Actress Rita Moreno – who had won a Tony Award for her performance as Googie Gomez in the Broadway production – and many others from the 1975 original cast, such as Jack Weston, Jerry Stiller, and F. Murray Abraham, reprised their stage roles in the film version.

"[3] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety wrote "Depending on where one's taste lies, The Ritz is either esoteric farce for the urban cosmopolite, or else one long tasteless and anachronistic Fiftyish 'gay' joke.

"[5] Penelope Gilliatt of The New Yorker thought that unlike the play, "some binding poignancy is missing from the film" because Richard Lester, as a heterosexual, was "making a picture about homosexuality from the outside."

"[6] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film made the transition from the stage "surprisingly well, given the odds," with "two of the most flamboyantly entertaining and skillful comedy performances of the year" by Jack Weston and Rita Moreno.

[7] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "I missed the play, but there is certainly something amiss with the film, and it appears to be Richard Lester's direction, which fails to establish a rhythm perky enough to transform a farcical plot and set of conventions pleasurably from one medium to another.