High Fidelity

What the popular press had to say.....

BEN BRANTLEY of the NEW YORK TIMES: �A show that erases itself from your memory even as you watch it." & "Something weird happens to figures from books and movies when they enter the land of musicals. The rough edges and prickly quirks that made them distinctive soften into a uniform blandness." & "Definitely deserves a place in my own catalog of Top 5 lists. That would be on the roster of All-Time Most Forgettable Musicals. Now if only I could remember the names of the others."

JOE DZIEMIANOWICZ of the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: "A modestly entertaining, rock-inflected romp." & "As Rob, Chase, from the short-lived "Lennon," sings great and casts a high-wattage nice-guy glow - but that's not the same as star quality. As Laura, Colella has a pretty voice, but ultimately she doesn't have enough to do."

CLIVE BARNES of THE NEW YORK POST: "Unlike the train wreck that was last season's 'The Wedding Singer,' it has a few redeeming features." & "Kitt's music offers the fatal combination of sounding familiar yet unmemorable. " & "Performances do not a musical make. For that, you need music."

MICHAEL SOMMERS of STAR-LEDGER: "There's nary an inch of sincerity or genuine emotion to the whole darned enterprise." & "Expect a neatly written, professionally packaged attraction buzzing with energy. The problem here is that you don't ever care anything about its slacker story or cartoon-ish characters."

LINDA WINER of NEWSDAY: "In Broadway's unending quest for product that sells itself on the back of bigger markets, it has come up with another amiable musical knockoff with tracing-paper for brains." & "The show tries so hard to be hip and clever that even the effort feels square." & "this is a show that tries hard to appeal to the stunted adolescent boy in us all - presuming, alas, that we have one."

ROBERT FELDBERG of THE RECORD: "I'm not asking that a new musical's story be up there with "My Fair Lady," but would it hurt for it to be just a little interesting?" & "Has several things going for it, including wit and a lively rock-and-roll score. However, the boy-pines-for-ex-girlfriend plot is written and acted in such a mechanical way, it's impossible to care about it. And when you feel indifferent to what happens next in a show nothing else is likely to matter much."

MICHAEL KUCHWARA of ASSOCIATED PRESS: "Lindsay-Abaire has done a credible job condensing and dramatizing Hornby's tale for the stage. And director Walter Bobbie has kept the story percolating nicely." & "The latest in a trend of stage adaptations of movie hits... Most have been negligible in their impact on musical theater. 'High Fidelity' won't trailblaze either. But its charms are considerable and don't be surprised if you fall under its spell."

DAVID ROONEY of VARIETY: "There are some talented people involved here and a likable cast that makes the show by no means laborious to sit through. But it lacks charm, sincerity and heart. That absence can partly be traced to the music." & "This bland show is crippled by its failure to convincingly tap the pulse of pop culture or to mine the romantic heartache of its source material."

External links to full reviews from newspapers

New York Times
New York Daily News
New York Post
NewsDay
The Record
Associated Press
Variety