Billy Elliot The Musical — Page 116

........ like a herd with a single mindset.

I mean that in the best possible sense, but I just always assumed that large pods of Billy Fanatics would move right from the seats outside the front door, turn right, and down the street to the stage door wait and lurk, making squealing noises every time the door opened, even if it was an "unknown tech person" or someone similar.

Rock my world! I thought being part of a cheering, squealing mob of fans meant waiting outside, regardless the weather or temperature?!

Hmmmmmmmmmm, I looked on the web and could not find out what a crush/mob/crash/riot/sedge/tittering/brace/flamboyance of Billy Fans would actually be called.

Perhaps a Fanatic of Billy Elliot fans?

Or perhaps we need to invent the term and make sure to propagate it across the world.

tzwicky
UK page for names of groups of animals .....

Hi everyone, HAPPY CHRISTMAS! Hope everyone has had a great day.
Is anyone going to see BE on New Year's Eve (Saturday)? I'm seeing the matinee, anyone have any idea who I'll be seeing? Any help much appreciated!
XX

im goin that day 2! im wel excited, i av alredi seen it once with george maguire in it on the 27th of october 4 a birthday prezzie, but this time me and ma best m8 r goin n r ded excited! we wud reli lyk 2 no who is guna be billy dat day 2! is there any hope of seein george do ya think?!?! please help us and giv us any info ya no! HAPPY CRIMBO EVERY1!!!!
luv yaz all
x X Jess Clegg X x

y it av b one of originals? leon is far superior in dancin 2 others before im cept liam of corse
dont matter if its liam leon travis r james they r all g8 billys

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Does anyone know what happened to WestEndPro? I would appreciate a pm if you do.

hi i am new but i know the billy elliot cast as i stayed wiuth them for a month in the summer holidays they are all from up north but if i do correct you george comes from the same place as i do sussex not being rude as i am only 12 lol but i thought as i know them they are good friends of mine i might come and chat please please if someone can get the video or has the video for ready steady cooke can someone please put it on the board or pm me thanks alot as i am esperate i saw it on tv but i would like to add it to my collection of videos i have of them lol.

Updated On: 12/30/05 at 02:08 PM

I seem to have called myself Jeff3 by mistake, but for those of you who knew me from that other forum, I am in fact Jeff!

Or are there two other Jeffs?

Sorry, I'll try to break it to you gently, but I think we've all seen the last of George and James in BETM. Get used to it. It's Liam, Leon and Travis with Matthew and Colin on the back burner.

Updated On: 12/30/05 at 06:29 PM

I was just reading an excellent review posted by AccordCanada on another site. He labelled it "The review that made me fall in love with Billy" and I can see why.

The review contains an important misconception though. It calls BETM a "left wing musical". Now I'm not against a bit of leftwingerie, but BETM is not a left wing musical. Naturally it presents Billy's story from within the mining community and, therefore, presents the miners' adversities and puts the tragedy of the crumbling mining community centre stage. But the attitude to the community is distinctly ambivalent. After all, it is the narrow minded prejudice of the community that would hold Billy back were he to succumb.

In truth, BETM says very little about the complexities of the situation that gave rise to the miners' strike and why should it? That is not what the musical is about.

If the musical has a political message, then that message is fundamentally liberal rather than socialistic, for the play is centrally about the inspiring triumph of the individual over prejudice and conformity.

The other interesting question raised by the article is the whole thing about how BETM would work on an American stage, but some other time...

Updated On: 12/31/05 at 07:29 AM

hey i was there as well last night i was with my mate jess we went to the stage door after and met Cassie was good meeting you sozi didnt talk much my mam was going mad lol she gets more exited at stage doors then i do! i think shed graduate from school of stalkers with flying colors! They were all so nice at the stage door and spent time to talk to everyone was really intresting to meet them! Leon was great and did all the dances brilliantly in electricity was he meant to fall to the ground if he wasnt it didnt matter it worked really well maybe they should do that more! :P joey was so funny as micheal! exoressing yourself has to be one of best scenes in the show although every scene is brilliant the angry dance was actually scary!!
anyway better go now Mary poppins is on (ever tried watching mary poppins and listening to billy elliot at the same time?? very intresting..)
amyxx

So, what do people think about Billy on Broadway?

I don't really know about Broadway. I know about the God-fearing, evolution-denying American stereotype, but, oddly enough, the Americans I know aren't like that! And, anyway, has New York any remote connection to the rest of the country?

So, What about the language thing? The langauge and general grittiness (the absence of vaseline on the lens so to speak) is not an optional extra in BE. It is an essential mark of authenticity. Would that have to go? I've read elsewhere that the problem would be: not that they could not get it onto a Broadway stage in that state, but that no school would be able to take a party, and that that would compromise the financial viability.

I've also heard it said that Americans would not understand the background to the story. I can't believe that's really an issue. Most Brits are fairly ignorant about the background. Practically every time I go, I find myself sitting next to someone who has to be taken through the politics slowly, in words of one syllable and with the aid of diagrams. It doesn't seem to effect their enjoyment. Anyway, the story is about the triumph of the individual against conformity and prejudice. Everyone understands that!

If I were the director, I would go for a policy of total bloody-minded refusal to change a single damn thing, but then what do I know? Stephen Daldry is a genius and I'm an idiot.

Whatever the outcome, the mortgage repayments can take a running jump. I'm on the first plane to New York to see the result!

Jeff

Updated On: 1/1/06 at 05:12 PM

Jeff,

By the time BE could even get to Broadway, you'll have put the mortgage in total ruin with all those trips to London, which is how it's supposed to work, I think.

Yeah, we can always get a $39 fare to NYC on some startup that thins out the fuel with ethanol and corn syrup, but you shouldn't even have that kind of money after all those trips in 2006 to London.

Lemme see. One in March, another one in June, another in October. There's half a year of mortgage payments defaulted on.

Maybe we should all insist on making some bankers into Billy Elliot fanatics. It could happen, I guess.

I think the total devotion of fanatics Billy brings out is evidenced by the fact that no one among us seems to have figured out a way to make a living from selling Fanatical Yanks air-theatre-hotel-dining packages to London. Or at least I've somehow not been targeted. How do these things happen?

tzwicky