The New York Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...It may well be the show's very lack of freshness that accounts for its appeal. "Finding Neverland" was a sellout in Cambridge, and it's already doing boffo box office here. When Barrie says he's working on a new and surprising play, his producer, Frohman, responds that he doesn't like surprises."
NY Daily News - Somewhat Recommended
"...Less can be more...If only producer Harvey Weinstein and director Diane Paulus had learned that lesson. To be sure, James Graham, who adapted the story, and Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy, who wrote the colorful and melodious score, have come up with much to like in this fictionalized account of the creation of Peter Pan. But Paulus' staging can - and does - go overboard...The show also strains to be adorable, like a male "Matilda.""
Associated Press - Somewhat Recommended
"...Exuberant, quirky and somewhat conflicted about what it wants to be...It's a celebration of imagination that labors hard for a consistent tone and often leaves you feeling manipulated...Part Edwardian melodrama, part love story, part origin story, part valentine to invention and part send-up of the theater itself. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just that each has its own tone. Sometimes Graham is deadly earnest, sometimes he's sly and often he's just trying too hard at both."
Hollywood Reporter - Somewhat Recommended
"...Like Wicked, however, Finding Neverland might also be critic-proof, at least on the evidence of its stellar grosses during previews, and on the vocal response of an audience heavily populated by kids. And good luck to it, if only this family-friendly musical, a semi-fictionalized account of J.M. Barrie's creation of Peter Pan, didn't work so strenuously for its meager ounce or two of charm."
Vulture - Not Recommended
"...Finding Neverland purports to be historical: the true tale of how Barrie, inspired by his dealings with the family of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, created the boy who wouldn't grow up. It also purports to be a singing-dancing family entertainment. It winds up being neither."
Variety - Somewhat Recommended
"The new play that J.M. Barrie is struggling to write — which would eventually become "Peter Pan" doesn't come alive until he finds his villain in Captain Hook. The same can be said for the sometimes wan but sometimes wonderful new musical that is premiering at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass. Until that moment, the family-friendly tuner, is well-sung, occasionally charming and nicely staged — but bland. "Finding Neverland" still needs to find itself."
USA Today - Recommended
"...Paulus is saddled with a lackluster score, mostly syrupy ballads and vaguely peppy production numbers. The book, by rising playwright James Graham, is better - hokey at points, but offering enough playful wit and compassion to make this story about the creation of Peter Pan fly."
New York Post - Somewhat Recommended
"...What's most striking is how a show about the power of whimsy and imagination is so lacking in both. Paulus and Company don't trust intimacy and charm, so everything is overplayed - despite the advice to an actor rehearsing Barrie's "Peter Pan" to go "smaller." Peter Pan taught others to free themselves and fly..."Finding Neverland" remains stuck to the ground.".
Newsday - Recommended
"...For a show about releasing the imagination, the musical is surprisingly conventional -- a down-the-middle family entertainment with excellent actors, as well as sturdy storytelling that recreates the movie with dogged fidelity. Directed by Diane Paulus, the production has a low-wattage wow factor that, though admirably true to the Edwardian period, mostly misses the chance to transform the fantasies in Barrie's mind with 21st century magic."
Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...Given the peculiarity of both the story and the story behind the story of The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, this always has struck me as a strange obsession, although it surely has been good for the Great Ormond Street Hospital, to whom Barrie bequeathed the rights to "Peter Pan." Now comes "Finding Neverland," a troubled musical version of the 2004 Johnny Depp movie that does not quite know what to make of Barrie and his famous friendship with the Llewelyn Davies family, which inspired one of the most famous stories in the world - even as it wants to exploit our fascination with Peter Pan's birth."
NBC New York - Somewhat Recommended
"...The end result is both rousing and erratic, with bits of thrilling stage magic that are signature Diane Paulus (she also directed "Pippin" and "Hair"), and dialogue that sometimes feels as if it's been focus group-sanitized to within an inch of its life. Billed as the backstory to "Peter Pan," the musical is based on the 2004 film, with Johnny Depp."
Time Out New York - Somewhat Recommended
"...Some of the cartoonish overacting and second-act plucking of heartstrings might be forgiven if the score were enchanting, but Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy's tunes (a mix of Britpop and pseudo-music-hall) are generic and burdened by cheap, trite lyrics. When the brightest element in Diane Paulus's tacky staging is Kelsey Grammer as a curmudgeonly producer, you know it's time to get the hook."
The Wrap - Recommended
"..."Finding Neverland" is a thoroughly enchanting new musical. Diane Paulus, the show's current director, has kept this musical tale about J. M. Barrie's creation of "Peter Pan" magnificently low tech...she creates magic not by being literal but recalling stage machinery that's appropriate to the year of Barrie's classic play, 1904...The rousing ensemble numbers could be lifted from a 1950's musical...This production may not be total perfection, but it works real magic with its child's play."
Financial Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...Swift-moving, playful, and appealing to children...This is not to say that "Finding Neverland" remains consistently airborne. The music and lyrics are redolent of pop-chart uplift and fail to contribute to character development. No matter how many emotionally effective touches the actors and their director, Diane Paulus, provide, the evening keeps returning to those mostly forgettable tunes. The lapses are especially apparent because this is, at heart, a show about artistic inspiration."
The Guardian - Not Recommended
"...Partly a weepie, partly a backstage comedy, partly a biography, partly a romance, partly a kiddie show, partly a magic show, there's something here for everybody - but not really enough of anything for anybody...Most of the songs are dull adult contemporary ballads, forgotten before they're even over...Director Paulus keeps throwing in magic tricks and storybook set changes, but no amount of illusionism can make the songs any better or the script and style seem any more definite."
Deadline - Recommended
"...Finding Neverland flies. Occasionally it even soars...It's still too treacly and the tear-wringing ending just goes on forever. But there's an audience for this show, which is visually cunning and something of a warm bath without being too insulting. It's not for the Sondheim or the post-Sondheim crowd. It's a sentimental throwback, unembarrassedly so."
Cititour.com - Somewhat Recommended
"...Theater doesn't always gel, even in the strongest of hands. We learn that lesson - in myriad ways, during the new musical 'Finding Neverland...' The last time is during the final bows of this clearly well-intentioned yet ultimately unremarkable tuner...It never really takes flight or finds its true voice. In part, book writer James Graham simply tries to juggle a few too many stories."
TheaterMania - Highly Recommended
"...An enchanting evening awaits audiences...Directed with heaps of fairy dust by Diane Paulus...Finding Neverland is never better than when Paulus and her illusions team create honest-to-god magic through pure theatricality. These moments are not only transcendent in their beauty, but also nearly impossible to do justice through words. No matter how seasoned a theatergoer you are, Finding Neverland feels like experiencing your first Broadway show all over again, and you'll never forget it.
Huffington Post - Somewhat Recommended
"...It's at best a treasure chest of only mixed delights...It's not that the present cast and production creative team aren't working up to high levels...to gussy up the proceedings, the writers and director Diane Paulus turn to all sorts of diversions...since this is a musical, the score is the biggest disappointment."
Stage Buddy - Not Recommended
"...The show seems to live for moments of self-righteous gratification such as a cringeworthy scene in which Grammer's character is subject of a 'Cheers' pun, complete with a pause meant for the audience to roar with approval and laughter. For a show that should be about the inexplicable magic of creation, every scene seems overwritten. Even Diane Paulus' direction lacks effervescence, each moment so overwrought that each character seems to be wearing a light-up 'Applause' sign."
DC Theatre Scene - Somewhat Recommended
"...The flash doesn't drown out the other aspects of the production. The acting is fine. The musical has funny moments and moving moments. The score mostly offers a sweet, bouncy British pop sound. There is nothing here outright to hate, and the attention to state-of-the-art stagecraft can be justified in a show that offers little real dramatic tension...But understanding the context results in a feeling of disappointment."
Stu on Broadway - Not Recommended
"...The book moves the story along, but lacks any sustained dramatic tension. We never become seriously involved with most of the characters. The show mostly plods from scene to scene, rarely achieving magical heights...The score is a huge letdown...The songs fitfully spring to life, but only occasionally do they fly or hit a tender chord."
WNBC - Recommended
"...The end result is both rousing and erratic, with bits of thrilling stage magic that are signature Diane Paulus, and dialogue that sometimes feels as if it's been focus group-sanitized to within an inch of its life...The melodies are pop-song good, if not likely to linger long with you. "Finding Neverland" is best in its scenes with surrogate father Barrie and the four boys...I think they're the ones who deserve a lot of the credit for getting "Finding Neverland" to fly."
