9 to 5 (musical) score" and said "the squarely old-fashioned show fills a tourist-ready Hollywood slot left vacant by "Legally Blonde" and "Hairspray". The thing feels less created than assembled from recycled musical-comedy components, but Broadway doesn't have one of these right now, and summer approaches." Writing for the "New York Post", Elizabeth Vincentelli rated the show three out of four stars and called it "goofily entertaining." About Dolly Parton she said, "It shouldn't surprise anybody she's taken so well to the stage: She's always been a storyteller first and foremost. Her countrified pop, enhanced by fiddle and pedal-steel guitar, fits perfectly on Broadway.
John Howard (singer-songwriter) scuttled as being "too depressing" – on its compilation "Zigzag: 20 Junkshop Soft Rock Singles 1970–1974". Two months later, and nearly thirty years after the album's original release, RPM re-issued "Kid in a Big World." In early 2004, "Uncut" magazine gave the re-issue a 5-star review, in which reviewer Paul Lester wrote that "Kid in a Big World" is a magnificent collection of rococo balladry and florid vignettes from a singer-songwriter who might have rivalled Elton or Bowie had his record company managed to market him right during that strange nether-period between glam and punk. Howard, wrote Lester, is "the