent storytelling. The most surprising aspect of the evening is its bilious undertone...At least the very funny Mr. Loehr makes the most of the situation as the overeager, tireless GJ, who has never met a song he cannot oversell. And the numbers do need overselling...The 1980s have called, and they want their jokes back."
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“The musical-theater equivalent of those old Sarah McLachlan commercials...Vacillate between dead seriousness and unfunny camp...There isn't much plot, and what is there is hard to follow...Sullivan's dance steps are rudimentary; the cast members run amok and are in desperate need of pulling back...The evening feels like bad cabaret...Only one moment comes close to saving the production, a nightly guest appearance from a different Broadway star...In any case, it was too little, too late.”
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“Spirited, tuneful and fabulously performed but lacking a strong plot...As a full-length musical, it’s a tiresome experience...The book is a meager framework that doesn’t go very far narratively, and strives for hilarity but doesn’t achieve it. Thompson’s songs are an accomplished amalgam of pop, rock and show tunes that individually land but don’t cohere into a unified score...At best fitfully appealing and its superior performances aren’t enough to redeem it.”
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"A new musical in search of itself...It fails to catch fire despite a cast that has talent to burn. The conceit is built on the flimsiest of grounds...The main problem is that the dual protagonists make too much of a little theory...Unfortunately, the musical numbers don't rescue the show from its illogical plot...This quirky musical clearly needs a better book and more memorable songs to make it elevate...It pretty much flatlines."
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"Broad, campy, musically patchy, and superficially funny...With its cheesy look and single, upstage keyboardist, the show…feels more Off-Off than Off Broadway. The over-sung songs, which run the gamut from pop to rock to gospel, are generic and forgettable. Andy Sandberg's excessively emphatic direction and Shea Sullivan's minimal choreography only make the lyrics' banality and puerility (as in a big production number called ‘Procreation’) all the more obvious."
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“The musical is akin to a smart and funny cabaret show with a strong theme and backstory. Too big for just an act, but not big enough for a full staging, the opening scene is oddly off-putting and nonsensical, but quickly ‘R.R.R.E.D.’ recovers...It’s all pretty ridiculous with a strong dose of good fun, and although the musical starts to feel too stretched out and cumbersome, even in its one act structure, ‘R.R.R.E.D.’ delivers an enjoyable and easy night of silliness and laughs.”
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