- possible spoilers -
I for one am very pleased that this thread exists...
I saw, Billy Elliot: The Musical, for the first time last night and although I enjoyed the experience, I was ultimately left with: So? Not the breakaway hit that I had been led to believe it would be.
1) the score is extremely mixed. Several of the numbers are serviceable and even a few good, but overall, very mediocre.
2) the book... wow, this really surprised me. I expected it to be at least as powerful as the film. It wasn't. In fact, I found it overly indulgent. Saddest of all, I found very little character development. I thought juxtaposing Billy's struggle with the miners was interesting, but it came at the expense of truly developing characters that I cared about. Where were the moments between father and son, or even Billy and anyone that expressed the depth of his despair? (In all fairness there is the quiet scene where Billy brings Mrs. Wilkinson the letter from his mom.) And, yet there was so much opportunity. The relationship with Michael could have been used to develop the boys so much more. I liked, Expressing Yourself. I liked it a lot, but it developed Michael's character far more than Billy's or their friendship.
I agree with the criticism regarding the grandmother's moment being lost. We'd Go Dancing, was an interesting musical number, and well staged, but the play doesn't draw on this moment. I disagree with the poster who explained this number was about perpetuating violence. I thought the number was about lost possibilities and the call to live one's life as fully as possible. Either way, the grandmother has this very personal moment only to have very little to do with the main character's transformations and/or arc. I believe another lost opportunity.
I thought most of the cast was strong, but the material didn't live up to their potential. Except...
3) the young girls' ballet chorus... excuse me?! They were just awful. I suspect that was intended, but I found writing a large chorus of untalented kids into Billy Elliot a big mistake. They weren't even cute. They were just sloppy.
4) the set. What a poorly designed show! I understand that the subject matter deemed that the stage picture be drab, depressing, but I found the overall look and feel of Billy Elliot just ugly and dull. The elevators were clunky, overused and just got in the way. I sat in the front mezzanine and spent more time fascinated with the technologies used in the various traps, than appreciating the stage design. Setting Billy Elliot in the union hall might have worked, but setting it in an industrialized back of stage with a union hall that keeps sliding on and off for what seemed like very arbitrary reasons just didn't do it for me.
5) direction and timing... Was this only last night, or is this the way the show is directed, but throughout the evening there are about 4 or 5 pregnant pauses that were just wrong. I kept wanting to sort of move things along. Silence can be very powerful. It wasn't last night. Nothing that was happening on that stage deemed the actors taking these obscenely long reflections. At times it almost felt like someone forgot their line. I found it awkward at best.
There were also many interesting and provocative aspects to Billy Elliot, but as this is a thread focused on "why the hate", I will leave those on the love threads. However, I will say that I did enjoy the evening. I thought the dancing mostly excellent (except the young girls chorus). The solo and duet pieces performed by Billy were exemplary and as mentioned above, Express Yourself was fun.
I liked Billy Elliot. I just didn't love it. Maybe if I had sat downstairs and wasn't so distracted by the ugly central elevator/bedroom, please don't bring it up again, set piece, I would have liked it more. Billy Elliot was a 7 out of 10 for me.
Updated On: 1/22/10 at 04:37 PM
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