It's Curtains for Rent After 12 Years

(AP) - Billy Elliot, the British musical about a coal miner's son who burns to dance, won 10 Tony Awards tonight in New York, including best musical and a unique best actor prize for the three young performers who share the title role. David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish shyly thanked people associated with the show only by their first name. Finally, Kulish told the cheering crowd at Radio City Music Hall: "We want to say to all the kids out there who might want to dance, 'Never give up.'" More»

Production can be uneven, but still enjoyable

(NEWSER) - The highly anticipated revival of West Side Story on Broadway opened last night to solid reviews, with critics applauding an unusually tender interpretation in which the women rule. Highlights:

• “Even when they’re flashing switchblades and kicking people in the ribs, the teenage hoodlums who maraud through Arthur Laurents’s startlingly sweet new revival of West Side Story seem like really nice kids,” writes Ben Brantley in the New York Times.

Show lacking in 'inspiration'

(NEWSER) - Shrek the Musical has its moments, but in the end, it contradicts its own message that substance trumps what’s on the surface, writes Ben Brantley in the New York Times. The “leaden” show presents a “cavalcade of storybook effigies” that “feels like 40 blocks’ worth of a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” Brantley notes. Still, its romantic leads score, transforming “glowery friction into dewy-eyed romance.” More»

7th-longest-running Broadway show closing June 1

(NEWSER) - Rent is preparing to close up shop and move out of the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway, its home since 1996. The cutting-edge rock adaptation of La Bohème was written by Jonathan Larson, who died at the age of 35 of an aneurysm the night of the final dress rehearsal. Larson peopled the musical with personalities he knew in the pre-gentrified East Village who were energized by youthful irreverence and exuberance, and shattered by AIDS. More»

Belle waves adieu; Ariel to wave hello

(NEWSER) - The final curtain falls on Beauty and the Beast today after more than 5,000 performances and 13 years on Broadway. The show that started the Disney-on-Broadway rage will exit the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre to make room for a stage adaptation of another kiddie staple, The Little Mermaid, the AP reports. More»