The Broadway Ferret

Image from www.applause-tickets.com

Rating: 4 out of 5 masks

In honor of Stephen Daldry’s nomination for The Reader,  I’ve decided to review the Broadway musical version of the movie Billy Elliot.

For those not familiar with the movie, it tells the story of a boy named Billy Elliot who chooses to learn dancing instead of boxing to the bewilderment of his family.  It is set against the 1984 Miner’s Strike, which his father and uncle participate in.  And it’s all set to music.

I was not familiar with the movie before I saw the show, which I think actually works as a disadvantage since I had to actually think while watching the show to figure out the musical scenes.  The one where the ballerinas dance with and amongst the riot police was unusual until I understood that it was a way of showing what’s going on inside and outside the school.

The other musical numbers were ok.  At the risk of receiving the wrath of Elton John, not all of them were memorable.  I really liked the one where the miners were parodying Margaret Thatcher and Parliament.  I thought the staging of that was reallly unique.  One of the better ones was one of the final numbers where the strike was over and the miners went down to work.  I liked the starkness of that scene, where it was all dark and all you saw was the lights from the helmets of the workers.  The fact that it also acted as the town’s farewell to Billy was good.

The set was pretty basic.  A large room is used for the union hall, dance/boxing studio and the Elliot family house.  Sometimes it gives way to other scenes that don’t require much in the way of scenery.  I thought it was pretty cool how Billy’s room goes up and down from the floor.  It made sense that they had to cancel a performance when that particular aspect of the scene wasn’t working.  It’s certainly much better that having th characters go from one end of the stage to another, trying to make you believe that they’re going to another room.

I forgot which Billy I saw, but I thought he was really good.  If I had enough money, I’d go again and again to see the other two.  You can tell why they need two other Billys as the character is in almost every scene and does some pretty acrobatic dancing, like the scene where he’s dancing with an older version of himself.  I thought that the choreography for the scene was stellar.  I hope all the young actors get nominated.

Image from www.billyelliotthemusical.com

I thought Gregory Jbara gave one the best performances I’ve seen in the show.  I believed his character’s transformation from his not understanding his son’s love for dance to his acceptancerealizing that dance would allow a better life for his son.

I thought this show was very good.  I liked how they managed to tell two stories at the same time.  I would recommend this show to anyone who’s a fan of the movie and loves musicals.  I think it would be most appropriate for families, as it would be something that parents could relate to and kids can understand the struggles parents go through for their children.