Did Tarzan Find Its Way Into the Critics' Hearts?

Disney did something unheard of on Broadway to make sure its latest stage musical, the big-budget Tarzan, was ready to shine by its May 10 opening at the Richard Rodgers Theatre—it scheduled only a few performances a week of the show during previews so the cast had extra time to rehearse. Did Broadway critics applaud the high-flying result?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Rob Kendt in his Broadway.com Review: "The chest-beating jungle man himself seems strangely absent from this clumsy spectacle, and never more so than when he's on stage. As played by the endearingly scrawny and utterly innocuous Josh Strickland, this show's Tarzan comes off less like a strapping nature boy raised by apes than as a sweetly mellow beach bum on an endless vacation… This Tarzan is something to sneeze at. So is the show, which labors mightily in the shadow of The Lion King's stunning stagecraft, and which handily demonstrates the wide gulf between a talented designer, which Bob Crowley is, and a visionary director, which he is not."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "Almost everybody and everything swings in Tarzan. Which is odd, since the show itself, to borrow from Duke Ellington's famous credo, definitely ain't got that swing. Tarzan is the latest, and most insistently kinetic, offering from Disney Theatrical Productions… Tarzan feels as fidgety and attention-deficient as the toddlers who kept straying from their seats during the performance I saw… A few somersaults and cartwheels, plus hovering in a suspended harness, just don't convince you that this show's grown-up Tarzan played by Josh Strickland, an American Idol contestant can float like a butterfly, sting like a serpent, swing like an ape and love like a man."

Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "You, Tarzan! Me, Agonized! Disney's new musical swung shakily into the Richard Rodgers Theatre last night, and as far I'm concerned, it can swing right back out again. It made me nostalgic for The Drowsy Chaperone and even Lestat. Well, perhaps not Lestat… The show was wrecked from the onset by its concept. Perhaps the Disney people will realize that not every one of their cartoons contains the kernel of a great Broadway show. A major problem was the casting of Tarzan himself. With his slight figure, noncharismatic presence and modest acting, acrobatic and vocal skills, former American Idol finalist Josh Strickland hardly seemed a natural selection."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "The tone of what little story there is varies between earnestness and tongue in cheek. Because it mostly seems cartoonish, Tarzan is annoying in using its final scenes for an attempt to create something touching. The actors do their best, especially [Shuler] Hensley as the wary Kerchak, [Merle] Dandridge as his torn wife and [Tim] Jerome as the Wodehouse-like father. Strickland is certainly an appealing action figure, and at times his movements are uncannily apelike. He sings powerfully, but the book never gives him a clear identity. Its weakest creation is the prissy Jane, whom [Jenn] Gambatese cannot make attractive. Collins' score has an earthiness but no dramatic power."

David Rooney of Variety: "The dose of tranquility provided by Bob Crowley's lusciously verdant sets for Tarzan should prove medicinal to the naysayers as the entertainment empire's latest stage venture becomes a prosperous fixture at the Richard Rodgers. The show may be more sophisticated in terms of its design and physical presentation than in its workmanlike musical craftsmanship, but an insipid score has not stopped other Disney tuners from finding popular acceptance in the marketplace. Expanding on the five songs he penned for the 1999 animated movie, Phil Collins has written numbers that rarely develop or build the way good musical theater songs should, and there's no punchy act-one closer or stirring final anthem. But the pop score is tuneful, the lyrics serviceable and the pounding percussive rhythms occasionally exciting, which seems enough to ask in this vibrant package."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "While the elaborate production is visually stunning, the show, directed and designed by Bob Crowley, is emotionally and musically lightweight—almost as skimpy as Tarzan's leather loincloth… The mammoth settings tend to dwarf the performers, particularly when the intrepid foreigners arrive to collect exotic flora and fauna. Jane, the incessantly perky British botanist, is portrayed by Jenn Gambatese with her cheerfulness amped up to the rafters, while Tim Jerome shows commendable restraint as her kindly father. Their impetuous, gun-toting American guide, played by Donnie Keshawarz, is a pallid villain, and his comeuppance by Tarzan is remarkably anticlimactic. But then the sparks between Jane and Tarzan don't exactly ignite either. And humor is scarce, too, although a smidgen can be found in the performance of Chester Gregory II as Terk."

Elysa Gardner of USA Today: "From Bob Crowley's lush, fanciful scenic and costume design to its intricate uses of animation and projected images, Tarzan offers plenty of the flash considered catnip for tourists and casual fans. Here, though, it's not empty flash. Not since I saw Elton John's Billy Elliot in London last year have I been as impressed with the uncynical warmth and charm of a kid-friendly musical… Most songs are new and blend mildly agreeable melodies and Afrocentric rhythms with the odd nod to Gilbert and Sullivan. But it's David Henry Hwang's sprightly libretto that makes this Tarzan fly."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "Flora and fauna and fur balls hang in the jungle stratosphere with agile beauty in Tarzan, Disney's latest animation-to-Broadway musical. The only hanging the show doesn't do is hang together… Despite some ravishing spectacle and excellent ape moves, the show never defines itself beyond a sickly sweet, hard-sell Cirque du Soleil-meets-American Idol sensibility. By the time a band of primates dashes through the aisles in the second act, the struggle for special effects feels desperate."