 It's half-sung, half-spoken but acted to the fullest, a consummate bit of musical-theater performing... Plimpton is quite a revelation in the role.Variety, praising the production and specifically Risch, wrote a follow up response to the mixed reviews stating

it's bizarre to see Mantello's staging pejoratively described as "ruthless," "joyless" and "unhappy" — as if such qualities don't compute in musical theater.One of the controversies of this "Joey" is that its leading man, newcomer Matthew Risch, the understudy who replaced Christian Hoff in the eleventh hour, fails to deliver the requisite dollop of charm to his catting around.