Billy Elliot the musical in San Francisco-Reviews..Mixed- to-Negative?- Page 2

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 7/4/11 at 11:12am

I'm siding with drewboy and others who think it's the maybe best frickin' work of musical theater of the last ten years. I've seen the West End production twice (can't tell you the cast, but in 2008 and 2010) as well as the Broadway cast last December. I'll definitely catch the tour when it passes through LA.

For me the BONES of the show are superb: the book knows where it's going, and gets there with astonishing wit and feeling and a sense of how musical theater can work. Miracle of design, choreography and imagination throughout. The score is fine (and at times much more than that), the performances can vary (lots more subtlety to the acting choices in London than New York), but it never mattered when the BASIC IDEA of what's onstage was so well conceived and executed.

Decades from now I predict people will revive Book of Mormon and scratch their heads in disbelief. They'll revive Billy Elliott and be overcome with emotion all over again. GO BILLYYYYYYYYYYYY!

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/4/11 at 12:26pm

BILLY, for me, is a good show that really should have been great. The score is flat-out poor and the direction keeps negating its incredibly powerful moments by going overboard (we really don't need to see Billy fly or the "dress people" invade the stage, for example).

That said, SF has always been a rather strange place for theatre...the original tour of SWEENEY TODD with Angela Landsbury had to close early back in the day for lack of ticket sales.

[BAYSTAGES]

Posted: 7/4/11 at 1:42pm

BORSTALBOY: Can you document the early closing of the original SWEENEY TODD tour because I was here and don't remember that. That's not to say that it did not happen, just doesn't sound right.

San Francisco and the greater Bay Area is actually a very rich, fertile place for theatre and the performing arts in general. We have over 300 theatre and dance companies, not to mention cabaret, comedy and music clubs and other live entertainment venues. I believe we are one of the top five theatre industry markets and centers in the country.

I launched BAYSTAGES - http://www.baystages.com - this year to serve that community because the need was not being addressed by other media in the area.

Unfortunately a number of the tours we get from Broadway producers are quite under par. That '81-'82 tour of SWEENEY was far less interesting than the New York production, even with Lansbury (no d). The tour of NINE with Sergio Franchi that followed was a very sad affair.

Bringing it into the present, the recent tours we've had have been rather limp affairs. WEST SIDE STORY was so thin as to break. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is just a bad show and this was a badly performed version of a bad show. NEXT TO NORMAL held its own as a production but Ripley was in terrible voice. HUGH JACKMAN was a pleasant butt-shaking but not earthshaking evening, and BLUE MAN GROUP is just 30 minutes of noisy fun stretched out over a whole evening.

Only AVENUE Q and SHREK made for truly satisfying evenings. That's thanks to really talented casts, smart productions and - in the case of SHREK - because the creative folks took their lumps and fixed the problems with the show before sending it out.

BILLY ELLIOT might well be better in New York than it is on tour. If so, shame on the producers for sending out a poor copy. However, I don't think that's the case. The cast here is very talented and works quite hard. If the Billys are not as dynamic from the neck up as they are from the shoulders down, well...the dancing is more important. So it comes back to the book, the score and the direction. In this one man's opinion (in harmony with some other local reviewers) the show just doesn't work.

[littlegreen2]

Posted: 7/5/11 at 2:27am

I've only seen Billy on Broadway and I have to say that I went in with a very negative attitude towards it. By the letter scene in the first act, I was SOBBING. I think it's a beautiful production, very much aimed towards the tourist-y audience, but that doesn't take away from the emotional impact. I understand why people don't like it and I definitely don't think it deserved best musical but I'm very grateful to have seen it.

For what it's worth, I saw Emily Skinner as Wilkinson and the riffs that come out of that woman at the end of Shine blow my mind. She's fabulous.

[moncruzz]

Posted: 7/5/11 at 12:44pm

I personally don't like seeing one of my favorite shows of all time receiving negative reviews, but in the end who really cares? I like what I like and that's what should matter. Not everyone will like the same thing.

I thought the Broadway production was absolutely phenomenal. I will find out for myself on Saturday if this SF production is just as good.

If anything, (because of the negative reviews) my expectations are now lower, so I might just be blown away!!

[BAYSTAGES]

Posted: 7/5/11 at 12:59pm

Hope you enjoy it, MONCRUZZ. Please post your thoughts.