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Billy Elliot
by Lizzie Loveridge
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And then I feel a change/Like a fire deep inside/
Something bursting me wide open/Impossible to hide And suddenly I'm flying/Flying like a bird Electricity/Electricity/Sparks inside of me/ And I'm free/I'm free. ---- Lyrics to "Electricity" |
Liam Mower and members of the ensemble
(Photo: David Scheinmann) |
The story is a simple one but it engenders a complexity of emotional response. Set in county Durham, against the backdrop of the strike which lasted twelve months, motherless eleven year old Billy (Liam Mower, George Maguire, James Lomas) stumbles into a girls' ballet class run by Mrs Wilkinson (Haydn Gwynn). Without his family knowing, Billy continues to come to the dance class and Mrs Wilkinson, recognising a talent, wants him to audition for the Royal Ballet School in London. Billy befriends oddball Michael (Ryan Longbottom) who likes dressing up in his mother's clothes. Meanwhile Billy's father (Tim Healy) and brother (Joe Caffrey) are too pre-occupied with the daily battle with policemen in riot gear protecting "scab" workers or strike breakers who are seen only to be prolonging the strike. On one side of the picket line are well-paid police and "scab" miners, on the other, hungry, striking miners with a very few pounds in strike pay and donations. The North of England is not known for its liberal attitudes towards dance and homosexuality. Up there, the men are beer swilling, unemancipated "real men". The journey made in Billy Elliot is that of the father coming to terms with his son's desire to be a dancer and the realisation that, without the backing of governments, the traditional employment alternative, coal mining, is a dying profession.
The opening is wonderful, video footage shows the twentieth century news footage history of the mines and "The Stars Look Down" is a stirring avowal of brotherhood and community amongst coal miners. The first magnificently choreographed number is the upbeat "Shine" as Mrs Wilkinson's ballet class are put through their (deliberately clumsy) paces in ballet-tap and end up in an exuberant fan dance. Billy's grandmother (Ann Emery) evokes her youth with her husband, in "We'd Go Dancing" Lee Hall's wittily unexpected nostalgic realism writing,
"I hated the sod - for thirty three year/We never should have married of that I'm quite clear/He spent the housekeeping money on whisky and beer. . . " becomes wildly romantic "But we'd go dancing and he'd hold me tight/He was air, He was water, He was breath, He was light" but in the morning she sings of sobering up. During this song the drinking miners dance, ducking and diving in and out of pub doors and windows.
"Solidarity" is a three way number, rhythmically very like something upbeat from Cabaret. It starts with the police full of themselves, taunting the miners with comic choreography, straightening their ties, brushing their epaulettes, adjusting their helmets. The miners reply and the ballet class are caught in the middle as miners and policemen dance pas de deux with prepubescent girls. I loved the original moves and the transition into a clog/welly dance with dance steps turning the knees this way and that, like doing the Charleston sideways without the arm movements.
The comedic hit of the show is the introduction of cross dressing eleven year old Michael (Ryan Longbottom). His sexually explicit language is something you might like to think about before taking children to Billy Elliot but in context, for adults, this scene had the audience in stitches. "Expressing Yourself" turns into a tap dance from Billy and Michael with dancers disguised as frocks on a rail complete with hangers in a bizarre, surreal, dream-like interlude. The romantic ballad "Dear Billy (Mam's letter)" is pretty and emotive as Billy reads a letter written for him by his mother (Stepahnie Putson) when she knew she wouldn't live to see him grow up. This heart warming song may make a successful single. The first act ends on Billy's rebellious dance expressing his turmoil while behind him as the strike hardens there is a line of police in full riot gear with riot shields.
Act Two starts with the miners' social club panto with the injection of an enormous Thatcher puppet meistress as the miners face up to Christmas with nothing. I liked this overstated scene least especially as I remember the one it replaces, the breaking of Mrs Elliot's piano in the film to provide firewood. It may been included to answer critics of the film who wanted more politics and less sentiment but I disagree. Another departure from the film is that here Billy dances a classical ballet duet with his older self (Isaac James) to Tchaikovsky. Billy is raised high up to float above the stage on a wire in this lovely scene. However the musical loses the film's last scene where ten, twelve years on, Billy's father and brother meet grown up Michael at the ballet in London where Billy is appearing in Matthew's Bourne's Swan Lake. The Second Act is not as strong as the first. Mrs Wilkinson and Mr Elliot confront and then relent, Billy travels to London where the vibrant dance "Electricity" assures him of a place. The miners are defeated but this bleak outlook is alleviated by Billy's breaking away for his own future. A fantasy encore finale allows the little girls to show that they can dance in perfect synchronisation.
Hats off to the casting directors! The casting of the children is superb. The success of Billy Elliot rests on their consistent talent. I saw twelve year old Liam Mower play Billy and his dancing is just gorgeous. In the theatre there are no close ups to show the mixed emotions Billy feels. Instead the body language expression is in the movement. I really admire the casting too of these burly men who dance. Where ever did the casting director find these heavy, authentic looking miner/dancers? Haydn Gwynn's lanky, world weary Mrs Wilkinson is a comically tall figure, a little like Joyce Grenfell, attempting to drill her assorted ducklings into dancing like swans. I particularly liked George (Trevor Fox), the ballet class pianist, a bulky lad who joins in the dance numbers with a lumbering gusto.
The substance of this musical is not in the sets which convey realistic place without taking centre stage. I liked the lighting effects for scenes like the one where Billy dances silhouetted against the line of riot policemen. The skill is that one is swept along by the story, the detail contributing to the whole rather than distracting from it.
Billy Elliot is a very fine British musical from the talented Stephen Daldry with great ensemble performances. There is a good helping of eccentricity and humour alongside a more sobering subject matter achieving that rare phenomenon, a musical that makes you think. I loved Peter Darling's choreography and Lee Hall's lyrics. No-one could object to Elton John's pleasant tunes and because most are only heard once, they may become more memorable when given a chance " to grow on one". This is a musical, the British audience will want to return to. Even as early as the opening night, I met enthusiastic people already seeing it again.
| Billy Elliot
Original Music by Elton John Book and Lyrics: Lee Hall Directed by Stephen Daldry Starring: Haydn Gwynn, Tim Healy, Liam Mower With: Ann Emery, Trevor Fox, Steve Elias, Stephanie Putson, Isaac James, Daniel Coll, Erica Ann Deakin, Alex Delamere, Damien Delaney, Susan Fay, Alan Forrester, Chris Hornby, Gillian Kirkpatrick, Chris Lennon, David Massey, Michelle McAvoy, Karl Morgan, Daniel Page, Steve Paget, Lee Proud, Mike Scott, Phil Snowden, Tessa Worsley, Ryan Longbottom, Lucy Stephenson, Alice Stephens, Jennifer Veal, Elie Woolf, Katie Stephens, Christie Halsey, Charlotte Hamilton, Emily Neil, Poppy Coggins, Stephanie Rawson, Michaela Blake, Dean Charles Chaman, Hugh Wyld Choreographer: Peter Darling Set Designer: Ian Macneil Costume Designer: Nicky Gillibrand Musical Supervisor and Orchestrations: Martin Koch Musical Director: Philip Bateman Lighting Designer: Rick Fisher Sound: Paul Arditti Running time: Three hours with one interval Box Office: 0870 895 5577 Website: www.billyelliotthemusical.com Booking to 22nd October 2005. Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 11th May 2005 performance at the Victoria Palace, Victoria Street, London SW1 (Rail/Tube: Victoria) |
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Musical Numbers
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Act One
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Act Two
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Mendes at the Donmar
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