EW's reviews for this week include:

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 3:02pm

Stuff Happens: C
The Constant Wife: B
The Paris Letter: B
KA (Las Vegas): A-


SPECIAL LONDON REPORT:
Some Girl(s): C+
Mary Poppins: B
Billy Elliot: A-
Death of a Salesman: A-
Guys and Dolls: A


If anyone wants me to post any specific reviews, I'd be more than happy to.

[musicnmath]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 3:24pm

Can you post Billy Elliot and Mary Poppins? Now that I've moved closer to NY, I'm now growing in my obsession with shows in London!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 3:42pm

MARY POPPINS: What works in this Disney adaptation of the 1964 film, including magical stagecraft and mesmerizing choreography by Brit ballet bard Matthew Bourne, works very well indeed. What doesn’t is a saggy first act that dawdles on new numbers like an existential ode to domestic discontent whose chorus actually begins "Being Mrs. Banks...." Title nanny Laura Michelle Kelly may not be "practically perfect in every way" but she nails the slightly arch tone of PL Travers' book and creates a Jung-at-heart heroine. (GRADE: B)

BILLY ELLIOT: The elements that make this a first-rate stage musical of Stephen Daldry's 2000 film also render it unfriendly to Broadway. Elton John's score is notably mature, but draws more on folk, protest songs, and music-hall traditions than on his pop roots. The show, set during the 1984 miners' strike in northeast England (the program includes a glossary to decipher regional dialogue), boasts a neo-socialist political agenda, unapologetically skewering Maggie Thatcher. And the ballet-dancing preteen hero, played by one of three hyper talented actors performing in rotation, spouts the F-word repeatedly. But while the particulars may be off-putting to American audiences, the theatrical catharsis achieved by a small town boy earning his moment in the spotlight is blissfully universal (GRADE: A-)

[musicnmath]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 3:46pm

Thanks, WickedRocks.

Is there any way to tell if the reviews are British or American? (The Billy Elliot one sounds reviewed by an American) That would really effect a review because some of the references, language use, musical style, etc may just not make sense to an American ear!