The New York Times - Not Recommended
"..."Doctor Zhivago," the endless Boris Pasternak novel familiar to most of us from the endless David Lean movie, has been resurrected for dramatic purposes once again, as a musical that opened at the Broadway Theater on Tuesday night. The verdict: Um, is it over yet?"
NY Daily News - Somewhat Recommended
"...On film in 1965, the luminous Julie Christie and Omar Sharif captured the eroticism and ache of romantic repression of people desperately in love through tight close-ups and eyes filled with desire. That's all but lost here. As Yuri, London stage star Tam Mutu sings with a manly ardor and has a cleft chin deep as the Volga River. As the staunch Lara, Kelli Barrett's vocals are bright and clear. They're likable together but no fire. Without the inferno, the "Doctor" remains in guarded condition."
Hollywood Reporter - Not Recommended
"...Yes, you'll walk out of Doctor Zhivago humming a song. Unfortunately, it will be the one you were already humming on the way in."
Vulture - Not Recommended
"...Stories are not interchangeable; if they were, every Broadway producer would be Cameron Mackintosh. Instead, some are worthier and more inspiring than others, as even this misbegotten production seems to know. At one point Zhivago says to Lara, referring to her attempt, years earlier, to shoot Komarovsky, "I've always wanted to be that way, the way you were that night, in the grip of a passion so overwhelming that the rest of life feels unimportant." It's an absurd line for the character but, watching McAnuff's Doctor Zhivago instead of Lean's (or instead of reading Pasternak, for that matter), I totally knew what he meant."
Chicago Tribune - Not Recommended
"...Rare indeed are the musicals that begin, in essence, with three consecutive memorial services, in service of a needless frame, but it is emblematic of the problems that beset this new Broadway musical, which features a tough-to-track book by Weller, lyrics by Michael Korie and Amy Powers, and an earnest score by Lucy Simon. "Doctor Zhivago," which arrives on Broadway from Australia and is directed by Des McAnuff, is playing to an audience that has shown up for a love story that plays out across three decades of Russian upheaval and personal angst. But that love story is lost in a melange of flame, ice, death and frantic characters rushing around a heavily raked stage without ever seeming really to know where they are going."
Time Out New York - Somewhat Recommended
"...No amount of Lucy Simon's syrupy, portentous music-swamping Michael Korie and Amy Powers's workmanlike lyrics-can make us care for the synthetic, drably colored pageant. Des McAnuff's staging looks expensive but ugly, with cheesy video close‑ups of actors, giant Soviet propaganda posters, eruptions of fire and the occasional explosion or gunshot to wake us up. To Siberia with it."
