AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

ADDITIONS: 11/17/08 - 7:46am EST

Time Out New York

Review: Billy Elliot
The Brit-import musical has grit, heart and spectacular dancing. Go Billy!

New York Magazine

Review: Billy Elliot
A flat-footed musical is saved by its young stars

ADDITIONS: 11/14/08 - 3:03pm EST

ny1

NY1 Theater Review: "Billy Elliot"

New York Daily News

'Billy' makes great leap onto B'way
The transfer of musicals from film to Broadway has a spotty history. But "Billy Elliot," the irresistible new show from London, is that rare production - one that brings all the elements together and creates a fresh emotional experience.

eFluxMedia

“Billy Elliot’s” Finest Magic Dances on Broadway

THE FIRST REVIEWS

AmericanTheaterWeb

Review - Billy Elliot: The Musical - Simply Electrifying

New York Times

In Hard Times, Born to Pirouette
Much of the power of “Billy Elliot” as an honest tear-jerker lies in its ability to give equal weight to the sweet dreams of terpsichorean flight and the sourness of a dream-denying reality.

New York Daily News

[regarding 'Billy Elliot' - the review is on page 2 - "'Billy' makes great leap to B'way" is the headline - darned if I can find it online though]

amNY New York City Theater Blog

Theater Review of Billy Elliot: The Musical

Newsday

Review: 'Billy Elliot'
Broadway's long, dark, dry spell of big, smart, smash musicals is officially over. "Billy Elliot," the 2005 London adaptation of the 2000 movie, finally arrived in a production as seriously thrilling as it is deeply lovable.

New York Post

Elton's tiny-dancer show raises the barre
After some rocky previews, marred by a sluggish hydraulic set and overly thick accents, "Billy Elliot" opened last night, proving itself the best gift from Britain since Harry Potter. This tale of a motherless ...

New York Journal-News

'Billy Elliot' is the Broadway season's first big musical hit

Hartford Courant

Smashing 'Billy Elliot' Shows The Theatrical Powers Of Stephen Daldry

Bergen Record

'Billy Elliot' is great fun, choreographed not to end

Associated Press

A warmhearted 'Billy Elliot' dances to Broadway with superlative cast

Bloomberg.com

`Billy Elliot,' Coal Miner's Son, Leaps to Broadway's Heights: John Simon
A show's claim to offer ``something for everyone'' usually signals disaster: the lowest common denominator and the antithesis of art. Well, for once, the exception proves true: ``Billy Elliot'' -- London's long-running hit with Elton John's music, finally replicated on Broadway -- really does have something for everyone, and that something is, gloriously, art.

Wall Street Journal

Karl Marx in a Tutu
Terry Teachout has seen his share of bad Broadway musicals, but he can't recall one that was quite so vulgar and bogus as "Billy Elliot."
* Video: Terry Teachout on Billy Elliot

Entertainment Weekly

Review: Billy Elliot
Elton John's stage musical Billy Elliot, like the hero at its center, is a rough-around-the-edges charmer with talent and ambition to spare, one that grabs you by the scruff of your neck (and your heartstrings) and will not let go until the final curtain.

USA Today

'Billy Elliot' musical taps into the hope and energy of youth

Variety

Review: Billy Elliot: The Musical
Three-and-a-half years may seem a long time for an instantaneous London smash like "Billy Elliot: The Musical" to cross the Atlantic, but the delay looks to have played serendipitously into the producers' hands.

Back Stage

Billy Elliot: The Musical reviwed by David Sheward
What could easily have become a feel-good treacle fest — particularly with Elton John composing the music — turns out to be one of the smartest and most satisfying Broadway musicals in years.

The Money Times

Elton John Mesmerizes In Broadway Musical "Billy Elliot"

Time Magazine

Billy Elliot: London's Hit Musical Scores on Broadway

TheaterMania

Peter Filichia's Diary: The Trial of Billy Elliot
“I couldn’t wait for it to end.” It’s an expression that many theatergoers use when telling friends about a show they hated. Well, I couldn’t wait for Billy Elliot: The Musical to end, but for a completely different reason: I couldn’t wait to hear the titanic ovation that David Alvarez was going to get for playing Billy.

Review: Billy Elliot: The Musical
The Elton John-Lee Hall musical adaptation of the hit film about an English boy who decides to become a ballet dancer is gangbuster entertainment.

Talkin' Broadway

Review: Billy Elliot
Passion, power, and freedom explode from the boy at the center of the musical Billy Elliot whenever he's allowed - or whenever he allows himself - to take to his feet and express his pain in movement. Born to a family of coal miners in the U.K.'s County Durham, Billy has never known the primal ecstasy of creation in its purest and most elemental state, but once he tastes it he cannot return to the artless world of his birth. It may be a cliché, but for Billy it's true: He comes alive only when he dances. . .

Philadelphia Inquirer

Billy Elliot: 'Rocky' in toe shoes

Chicago Tribune Theater Loop Blog

An unbridled 'Billy Elliot' springs itself on Broadway

Los Angeles Times

Broadway staging overwhelms 'Billy Elliot: The Musical'
"Billy Elliot: The Musical," the stage version of Stephen Daldry's heartwarming movie about an 11-year-... ...