BILLY ELLIOT Marquee — Page 3

I will be in London Thursday,, perhaps we should get together for dinner!...

Londonskyguy: I won't be in London Thursday I'm afraid, otherwise the answer would have been yes.

Winston: it's probably not clear in my post, but when I referred to theory and principles I meant striking in general, rather than the particular UK 1984 miners' strike.

I see a lot of theater, I love billy Elliot the movie, and I've never been so lost in a show before. There are times in the musical when I did feel like the main plot was the strike, and Billy Elliot was a side story. That left me a little disappointed in the show. I LOVED the parts with Billy Elliot himself, but the setting with the strike and all that was confusing and forgettable to me. Having said that, I don't think they need to change it for Americans, but they should at least put a little synopsis in the playbill to address any possible confusion. I was confused throughout the show for many reasons. I was jet-lagged. I had no idea of the strike and Margaret Thatcher etc. The accents were so strong. If anything, I would hope they would just lighten up on the accents a tad for this production. It still needs to be English, but it doesn't need to be so harsh.

jakebloke,

What you said are some of the things that I have heard as well. That is why I am wondering if they don't "americanize" it if it will go over some of the American audiences heads.

Granted, I am very much excited about this show coming to American and I am hoping that it doesn't change at all. But, I do want it to be successful.

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Could some one answer me why marquee lights are turned on for a show not opening for months & in the daytime yet?

Seems to me with all the green hoopla going around this is a waste of energy.

Doubt we will get to see this unless Mrs R brother in law gets us tickets as a gift.

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I love it!

After seeing Billy Elliot on May 5th in London, I really hope that they don't Americanize it. I still remember how weak The Full Monty was after being Americanized.

The show was wonderful, and it provides a decent history lesson of the coalminers strike in the 80s.

Here's a picture of the full theatre...

I don't understand how people are getting "lost" during this show.

I knew nothing about the miner's strike, and very little about Maggie Thatcher and I STILL was able to follow the plot. There were about 5 minutes at the beginning when I thought "I cannot understand their accents" but I got used to them really fast and I don't feel like I missed anything.

My two friends and I saw it after an overnight flight from NY (on which we did not sleep) and a full day of sightseeing and we were practically falling asleep in the theater before it started... and we followed it fine.

Did I pick up on every political nuance? Probably not. But I didn't need to to follow the storyline. I mean, we all know what a strike is here and how devastating it can be to a community.

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