Steve On Broadway (SOB): "Last evening, Billy Elliot The Musical opened at Broadway's Imperial Theatre.
Directed by the same man who directed the 2000 film, Stephen Daldry, and with a book and lyrics written by the same man who wrote the original screenplay, Lee Hall, this tuner's music is by Sir Elton John."
5 comments:
I wonder if the success of this show can be attributed to the fact that they kept the same director and writer. Sometimes when films make the transition from screen to the stage, people like to compare the two. Having one person for both visions might help carry the theme over.
I'm glad that this show made such a successful shift from movie to musical. Of all the movies-turned-musicals that have been seen recently, 'Billy Elliot' seemed to be one that would be hard to convert into something an audience would enjoy watching in a theatre, but this article makes it seem that many of the movie's elements have been artistically recreated for the stage.
I hope that this show can help show people that not all stage adaptations of films have to be bad. I feel like this is the general mindset of a lot of people right now, but they fail to acknowledge the success of a lot of other stage adaptations. Of course, the question is whether or not the stage version will tell a unique story. In the case of Billy Elliot, it sounds like it has. Hopefully, more of the stage adaptations of films in the future will fit into this category as well.
I really am not very surprised with "Elliot's" new found success. Sadly - it's pretty damn easy for a show to make it on Broadway if it's based on a movie or popular children's novel. I just wish that a truly original musical could make it onto broadway without closing in a couple of months. Le sigh....
I saw Billy Elliot in London. It was one of the best put together shows that I have seen. I believe that this was an improvement over the movie version. The energy and “electricity” that the live version brought to the story made this one of my favorite pieces of theatre that I have see!
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