"I wasn’t feeling so much wonder, having a low tolerance for all-together-now spiritual uplift. Those with affectionate memories of Carlebach’s music may find “Soul Doctor” inspiring and absorbing. I found it disappointing that this intriguing figure came across as a bland, bromide-spouting relic of the hippie era, albeit one tie-dyed in classic Jewish guilt."
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"Gevalt! The best that can be said about Soul Doctor, a strange Broadway musical based on the life and music of “singing rabbi” Shlomo Carlebach, is that it isn’t as bad as it sounds."
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"Okay, Soul Doctor isn’t that bad. But it does display a muddy, bumbling, amateurish quality in its storytelling that gets in the way of some fine performances and seriously impedes its ability to grapple with questions. The Broadway incarnation suffers from structural bloat and thematic penury, message-y persistence and character fog."
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"The show never moves beyond the basic chronology. Carlebach’s precise place and significance in history remain as fuzzy as his bearded face, even after spending hours with him. While it’s certainly not the aim of the creative team, Carlebach emerges as a novelty, a footnote in both the Jewish faith and folk-rock."
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"Unless you’re personally into it, there’s entirely too much of this ponderous religious pedantry to keep an audience alert.  And while the cast seems to be in constant motion, the choreography is clunky and obvious."
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"Long before Matisyahu, there was Shlomo Carlebach.This Orthodox Jewish performer, whose catchy moniker was the “Rock Star Rabbi,” delivered an accessible brand of Jewish music that made him an unlikely pop star in the 1960s. He’s the subject of the ambitious new musical, now premiering on Broadway after earlier regional and off-Broadway runs. The transfer may have been ill-advised."
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"Much like its subject, the new Broadway musical “Soul Doctor” is terminally earnest and relentlessly sunny. Sadly, “Soul Doctor” is unlikely to be as popular as the man himself. While the show did well off-Broadway last summer, its hackneyed awkwardness will spell doom on the main stem, from the vague choreography to the groan-inducing dialogue."
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"Oy gevalt. It’s not that there’s anything particularly terrible about Soul Doctor, but there isn’t all that much to recommend either. Director Daniel S. Wise’s production — which consists mostly of a Judaic jukebox of Carlebach’s popular melodies — fails to achieve anything beyond a standard, and occasionally cringeworthy, retelling of his life."
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