The New York Times - Recommended
"...The drama inherent in clashing egos gives Bronx Bombers ¯ some natural juice in the early innings, but the suspense about whether Martin will be axed and Berra will agree to replace him more or less gets benched in the play's second act. Yankee lovers may not find this sudden lurch into fantasy particularly worrisome. They will enjoy watching these fabled greats impersonated by a skilled cast of actors ¦but the play doesn't negotiate the move from the real world to the dream world very smoothly."
NY Daily News - Recommended
"...After finishing in last place Off-Broadway, Bronx Bombers ¯ spent the off-season retooling for Broadway's big league. All the rigorous exercise along with some canny tweaks over the past three months has paid off. The central tension a perennial Yankee saga about team tradition versus personal stardom is better illuminated. The formerly bipolar halves of the show part drama, part dream sequence now fit together better. It's too bad that writer and director Eric Simonson's play is still choked by sentiment ¦Unfortunately, the promising provocative talk of the opening innings gets benched for mushier hero worship and backward glances at glory days. When all is said and done, Bronx Bombers ¯ is too feel-good and fawning for its own good."
Associated Press - Somewhat Recommended
"... ¦Eric Simonson's script is an unremarkable behind-the-scenes look at a moment in 1977 when the New York Yankees were in crisis. A play that was becoming the Yogi Berra story featuring a super Peter Scolari wringing every emotion from the script heroically has now turned into the daydreams of an 11-year-old [in the second act.] Simonson, who wrote all three [Lombardi, ¯ Magic/Bird ¯ and Bronx Bombers ¯], this time also directs ¦and he does so with such reverence to the baseball franchise that it veers into fairy tale. Major League Baseball and the New York Yankees put money in the show, and it shows. The play played off-Broadway last year and has been tweaked since then, but not enough to make it more than Yankee advertising. There's a lot of hat-tipping, swelling moments and it seems like we in the audience should get teary and sentimental. "It's about the people, not the building," Berra says sagely. But it's also about the drama, and, in this case, the play strikes out looking."
Vulture - Not Recommended
"...Simonson's stabs at spiritual significance sink Bronx Bombers just as they did his previous outings. Had he elected to stick with a character-based backstage ¯ story, as he does in the first scene, he might have had a winner this time. Even for a nonfan, that's plenty to chew on for 30 minutes ¦But the play completely falls apart after that. It's not just that the story, having jettisoned whatever was interesting about it, is so undeserving of the emotional extremes that surrealism at its best can illustrate. It's also that Simonson, emerging from the dream, has nothing left to pitch. A lame wrap-up scene set in 2008, during the final game at the old Yankee Stadium, squeezes the nostalgia sponge well past the point where anything can be wrung from it. That kind of thing may fly in the Bronx not on Broadway. But perhaps the producers finally aren't sure where they're aiming to be. As Yogi probably didn't say: If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else. ¯"
NY1 - Somewhat Recommended
"...It's obviously about the Yankees, but that's no reason for non-fans of the team to sit this one out. No, there are other reasons to do that. It's just not a very good play. The famed Yankees catcher [Yogi Berra] is a natural for stage depiction with his trademark yogi-isms and stooped gait. And Peter Scolari's wonderful portrayal is a home run. But Eric Simonson's play is a disjointed work divided into four disparate scenes. Performances are quite good. In dual roles, Francois Battiste playing Reggie Jackson and Elston Howard, and Bill Dawes as Thurman Munson and Mickey Mantle, are standouts, but it's those iconic pinstripes that steal the show. "Bronx Bombers" is a work that defies dramatic critique. It's red meat for hardcore fans, and as a sentimental tribute, it scores. But theatrically speaking, it strikes out."
Variety - Recommended
"...So, what's next golf? Scribe-for-hire Eric Simonson and producers Fran Kirmser and Tony Ponturo have this factory assembly-line thing going with pro sports organizations: First came Lombardi, ¯ backed by the National Football League, then Magic / Bird ¯ with the National Basketball Association, and now, Bronx Bombers, ¯ which has the blessing of the Yankees and Major League Baseball. The Field of Dreams ¯ show concept (credited to lead producer Kirmser) is actually kind of touching. This is what will bring out the fans cameo appearances from the greatest ballplayers in the annals of Yankee history ¦These Olympian immortals don't actually say or do much of dramatic note in a play that's noticeably lacking in drama."
USA Today - Somewhat Recommended
"...Bombers ends in 2008, but most of the second act is consumed by a long, bombastic scene in which Berra interacts with a dream team of Yankee greats, from Babe Ruth to Derek Jeter some of whom appear to us first in angelic flashes of light, or as thundering voices. There are more intentionally comic moments, mined by a company of mostly valuable players under Simonson's appropriately eager direction. Peter Scolari, credited as helping Kirmser conceive Bombers, affects a convincing-enough simulation of Berra's folksy quirks ¦Francois Battiste does deft double duty as Jackson, whom we see humble with age, and Elston Howard, the Yankees' first African-American member."
New York Post - Somewhat Recommended
"...There's a reason sports shows are rare: Not only are they tough to stage, but theater and jocks rarely share the same playing field. Bronx Bombers, ¯ which Simonson also directed, is a shamelessly reverent love letter to the Yankees or rather the myths the Yankees built around themselves. What's more amazing than dead players chatting over hors d'oeuvres is that a show about a team with such a backlog of personalities, controversies and scandals could be so dull. No George Steinbrenner, no Red Sox, no juicing no drama. At this point, you have to wonder what's next for Simonson. A play about hockey in which the Care Bear players hug?"
Newsday - Somewhat Recommended
"...Like Simonson's "Lombardi," heavily promoted by the NFL, and his "Magic/Bird," connected to the NBA, "Bronx Bombers" is presented in association with the Yankees and Major League Baseball Properties. In other words, this is official sports-niche theater, a reverential genre discovered and filled since 2010 by author/director Simonson and his producers. The lobby of the theater is festooned with colorful memorabilia and, inside, the audience sits on all four sides as if facing the field. There is plenty of inside-baseball inside-stuff, explained with relative grace. And for those of us who don't much care, designer David C. Woolard amuses us with the changing styles of the uniforms."
amNY - Somewhat Recommended
"...The tender-hearted, super-sappy New York Yankees tribute "Bronx Bombers,"...really ought to be playing in Cooperstown as a sort of side show for tourists visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame. It could be done with animatronics instead of actors, a la "The Hall of Presidents" at Disney World. Eric Simonson, a minor playwright and director, is now best known for his series of upbeat and lightweight plays focusing on sports icons such as "Lombardi" (i.e. Vince Lombardi) and "Magic/Bird" (i.e. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird). They are so lacking in drama that they feel like souvenir books. The cast is virtually the same as Off-Broadway except for Scolari, who brings depth to Yogi that seems out of place compared to the broad performances offered by the other guys. Watching actors portray legendary Yankees with distinctive personalities will no doubt be a guilty pleasure for many fans. But all things considered, they deserve something better than this unchallenging and uninteresting history pageant."
NorthJersey - Not Recommended
"...Author-director Eric Simonson has created a worshipful act of sports devotion masquerading as a play. And, uninterested in analysis or creating any distance from his subject, he goes for the obvious and clichĆ©d every step of the way ¦There's one ¦scene, at the last game at the old Yankee Stadium in 2008, that's so saturated with treacly sentimentality, it could send the most fervent Yankees fan into sugar shock. Simonson and the show's producers have been linking sports to Broadway since 2010, enlisting support from the various professional leagues for their shows. First there was football, with the mediocre "Lombardi." Then came basketball, with the bad "Magic/Bird," and now baseball, with the worse "Bronx Bombers" (presented with "special producing partners" the Yankees and Major League Baseball). Wake me when they get to horseshoes."
NBC New York - Recommended
"...Sharpened, but still dubiously crafted, Bronx Bombers ¯ is a jock drama that will appeal to any Yankees fanatic, but leave others restless in the bleachers. There are colorful performances from the committed ensemble, many doing double duty. There are enjoyable exchanges between players that could only exist in a writer's mind. The same maudlin elements of Bronx Bombers ¯ that were troublesome last fall return to haunt Simonson's story the second time around. We get the feeling that Simonson doesn't trust his story enough to carry us through, so instead hits us over the head with facts ripped from some Dummy's Guide to Baseball. ¯ Seasoned theatergoers will take umbrage at the heavy-handed storytelling and rampant fanboyism. Damn Yankees ¯ this is not, but it may keep sports fans distracted until spring training."
Time Out New York - Not Recommended
"...I'm no Bob Costas, but since when does blundering around in the minor leagues get you to the World Series? After writer-director Eric Simonson's Bronx Bombers was greeted by lukewarm-to-negative reviews Off Broadway, the time-skipping mash note to the Yankees seemed destined to play out its limited run. Yet here it is on Broadway, with celebrity casting and hydraulic set changes, taking up Circle in the Square Theatre. Bigger is certainly not better for this myth-mongering trifle, pitched lazily to fans and neophytes, but plopping down somewhere in the foul territory. The pinstripe giants discuss what's more important: individual genius or team spirit. How about decent coaching? Case in point: Bronx Bombers' cast is full of appealing character actors, but the game plan is a mess. To coin a Yogiism: The main reason the play is lousy is that it's no good."
The Wrap - Somewhat Recommended
"...Eric Simonson is well on his way to immortalizing every sport in a Broadway play: First, there was football (Lombardi ¯), then basketball (Magic/Bird ¯) and now baseball with his Bronx Bombers ¯...At this rate, aficionados of synchronized swimming should probably get their play sometime in the next decade. It's not unusual for screenwriters to direct their own scripts, but they're working in collaboration with a cinematographer and an editor. Playwrights who direct their own plays don't have that buffer, and this production of Bronx Bombers ¯ is a textbook example of why they should stick to writing."
Cititour.com - Recommended
"...The 2013 season may be over for the New York Yankees, but fans of the boys in pinstripes can still get their fix thanks to Eric Simonson's Bronx Bombers, ¯ now playing at Broadway's Circle in the Square. As with his previous sports-themed plays, Lombardi ¯ and Magic/Bird, ¯ Simonson exhibits an extraordinary passion for his subject, as well as a treasure trove of trivia and knowledge about the famed baseball team. But once again, the show is more of a solid double dramatically than a home run."
NewYorkTheater.me - Somewhat Recommended
"...You almost have to admire the chutzpah of the producers of Bronx Bombers, ¯ a dramatically inert play about the Yankees that was poorly received when it ran briefly Off-Broadway ¦There are a few changes in the Broadway production. The most obvious change is charging twice as much for the top ticket. The cast is not the problem. Indeed, they are the best thing about Bronx Bombers. Watching this sappy calculated lump of a show for a second time, I experienced an epiphany: They could have done a one-man show about Yogi Berra, who at age 88 is still around, as is his wife. It could have been a focused bio-drama, amusing, informative, even moving and artful. It could have drawn in the same demographic that their business strategy aims for ¦.as well as people who go to the theater expecting a story."