BOOP! THE MUSICAL Reviews

A non-(or less) crazy thread.

4 stars from Time Out

Boop! The Musical

4 out of 5 stars

Jasmine Amy Rogers paints the town red in a bright and bubbly new musical.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/boop-the-musical-broadway-review-betty-boop-jasmine-amy-rogers

"if Boop!, like Mitchell’s 2013’s Kinky Boots, feels like a synthesis of many other shows, it also, like Kinky Boots, accomplishes that synthesis well. This musical will not change your brain in any way, but it delivers what it promises: a big Broadway production that leaves you grinning, and a star performer with the poise, charm and chops to make you believe that what the world needs now might be, of all things, a little more Betty Boop. That may or may not be real, but what fun it is to escape for a while into the alternate dimension of The Jasmine Amy Rogers Follies."

Green in NYT

‘Boop! The Musical’ Review: Betty Gets a Brand Extension

The It girl with the spit curl looks great for 100, but her Broadway musical, which feels like one big merch grab, is boop-boop-a-don’t.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/theater/boop-the-musical-review-broadway.html

"“Boop! The Musical” — now playing at the Broadhurst Theater, in a production directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell — is a “why?” show par excellence.

And excellence it has. As Betty, the flapper of early talkie cartoons, Jasmine Amy Rogers is immensely likable. She sings fabulously, sports a credible perma-smile, nails all the Boop mannerisms and has a fetching way with a tossed-off line. I can’t imagine anyone making more of the exhausting opportunity, let alone in a Broadway debut."

AMNY:

Review | ‘Boop! The Musical’: Boop-Oop-a-Don’t

https://www.amny.com/entertainment/broadway/boop-the-musical-boop-oop-a-dont/

"Jasmine Amy Rogers plays Betty in stylized, exaggerated fashion — full of baby-voiced catchphrases and cartoonish mannerisms. She’s committed and cute, but understandably cannot replicate the surreal proportions and charisma of her animated counterpart. So when New Yorkers instantly recognize her as the real Betty Boop, it’s unconvincing.

The book by Bob Martin (“The Drowsy Chaperone”) attempts to reframe Betty as a modern feminist figure, but the messaging is muddled and superficial. The plot is thin, the pacing sluggish, and the emotional arc barely registers. There are scattered references to cartoon lore — including Betty’s early days as a dog — and jazz greats like Cab Calloway, but they land as shallow nods."

Theatremania is positive: "one of the feel-good musicals of the year."

Slant

‘Boop! The Musical’ Review: A Maximalist Goof-Fest with a Century-Long Backstory

Boop! earns the confetti cannon that goes off in the show’s final moments.

https://www.slantmagazine.com/theater/boop-the-musical-review/

"even if Boop! delivers a low-key #DeepMessage, it’s mainly just a rollicking good time that earns the confetti cannon that goes off in the show’s final moments. Director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell’s exorbitantly exuberant production numbers fuse old-school tap excess with a bit of hip-hop fluidity. Finn Ross’s projections design playfully incorporate glimpses of the original Boop animation throughout David Rockwell’s set. And for its sense of childlike wonder and whimsy, Gregg Barnes’s show-stopping costume designs for the second-act opener, in which half-black-and-white, half-color outfits allow the ensemble to swap between ToonTown and the real world from beat to beat, ought to melt the hearts of even the steeliest theater critics.

Grammy-winning producer and composer David Foster pens amiable pop-jazz bops that are nimbly orchestrated by Doug Besterman, even if some of the arrangements go over the top: Betty’s opening ballad, for one, thunders disproportionately, suggesting one of Norma Desmond’s arias from Sunset Boulevard. But those songs are sold at a profit by the gumptious Rogers, who makes sense of Betty simultaneously being a pen-and-ink creation and a flesh-and-blood woman, melding the bygone wide-eyed soubrette with the contemporary, street-smart rabble-rouser. And Rogers movingly converts Betty’s voice from the cutesy cartoon sound to a full-throated belt as she figures out who she is and what she wants."

Daily Beast

Review: ‘Boop! The Musical’ Should Turn Betty Boop Into the New Barbie

BOOP-OOP-A-DOOP

“Boop! The Musical” borrows from “Barbie” and “The Wizard of Oz,” takes on #MeToo Baddies and Eric Adams, and brings a show-stopping rainbow of joy to Broadway.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/review-boop-the-musical-should-turn-betty-boop-into-the-new-barbie/

" the show features none of the name-recognition star-power of its award-vying neighbors. Jasmine Amy Rogers, in an impressively assured Broadway debut, is playing Betty.

Yet you will likely have more fun at Boop! than in many other theaters this spring; this is an old-fashioned stage-frolic filled show, with big songs and bigger dancing, including roof-raising numbers overseen by director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell, with the company tap-dancing and high-kicking in perfect rows of synchronized movement. If you desire sheer escapism—and I can’t imagine why, the world being just peachy right now—this show is for you. It goes on far too long (at least half an hour could be cut), but—just wait for the finale!—you even forgive it that."

Knowing Hofler...yes.

Jasmine is the front runner for the Tony this year. She's carrying this show on her shoulders.

Wow. NY Sun

A 1930s Cartoon Character, Betty Boop, Comes to Life as Broadway’s Most Compelling Musical Comedy Heroine in Decades

Credit the show’s librettist, Bob Martin, and the director and choreographer, Jerry Mitchell, whose many celebrated credits include ‘Kinky Boots’ and ‘Legally Blonde.’

https://www.nysun.com/article/a-1930s-cartoon-character-betty-boop-comes-to-life-as-broadways-most-compelling-musical-comedy-heroine-in-decades

MemorableUserName said: "AMNY:

She’s committed and cute, but understandably cannot replicate the surreal proportions and charisma of her animated counterpart. So when New Yorkers instantly recognize her as the real Betty Boop, it’s unconvincing."

This part from the AMNY review is why I can NEVER take anything Matt Windman says seriously. Really? You can't believe that characters in this FICTIONAL WORLD recognize ANOTHER FICTIONAL CHARACTER because her "proportions" are wrong? First of all, I don't think that's even true. Second of all, since when do we throw away the concept of suspension of disbelief? Why are you even reviewing musical theater if that concept isn't something you can fathom? What an asinine take. Like I get it if the show isn't your cup of tea, but that criticism is just insane.

So far 5 thumbs up and 2 down.

Mr. Wormwood said: "Audra and Nicole would like a word"

To be honest with you, Jasmine would have my vote. I don't think it's that far-fetched to think she could win, especially if people are split on Audra and Nicole.

Jesse Green has really become a weird fusion of Ben Brantley and Charles Isherwood.