BILLY ELLIOT ON THE "VIEW" RIGHT NOW — Page 2

Damn. His dancing really impresses me. Every time I see any of the three of them perform, it still impresses me.

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you can defend him until the end of time... it won't change the fact that his singing was absolutely TERRIBLE.

he could kinda stay on-pitch and that's about it.

Interview with the Billys and Sir Elton on The View

Updated On: 11/11/08 at 08:01 PM

Thank you bobz2!

He is an amazing dancer...but isn't the point of the story the fact that he may not be the most talented, but he wants it the most. In the movie, he was not that talented, but showed that he had the heart and passion.

Well, his dancing was certainly fabulous.

And I get that the singing is meant to be secondary to the dancing, but that was one of the things that just pulled me out of the show when I saw it a few years back in London- while Billy is always a brilliant dancer, he's surrounded by actors who are fabulous singers which makes his lack of singing ability quite obvious and jarring.

In the movie Billy's audition was clumsy and awkward. He knew he had blown it and as he was walking away, a judge asked him how he felt when he danced. It was his answer to that question that told the judges that this boy was motivated and inspired and that they could take a chance on him by offering him the scholarship. You didn't see Billy dance again until the end, when a grown up Billy 'flew' - in slow motion - as the lead dancer in Swan Lake.

You can't dance in slow motion on the stage. In the Electricity number, you (the audience) are entering the scene AFTER the audition has taken place. Billy is heartbroken because he knows he's blown his one chance. I believe that the writers chose to show what the judges imagined could be when they heard Billy's response. Although you never saw his clumsy audition, you saw the dancer they imagined he COULD be if given the opportunity.

I thought it worked beautifully and I think that throwing a huge belting voice into it would only detract from the disappointment he was feeling and the subsequent 'imagined' dance.

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Updated On: 11/12/08 at 12:04 PM