NEW YORK -- The new Broadway musicals include one probable blockbuster, one seasonal sure thing and one oddity that has already announced a Jan. 4 closing -- but it will go on forever in the schools.

It may not seem like blockbuster stuff, this musical adaptation of the 2000 movie about an English miner's 11-year-old son who loves to dance, set amid the tumult of the doomed strike of 1984-85. Having seen it in London, where it's been packing in audiences for 3 1/2 years, I was dubious whether it would survive the ocean crossing.

Would American audiences be willing to embrace a working-class environment where Maggie Thatcher is jeered? And what about the thick midlands accents and slang? But if the response of Post-Gazette ShowPlane members is a fair gauge, "Billy Elliot" should do very well here, too.

Other than the softening of those accents, I can see very few compromises. Perhaps our current economic struggles make us more sympathetic to the working-class struggle. That struggle sharpens the story, because while ballet has middle- and upper-class affiliations in the United States, in Britain those class gulfs run even deeper.

Ultimately, though, the family story, especially the relationship between father and son, is what carries the show, and American audiences yield to no one in their love of a sentimental story of unlikely triumph.

But it's the social dimension that makes the show for me, including the miners' political anger and the identification of the cops (mainly working class themselves) with the owners. One of my favorite scenes is the mid-show miners Christmas party with its robust lampoon of union-busting Maggie.

That's when Billy's dad, who has so far been pig-headed about his kid's interest in dance, starts to soften, singing plaintively of his love for the land and implicitly of the wife he misses. Gradually he shares his son's ambition, which allows us to share his astonished reaction to the posh atmosphere of Billy's Royal Ballet School tryout.

Repeating their fine work are director Stephen Daldry (who also directed the movie) and choreographer Peter Darling. Elton John provides a warm, eclectic score, drawing on pop, rock, folk, union anthems, you name it. I'm impressed.

The father is played by the stolid, soulful Gregory Jbara. The key role of Billy's teacher is played by Haydn Gwynne, from the London company, and that of Grandma by Carole Shelley, who was in Pittsburgh in 2006 in "Wicked" and "The Secret Letters of Jackie and Marilyn."

Three boys alternate playing Billy. I saw David Alvarez, a Canadian of Cuban parentage, the perfect mix of ungainly kid and touching dancer. He's actor enough to score in the tear-jerking imagined scenes with his dead mother, and his pas de deux with his imagined older self is deeply affecting.

Whether or not you get misty-eyed about unions, it would take a stony heart to resist the sweet core of this musical about class struggle and art, the individual and the group.

At Imperial Theatre, 249 W. 45th St.; call 1-800-432-7250.

What other "White Christmas" is there? I guess the producers want to be doubly sure we realize this is a stage adaptation of the iconic 1954 movie. So it's no surprise the result offers that same mix of romance, patriotism, comedy and schmaltz -- plus melody and dancing.

I'm enough of a fan of the movie (I was in love with Rosemary Clooney when it came out) to report that this version is absolutely faithful in spirit. Perhaps that's ironic because its book has been re-written and other Berlin songs added. But after all, "White Christmas" was itself a revision of the earlier movie musical, "Holiday Inn," where the title song debuted.

New librettists David Ives and Melvin Blake have pruned and expanded judiciously, and they and director Walter Bobbie have added several other Berlin songs, including, most memorably, "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm."

But the bulk of the score is original, including, along with the title song, "The Best Things Happen When You're Dancing," "Snow," "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep," "What Can You Do With a General?," "Sisters," "Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me" and "We'll Follow the Old Man."

No one expects the cast to match Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Clooney and Vera-Ellen, but Stephen Bogardus, Jeffry Denman, Kerry O'Malley and Meredith Patterson are just fine, enhanced by a production that doesn't stint on dancers, costumes and sets. The dance numbers get a lot of attention from choreographer Randy Skinner and an appealing ensemble of 16 dancers, and there's fine tap work by Denman and Patterson.

So this "White Christmas" delivers just what it promises. It started in 2004 in San Francisco and has had holiday runs in other cities since, but this is its first attempt at New York. It's already planning a multi-city tour at this time next year.

At Marquis Theatre (Marriott Hotel), 1535 Broadway, through Jan. 4; 1-800-755-4000.

Here's a sleeper, a perfectly predictable story about Evan, a New Yorker who's about to turn 13 and have his bar mitzvah when he's suddenly uprooted by his divorced mother and moved to rural Indiana.

Suddenly, he has a whole new social scene to navigate as he tries to gather a cadre of friends as quickly as possible. He makes a lot of mistakes, currying favor with the popular kids instead of his two natural friends until he comes to his senses at last.

But the musical isn't about its plot: it's all about its performers (the band included), who are all teenagers, playing kids almost their own age with lots of energy and excitement. Their enthusiasm is absolutely infectious: this is a play all about performance.

The score by Jason Robert Brown ("The Last Five Years," "Parade") is full of lively dance music, put to good use by the ensemble and the director Jeremy Sams and choreographer Christopher Gattelli.

I don't know what such a small show is doing on Broadway, and it isn't for long. But as I say, a lot of Pittsburgh high school kids (older than the current performers) are going to play these roles in the years ahead.

At Jacobs Theatre, 242 W. 45th St., through Jan. 4; 1-800-432-7250.