Did the critics stick it to School Of Rock?

Sarah Crompton, WhatsOnStage

★★★★

"If you were asked to guess the composer of School Of Rock I think you'd think for a long time before you came up with the name Andrew Lloyd Webber."

"There is nothing like a large quantity of cute kids on stage to bring the house down…well-nigh irresistible."

"David Fynn plays Dewey with a kind of shambolic warm-heartedness, but it is the cast of children – all uniformly excellent – who are the stars."

"You'd need a heart of stone not to melt at its sheer joy."

Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph

★★★★★

"A stonking hit on Broadway, School of Rock has now landed with an almighty kerrang of confidence in the West End."

"'Team' Lloyd Webber have improved on this vaguely preposterous but resonant fairytale of salvation through disobedience and primal playfulness. What was funny becomes doubly so. Where there were a handful of original songs, now there’s an album’s worth, busting with rare freshness and vitality."

"David Fynn is terrific as the chaotic-charismatic man-child. Florence Andrews, A-star."

"The most enjoyable few hours money can buy."

Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out

★★★

"It is the ultimate musical about male privilege, a show about an under-qualified, over-entitled white guy who shambles his way to public adoration by blithely inflicting bankrupt baby boomer values upon a bunch of impressionable people who don’t know any better."

"School Of Rock is a baby boomer fantasy, with an underlying earnestness to its suggestion that if we only listened to successful white men of a certain vintage our happiness would be assured. It is, in a certain light, the musical version of Donald Trump."

"But here’s the thing: the kids are really cute. And really talented. You would have to be an absolute monster to not be charmed and impressed by the little pipsqueaks. There are three child casts, which I’m happy to assume are equally precocious as they pluckily howl and strum their way through Lloyd Webber’s undeniably toe-tappin’ song list."

Paul Taylor, The Independent

★★★★

"The kids are more than alright – in fact, they’re an absolute joy in this ridiculously entertaining new show with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater and book by Julian Fellowes."

" The show, directed by Laurence Connor, is a quirky hoot with a heart, a fable about the empowering force of music that crackles with mischief and sly irreverence – and it’s clear that the material strikes some deep chord within Lloyd Webber who has here composed his happiest and most confident score in a long while."

"David Fynn is bliss as Dewey. In a performance of explosive energy and scapegrace charm, he shows you a shaggy free-loading slob who turns into a man possessed when promulgating the gospel of rock, replete with frenzied flourishes of guitar-shredding zeal."

Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard

★★★★

" Loud and cheeky, a feelgood experience with a hint of anarchic wildness."

"Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame may not seem the obvious choice to write about pre-teens learning — in the words of the catchiest number — to ‘stick it to the man’. Yet his book is warmly amusing, and there’s plenty of knowing cleverness in Glenn Slater’s lyrics."

"Lloyd Webber’s score is buoyant and bassy, with moments of guitar-shredding frenzy and a keen ear for pastiche."

"Laurence Connor’s production roars into life the moment the students start to fall under Dewey's spell. With an exuberant silliness that feels like a seasonal tonic, this is a big-hearted, family-friendly show."

School of Rock – The Musical is booking at the New London Theatre until 12 February 2017