Margaret Gray – LA Times
In one of the most entertaining numbers in the musical “School of Rock,” which opened Thursday at the Hollywood Pantages theater, a substitute teacher rallies his 10-year-old students to “stick it to the man” by ignoring their stuffy prep-school curriculum and forming a rock band. It’s fun to watch the adorable children morph from grade-grubbing fussbudgets into miniature sneering, strutting Mick Jaggers and Axl Roses over the course of a few catchy bars. The audience can’t help getting swept up in the rebellion. Read more…
Ellen Dostal – BroadwayWorld
As kid musicals go, SCHOOL OF ROCK isn’t half bad. It falls somewhere between ANNIE and MATILDA on the Richter scale of stories about downtrodden kids overcoming obstacles to win in the end. It’s got enough emotional oomph to tug on your heartstrings and it gives you plenty of reasons to happily cheer the underdogs on. It’s also making stars out of its young cast members, right and left. Read more…
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly
School of Rock, directed by Laurence Connor at the Pantages Theatre, doesn’t bowl you over with its mostly forgettable music. What it does do is deliver well-staged and well-executed family entertainment, showcasing an impressive ensemble of preteen actors who sing, dance and act up a storm. The grown-ups are good, too. Read more…
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way
Laurence Connor has directed most of the show, especially the opening and closing, as if it were a real rock concert, and that, aided by the spectacular lighting of Natasha Katz and the pitch perfect sound design of Mick Potter, works beautifully. His direction of the non-rock concert aspects of the show is dismal. Read more…
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze
It doesn’t have the cerebral and emotional heft of Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.” It doesn’t have the freshness and electricity of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton.” It certainly doesn’t showcase a lush score on par with those of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Yet “School of Rock” engenders every bit of the theatergoing joy these theatrical pillars provide…. Read more…
Now running through May 27