Billy Elliot premiers at Broadway Sacramento
A Review by Ken Kiunke
Staff Writer
Billy Elliot The Musical, the 2009 winner for Best Musical and 9 other Tony Awards, opened at Broadway Sacramento on Tuesday night, and runs until Sunday, April 14th. The show is based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot, and is about a boy raised in a hard-working British coal mining family in the Northern England in 1984. Billy, whose mother has died, is expected by his father to learn boxing, but happens into a ballet class full of girls, and he reluctantly joins in when prodded by the teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson. He gradually begins to enjoy it, and unknown to his tough father and brother, spends his boxing money on ballet lessons. Meanwhile, the community is overtaken by a major coal miners’ strike, pitting the workers against the government of Margaret Thatcher, who wants to break the union and close down many of the country's mine pits, putting thousands of miners out of the work they've spent their lives doing.
Photo: The company of “Billy Elliot the Musical” by Kyle Froman
Elton John was brought in to make Billy Elliot a musical, and he worked with Bill Hall, the original screenwriter, to create the music and lyrics for the show. It opened in 2005 in London to great reviews and multiple awards, before becoming a Broadway smash in 2008. The show is really two overlapping and integrated stories; that of Billy and his desire to be a dancer, and the conflict between the miners and the forces against them. It is perhaps ironic, or maybe just coincidental that the show opened in Sacramento the day after the death of the unseen, but much mentioned villain of the story, Margaret Thatcher. Act 2 opens with the song “Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher” as the miners and their families try to enjoy a poverty stricken Christmas by wishing her an ironic “God's love be with you” while celebrating because it's “one day closer to your death” as they bring out a mock Thatcher gravestone.
While that song is the most overtly political about the strike, the others are rousing hymns to “Solidarity”, as the conflict between the workers and the riot police is creatively integrated with the children learning ballet. For a musical drama, not a whole lot actually happens in Billy Elliot. Unlike most musicals, there is not a grand sweeping narrative or romance to follow from beginning, conflict, and resolution to conclusion. Billy's desire to dance just kind of happens, and though his family objects, they are so busy with the issues of the strike, they don't notice that he has been studying ballet (or “bally” as they call it) all the while.
Photo: Janet Dickinson (Mrs. Wilkinson) and cast of “Billy Elliot the Musical” by Doug Blemker
Meanwhile, the story of the strike doesn't change much – it starts, they conflict with the police, they face poverty, and in the end, it gets resolved, as they lose their struggle against Thatcher's Tory government. The music is great throughout, but sounds like nothing you might expect from Elton John. (Perhaps that's just because there's no piano...) There also aren't any really memorable songs that stay with you after the show, though the two between Billy and his late mother (“Dear Billy”) are the emotional center of the story. And the sentimental “Deep Into The Ground”, sung by Billy's Dad, and “Once We Were Kings”, sung by the company, were also stirring and beautiful.
But to a great extent, the show relies on the performances, especially that of Billy. There are four boys who rotate the part, as it is too demanding for one to carry it for consecutive performances (In fact, in both Britain's Lawrence Olivier Awards and America's Tony Awards, it was the first time 3 actors shared an award for best actor in a musical). On Opening Night, it was 12-year-old Mitchell Tobin as Billy, and he did a great job carrying the show, singing, speaking with a northerner British accent, and of course the demanding dancing, from early on when he was learning, to the rousing “Company Celebration” that follows the show.
Photo: Mitchell Tobin (Billy) in “Billy Elliot the Musical” by Amy Boyle
Rich Hebert, playing Billy's Dad, does a great job as a tough and stoic miner who finally comes around to accept his son's dancing, and even finds redemption in it. Janet Dickenson has the strong force of personality to be the teacher who spurs Billy on. Sam Poon, one of two young actors playing Billy's cross-dressing friend Michael, shines in his number with Billy, “Expressing Yourself”. And Patrick Wetzel does a few surprising turns as Mr. Brathwaite in “Born To Boogie”. All these performances happened in a creative setting that allowed striking miners and jack-booted riot police to interact with tiny girls dancing in tutus, colorful glittering fantasy backdrops, and the cold snowy northern night. Photo: Rich Hebert (Dad) and Mitchell Tobin (Billy) in “Billy Elliot the Musical” by Amy Boyle
The politically minded may have a difficult time with the show. The conservative tough minded miners have a hard time accepting a boy who wants to dance. But these are union guys, battling with Margaret Thatcher – Ronald Reagan's political soul mate (While she broke the miner's union, he fired the air traffic controllers for striking). Of course the union is fighting to keep all the coal mines open, an environmental issue England has faced many times (But then, of course, they already had government supplied health care...). The events surrounding the '84-'85 miners’ strike were hardly noticed in America, but were one of the signature accomplishments, along with the Falklands war, that marked Thatcher's two terms as Prime Minister. So it is probably best to just look at Billy Elliot as the story of a boy struggling to find himself after the loss of his mother, and with the backdrop of tumultuous and sinister forces surrounding his young life.
The reception by the Sacramento crowd was very appreciative, especially of Tobin, who brought a standing ovation. The show is long – nearly 3 hours including intermission and some of the language is not suitable for children. But it is a wonderful night of creative theater for teens and adults. Billy Elliot the Musical plays at the Sacramento Community Theater through April 14, 2013.
For more information about the California Musical Theater, or to purchase tickets call (916)557-1999 www.californiamusicaltheatre.com - or visit the box office at 1301 L street in downtown Sacramento. Performances continue through Sunday, April 14, 2013. The 2012-13 Broadway Sacramento Season continues with Les Misérables, opening at Community Center Theater on May 29, 2013.
Presenting national Broadway tours at the Sacramento Community Center Theater, Broadway Sacramento draws theatre-lovers from as far as the Oregon border to western Nevada and the Central Valley. For more information, go to http://BroadwaySacramento.com
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