BE Tonight- Page 2

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/10/09 at 1:09am

Thank you.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/10/09 at 1:10am

There isn't a lot of exciting musical staging on Broadway lately, but there is a lot of it is in Billy Elliot.

Agreed. 110%.

[Billy Whiz]

Posted: 6/10/09 at 6:41am

I too was at the show last night. I was expecting the atmosphere to be more electric but there was longer than usual applause at the end of Solidarity and Electricity. David was, as always, incredible and I managed to congratulate him after the show when a group of us were given a backstage tour.

We were hoping the company may go a little off script and let David take out his Tony award when he shows Mrs Wilkinson his "special things" before the letter scene but unfortunately it didn't happen.
Updated On: 6/10/09 at 06:41 AM

[Testing1232]

Posted: 6/10/09 at 6:54am

<< I was expecting the atmosphere to be more electric but there was longer than used every usual applause at the end of Solidarity and Electricity. >>

I think that is the point I was TRYING to get across, and failed in doing so. The show was still great, and the crowd loved every sec !

[Fosse76]

Posted: 6/10/09 at 12:03pm

"I did wonder the entire show how much longer David can stay with the cast. His voice has definitely changed since the opening"

Not much longer. Both he and Kiril have already been informed when their last performance will be.

Enthusiasm levels for shows really do depend who is in the audience. Billy Elliot isn't attracting the vocally obnoxious fans that Wicked, Spring Awakening or In the Heights has...and since it is pretty much sold out for every performance, people who do feel the need to cheer after the Tony win can't just walk in off the street and get a ticket.

And I agree with PalJoey and add that, even working for the Shuberts, there really wasn't much buzz about Billy Elliot...no one really knew how it was going to go over...even though it was selling well.

[webcomix]

Posted: 6/10/09 at 12:25pm

Oh dear :C I guess this means that I won't be seeing David perform, since I'm definitely not going to NY anytime soon. I did watch Kiril though, and he was just amazing. Dances like a maniac, in a good way.

[Testing1232]

Posted: 6/10/09 at 12:29pm

I think Kiril IS the best dancer---

As a "triple-threat"- acting, dancing, singing--- think David is the best.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 6/10/09 at 4:06pm

Lots to comment on here:

"I'm not sure it was such a sure fire hit when they transferred it."

I agree. Billy had the "machine" to steam roller it through any adversity, and it needed it. Other Olivier award-winning musicals that deal with the British working class experience haven't fared so well, and why should they? The whole singing socialist culture doesn't resonate in the US in the way that it does in the UK. Blood Brothers didn't repeat its incredible (and I mean that word in its most literal sense) West End success on Broadway. Spend, Spend, Spend never transferred and The Hired Man (arguably the best written of all four) took 24 years to transfer in an off-off-off-off-Broadway production that barely generated any attention.

"I will say that the staging of the "Solidarity" number...
...is brilliant at a near-Michael Bennett level."



Praise indeed coming from PJ.

That comment actually reminds me of a Q&A session Sondheim did in London a few years ago. I was initially uninterested in a Billy Elliot musical because I thought it would simply take 2.5 hours to say what At The Ballet said in 2.5 minutes: I expected it to be mawkish and sentimental and I knew I'd resent the politics. The minutes of the Q&A session I refer to quote Sondheim as saying

"Oh, Billy Elliot; the first 45 minutes - the staging - is one of the most exciting things I ever saw in my life, I think the first half of the first act is wonderful."

[Q&A Session with The Stephen Sondheim Society,
21st May 2006, Queen's Theatre, London.]

but my recollection of the event is that he actually said that the first 45 minutes were as good as anything he and Hal Prince did in the 1970s. That comment alone was enough to get me down to the Victoria Palace where I had my preconceived ideas blasted out of the water. And later when I read the minutes, I was surprised to read that they did not record what I thought I had heard.

Hmmmmmmm.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/10/09 at 4:38pm

As usual, I agree with Stephen Sondheim.

(And, as usual, with Scripps2!)