The reviews are in for Midnight, the sung-through musical that opened at the Daryl Roth Theatre on Thursday, October 15, and few new shows have carried one name on so many lines of the credits. Todrick Hall wrote the book, music and lyrics, directs, choreographs and plays Rail, an enslaved man in the 19th-century American South whose secret bond with Richard (Jeremy Beloate), the fiancé of the woman who owns him, drives the story toward a second-act twist most of the critics are careful not to spoil. They agree about the voices: almost every notice says the company sings thrillingly. They do not agree about Hall’s ambition. For some it is the boldest new musical in years; for others it is a show with more ideas than it can hold, and one that needed an outside hand to cut it.
The verdict: thirteen reviews in so far. Three outlets give a score: 1 Minute Critic and The BroadGAYS both give 5 out of 5, and Culture Sauce gives 3, an average of 4.3 among those that rate. The other ten publish no rating. On one thing the field is all but unanimous: this is one of the best-sung companies in town, with Ayana George, Charlotte Odusanya and Jeremy Beloate named again and again. Where the critics part is everything else. Slant Magazine, Times Square Chronicles, Pages on Stages and The BroadGAYS call it the most exciting new musical in years; The New York Sun, TheaterMania, Culture Sauce, Cititour and New York Theatre Guide find it overlong or overstuffed, and wish someone besides Todrick Hall had helped shape it.
What are critics saying about Midnight?
The New York Sun
"Todrick Hall’s ‘Midnight’ Chimes Unevenly"
Reviewer: Elysa Gardner
Gardner gives Hall an A for ambition and reads the show as a self-conscious successor to Hamilton, which she thinks it cannot live up to: the songs pile on high notes and melisma, and the message about racism and homophobia arrives without much subtlety. She singles out Charlotte Odusanya and Kennedy Caughell as the exceptions among characters who are otherwise simply noble or evil.
"At this point, the performer is more developed than the creator, but I look forward to watching both grow."
She ends on Hall himself, whom she calls plainly worth watching, and a far stronger musical performer than the writer he is still becoming.
TheaterMania
"Todrick Hall’s MIDNIGHT Is a Dazzling Spectacle in Need of an Alarm Clock"
Reviewer: Pete Hempstead
Hempstead is in awe of the talent on stage, from Hall’s singing and choreography to the operatic belting of Odusanya, Caughell, Kolbi Jordan and Bella Coppola, and he picks out Ayana George’s “The Dancing One.” His trouble is the length and an eclectic score that he finds cannot hold an overstuffed plot together, and a second act that drags.
"There is, somewhere in MIDNIGHT, a good musical with a life on a bigger stage…"
His diagnosis is that the show has too few cooks rather than too many: nobody was there to trim Hall’s excesses.
Slant Magazine
"‘Midnight’ Review: Todrick Hall’s Audacious Musical Experiment"
Reviewer: Dan Rubins
The warmest of the trade notices. Rubins calls the show euphorically maximalist and praises the ensemble singing above all, with Ayana George shattering in “The Dancing One.” He is not untroubled: he thinks using slavery as a fairy-tale backdrop is treacherous ground, and wishes Hall did not tie the questions up so neatly at the end.
"Midnight already sounds, looks, and innovates like the best new musical of the year."
For him the second-act device is the point of the evening, an experiment worth making in a field of cookie-cutter musicals, and he would rather Hall pushed it further than smoothed it over.
Culture Sauce
"Todrick Hall does it all in the beautiful, bloated musical ‘Midnight’ and that’s the problem"
Reviewer: Thom Geier · 3 out of 5
Geier hears some genuine bangers and gorgeous choral writing in the score, but argues that Hall needed an outside director or producer to trim and tighten it. He finds the power imbalance between Rail and Richard largely ignored, and little chemistry between the two leads.
"There is a great musical in Midnight — possibly two or three — but it gets lost…"
The design and the singing win him over: Ayana George’s “The Dancing One” is the show’s most moving number, and the post-curtain-call encore sends the audience out on a high.
1 Minute Critic
"‘Midnight’ review: Todrick Hall turns back time"
Reviewer: Kelsey Minor · 5 out of 5
Minor is held by the big numbers and the heavy subject matter alike, and reads the role-reversal convention as a direct challenge to the audience. He sees the show’s concerns, racism and homophobia, as live issues today rather than period pieces.
"with voices this powerful carrying it, a few hours in someone else’s shoes is time well spent."
His is one of three notices in the field to give a score, and it is a full five stars.
The BroadGAYS
"An extraordinary score, sensational choreography, and voices that take your breath away."
Reviewer: Stephen Kearley · 5 out of 5
Kearley’s is the most unreserved notice of all. He praises a score that moves between styles with confidence, choreography he calls on fire, and the whole design team, and he advises going in knowing as little of the plot as possible.
"Todrick Hall’s Midnight at the Daryl Roth Theatre is the best musical I’ve seen since Hamilton."
The show is the first to receive the site’s “must-see” designation.
New York Theatre Guide
"‘Midnight’ Off-Broadway review — Todrick Hall’s new musical goes big"
Reviewer: Kyle Turner
Turner admires the parts, from the choreography and the lighting to the earworms and the voices, but finds that together they make an odd fit for the material. The pop gloss and fantasy wish-fulfillment, he argues, sit uneasily against a Civil War-era story of an enslaved man and his white lover.
"a strange, complex experience that’s not exactly unenjoyable, but somewhat dubious."
He hears debts to Hamilton and the megamusical era in a show where subject, tone and style keep clashing.
Theater Scene
Reviewer: Matthew Roland
Roland approaches the show’s history as a white Australian and says so plainly, then praises Hall’s direction for moving a large company smoothly around a small stage.
"With one of the most vocally talented casts I have ever had the privilege of hearing"
His reservations are the choreography, which he found juvenile and distracting at times, and a sound mix that left some sung-through lyrics hard to make out. Morgan Large’s set and Jake DeGroot’s lighting both win his praise.
Times Square Chronicles
"Midnight: Todrick Hall Has Created a Musical Masterpiece That Broadway Cannot Afford to Ignore"
Reviewer: Suzanna Bowling
Bowling, a longtime admirer of Hall’s videos, calls the show an astonishing achievement and the score musical nirvana, with harmonies she could barely believe one production had assembled. She allows that an editorial hand could help in places, but says the running time passes with ease.
"it is, hands down, the best new musical I have seen this season."
Jeremy Beloate and Charlotte Odusanya are among the performers she singles out.
Read Suzanna Bowling’s full review at Times Square Chronicles
Cititour
"Midnight Strikes a Chord"
Reviewer: Brian Scott Lipton
Lipton takes on the “vanity project” question directly. He finds the score tuneful and sometimes thrilling, but thinks someone else should have looked over the material, and calls the second-act twist interesting for five minutes and tedious over 75.
"…Hall would not have assembled one of the strongest vocal casts I’ve seen on an Off-Broadway stage in years."
Beloate, Odusanya, Caughell, Autumn Hurlbert, Coppola, George and Jordan all get a mention.
Pages on Stages
"Spellbinding"
Reviewer: Mason Pilevsky
Pilevsky reads the show as an epic opera about humanity’s capacity for hatred, and is struck by how its ending refuses easy hope. He calls the production fully realized, with costumes, set, lighting and sound all pulling together.
"Todrick Hall’s Midnight is the bold, completely original theatrical adventure I have hungered for in Broadway’s recent years."
He hopes it transfers, and values a story that is not adapted from a film, franchise or novel.
Josh at the Movies
Reviewer: Joshua M. Hayes
Hayes hears a little Hadestown and Hamilton in the mix, but finds a show with its own flavor, and credits real chemistry between Hall and Beloate.
"…an ambitious sucker punch of emotion overflowing with surprises…"
The second act is where it bowled him over, and he left wanting a cast recording; only the stepmother-and-stepsisters number struck him as too shrill.
The Interested Bystander
"“Midnight” Is a Unique and Visionary Musical About Slavery"
This critic arrived skeptical of one person taking on every job and decided the gamble paid off: the acting is layered, the songs are stirring and the choreography mixes beauty with social commentary. The reservations are a show that still feels inflated, with acts that seem to end several times, and lyrics lost when the cast sings together.
"he may have needed an extra pair of eyes to help shape a great show into something brilliant."
Beloate and Kolbi Jordan are the standouts here, and so are Beck Jones’s costumes.
For more of what the New York critics have been saying, read our roundups for A Ghost in Your Ear at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre and Anon at MCC Theater.
Midnight runs at the Daryl Roth Theatre, 101 East 15th Street, through November 8, 2026. The running time is listed at two hours and 30 minutes, including an intermission. Production photos by Valerie Terranova.
