Good News (musical) - Reception

Reception

The original 1927 Broadway production met with positive reviews. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times pronounced it "a ripping good show", with an authentically collegiate atmosphere, stating, "For once a musical play based upon undergraduate life and a football game has some resemblance to the disorderly, rhymeless scheme of things in American institutions of learning". He deemed it "a constantly fast entertainment with furious dancing, catchy tunes...excellent singing, and genuine excitement."

The 1974 production opened to mostly negative reviews. Some critics had begun to consider Rigby's revivals formulaic; Clive Barnes of The New York Times derisively pronounced Good News, and shows like it, "prefabricated...nostalgia", and Martin Gottfried of the New York Post deemed it "a joyless, mechanical reproduction". The book was harshly criticized; Barnes pronounced it "a terrible book" with "jokes obvious enough to give banana skins a bad name", and Time referred to it as an "ancient flapdoodle of a plot". Critics also questioned the practice of interpolating songs from other shows. Walter Kerr opined that preserving the original score was vital to the character of a revival, stating, "the only reason for remounting vehicles that have half-vanished...is to get beyond all that is dated into the specific textures of the scores that haven't...there's no point for enduring banality in a book if all you're going to get in return is a random rummage through an attic that produces a perhaps bountiful but essentially characterless heap".

Critics differed on what they considered the show's good points to be. In the Daily News, Douglas Watt declared, "the dancing is the best part of the show" but deemed the vocal arrangements "too-busy". Gottfried, however, said the show was "stolen by the vocal arranger", whom he credited with "dazzling harmonizations and stylings". He disliked the staging, saying it was suitable "for a concert rather than theater and little acting". Barnes, however, pronounced the staging "very good," saying, "It has a sense of style, a sense of period and a few bursts of energy that really work". Barnes praised the sets and costumes, while Watt asserted that the costumes seemed to vaciallate between the '20s and '30s and that the sets were "uninteresting and cheap-looking".

Alice Faye and Gene Nelson's performances received mixed reviews. Watt said that Faye "doesn't add much to the show," and Gottfried asserted that "combined, have the stage presence of a balcony seat". Time said that " only succeed in underlining the show's decrepitude." Barnes, however, stated that though Faye "is not the most animated leading lady...her light baritone voice is pleasing, and she unquestionably dances with the guts of a Ruby Keeler. Gene Nelson...has enormous personal charm and stage professionalism." Kerr said that Faye "sounds winsome and welcome...she is a composed performer and a willing workhorse". The actors portraying the young college students were generally well received. In his review, Barnes praised Janna Robbins, Barbara Lail, Marti Rolph, Scott Stevenson, and Wayne Brian for their performances as the principal student characters. In Newsweek, Jack Kroll declared, "One's heart goes out to the young people in a show like this, like Barbara Lall and Marti Rolph, whose drive and energy really must carry ". Marti Rolph, in the role of Connie Lane, received particular praise from critics. Watt declared, "The only really good singing voice among the principals belongs to Marti Rolph". Gottfried wrote, "The only standout, really, is Marti Rolph--the ingenue--who has a gorgeous voice and manages to inject pert spirit into a spiritless show".

The 1993 Musical Theatre of Wichita production was well received by local critics. In The Wichita Eagle, Susan L. Rife wrote that the new production was a "lavish ode to the outright goofiness of the Roaring '20s", praising the actors' exuberance and the choreography. She suggested that the show's three-hour run time was too long, and noted that "its pace swings wildly from high-energy dance numbers to slow-moving chunks of dialogue".