Every one of the seven reviews is favourable, and the praise gathers in the same place: Busby Berkeley’s dance numbers, which most critics treat as the reason the film is still watched. Several credit it with setting the pattern for the backstage musical, and the 1933 notices note how far its staging had moved on from earlier Hollywood musicals. Warner Baxter’s harried director and Ruby Keeler’s understudy are singled out repeatedly, Keeler for a screen debut the critics find winning.
The reservations are mild and cluster on the plot. Time Out and The New Yorker both call the story thin or conventional, a chorus novice saving the show being no surprise, and say the dialogue, songs and visuals carry it. Empire is the least effusive, granting the film its energy without claiming much more for it. The spread is narrow and nobody dissents; the only disagreement is over how much the familiar story matters when the numbers are this good.