Billy Elliott

On his last night in Sydney I took Todd to see Billy Elliott the Musical. I saw the movie ages ago and have seen it many times since its release in 2000. It makes me cry every time I see it.

So I booked tickets. I booked ticked for the opening night as a gift for Todd’s birthday. When the tickets arrived, they weren’t for opening night and amazingly enough just so happened to be for the last night he was in town. Phew!

After a last supper of sushi and a couple of glasses of wine we made our way to the Capitol Theatre just in time for the last call of take your seats. We were in the dress circle, slightly to the left of the stage. Not bad seats. It was sold out.

The show started with a Pathe newsreel showing the mining industry in the 30’s during the ‘good’ times. The singing started early with the whole cast coming onto stage in 80s garb singing about keeping the community together and deciding to strike.

The sets were amazing. There was the generic room set that slid in from left and right, the ‘Elliott’ house set that spiralled up from a hole in the stage with a bed on top of a set of stairs with a little kitchen at the bottom. The toilet block at the gym pulled out of the side of the room set. All very clever and beautifully put together.

The stage version ran along the same lines at the movie and included a few of the more memorable lines, such as;

Mrs. Wilkinson: This'll sound strange, Billy, but for some time now I've been thinkin' of the Royal Ballet School.
Billy: Aren't you a bit old, miss?

And

Debbie : don’t you fancy us, Billy?
Billy : Nah!
Debbie : I’ll show us me fanny.
Billy : Nah, you’re alright.

The musical was directed by the same guy who directed the movie Stephen Daldry, the lyrics by Lee Hall (he wrote the script for the movie) and the music was written Elton John. It was surprising that none of the songs had a hook, but then they are used to writing spoken word, not sung. Neither Todd nor I left humming, thinking we’d have that tune stuck in our head for a while. Shame really because from what I can remember the songs were pretty good.

The dancing however was completely memorable. I was concerned about the thought of watching a precocious little bugger on the stage for several hours, but I was completely entranced. I’m not sure which of the four Billy’s was playing on Tuesday night, but he was amazing. There was a scene (the bit in the movie where his Dad finds him dancing in the gym with Michael) where he was dancing Swan Lake with his older self. There was dry ice, wire work and ballet. It made me cry. I forgot how much I like ballet. The kid and the guy floated around the stage for maybe four or five minutes, it was beautiful.

Anyway, despite the un-catchiness of the songs I would say go see it, the dancing is amazing, but watch the movie first.

PS. Todd has arrived In Washington ;-)