Billy Elliot Second National Tour

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 10/30/10 at 7:24pm

I did a search and there was not a thread about this yet. The second national tour of Billy Elliot with Faith Prince opens tonight in Durham. If you are going please post your thoughts here!

[breathyfemalevocal]

Posted: 10/31/10 at 11:42pm

First post here, so I'm a little nervous.

First time seeing Billy Elliot, so nothing to compare it to. Saw the 8pm show Sat evening and would give it a B-.

Faith Prince was the only lead with real star presence. Billy was played by a child performer, Lex Ishimoto, making his professional debut (as pointed out to the audience by a man who appeared from the curtain and made this announcement just prior to the start - very strange indeed.) The "announcer", who did not introduce himself, also informed us that the boy was from California, which made difficult the suspension of belief for the boy's accent (reading it in the program is different than being told from the stage just as play begins!) Does this kind of thing normally happen?

Anyway, some songs were good, others not so much. Choreography was the highlight, and the dancers were all skilled. This was Lex Ishimoto's strongest point. I got goosebumps a couple of times (Angry Dance and dance of Billy with adult self), but was bored others. The father, mother and brother roles/actors really left me wanting. The grandmother(Patti Perkin), and the best friend, Michael(Jacob Zelonky) were the standouts, besides Ms. Prince.

Surprised this won the Tony for best book over Next to Normal, which I'll be seeing in NY in a couple of weeks.

Audience reaction seemed mixed, but I hope it does well here. Really enjoy the notoriety that the Durham Performing Arts Center is bringing to this area of N.C. It is a great facility and we've had some fantastic shows. The local support has been outstanding, way beyond expectations for first two years.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 10/31/10 at 11:46pm

Welcome to the board! How were the sets? How did they do Billy's house. It came out of the floor on Broadway, but I know they can't do that on tour. Also how did they do the miners going into the mines at the end of the show?

[adamgreer]

Posted: 10/31/10 at 11:57pm

The fact that the boy is from California should have no bearing on his inability to do an accent. I'd be annoyed if I was in the audience and someone told me that.

[breathyfemalevocal]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 12:13am

Thanks for the welcome.

Billy's house (kitchen, with bedroom on platform above) rolled from stage left. The dining table "set" rolled out from stage right. I really liked all of the sets. It main set was sort of a horseshoe configuration with differnt scenes resulting in different components being pulled into the stage or retracted away. Of course the main setting was the union hall.

I especially liked when Billy's bedroom transformed into a spinning dance floor at the beginning of Angry Dance.

The miners left by moving upstage together and having a large metal door lower in front of them. I think it was to look like they were being lowered into the mine, but it didn't come off too well. The sound was exceptional, with a giant metal BANG as it closed. The sound was very good throughout.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 12:19am

I've never heard of such an announcement.

Many of the comments you are making on the show seem right in line to the way I viewed the broadway production (and I saw the original cast) The boys were great dancers...but not great singers or actors. The choreographer was by far the star. It wasn't that big of a deal.

The long run production of this in Chicago was not well rec'd and is closing early -- and BEFORE the holiday season. (Sadly, the reasons that people didn't enjoy it seemed strange to me.)

[taylorPHENOMENON2]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 12:44am

Thanks for the review.

The boys were great dancers...but not great singers or actors.

Can assure you there are some FANTASTIC singers/actors in the current Broadway Billy rotation :)

[steven22]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 12:45am

I've seen next to normal and Billy Elliot on broadway, next to normal should have won the tony, 100%.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 12:56am

I saw the show on Broadway a week before it won the Tony and I was blown away. I will be seeing the national tour twice in May. This is one of my favorite Broadway shows.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 5:41am

I will admit, the very first time I saw BE, I, too was blown away. I walked out of the theater mentally planning when I would come back and see "another Billy". But I found that I never had enough drive to do so, as it quickly left my mind. (Not a good sign.) THEN, I ended up seeing it twice within a month/6 weeks when my children decided they DID want to see it, after I'd already planned a visit with friends.

I was still "entertained" by my 2nd visit, but the flaws were becoming glaringly obvious and by the time my 3rd visit was over, I was rolling my eyes and dying to get out of the theater.

I will be going again in the spring, as my HS group has chosen to see it. I'm not looking forward to it....and might just hang out in the lobby.

[Kev]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 12:08pm

I will be going again in the spring, as my HS group has chosen to see it. I'm not looking forward to it....and might just hang out in the lobby.

Couldn't you just go see another show while your kids are at BE?

The boys were great dancers...but not great singers or actors.

OT: I'll have to stand up for one of the Billys I caught the most, Trent Kowalik. I haven't seen any Billys since to match his timing and acting choices. He also had no pitch problems the multiple times I saw him in the role, even when his voice was changing.

Still, that pre-curtain announcement for the 2NT, as described in the initial post, seems unnecessary and rather inappropriate.

[sweetTb'way]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 1:57pm

Just so everyone knows.....

A curtain speech is always done when it's one of the Billys first time onstage. Stephen Daldry did it for the originals when the show opened on Broadway and it is still done today. The only difference now is that the speech is usually made by the resident director or choreographer of each company.

[sgv123]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 2:28pm

To go along with what sweet said...

They are always done for the first performance of a Billy. I think it is done to give the audience a fair warning that the Billy may make a mistake or need some assistance on stage. I think in the past during first performances, the boy playing Billy has had a spotter during some parts of the show. I guess they want to explain to the audience just in case something goes wrong or they see an extra person on stage.

[Kev]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 2:59pm

To be clear, I have no problem with the BE curtain speeches (and I am familiar with Daldry's from NYC.) But, I don't need bio facts pre-show (the initial poster also raises a good point with the issue of suspension of belief.) Save it for the Billy's last performance or better yet, just let us read it in the Playbill.