THEATER REVIEW | BILLY ELLIOT
MORE ON 'Billy Elliot'In Hard Times, Born to Pirouettehttp://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/theater/reviews/14bill.html?ref=theater Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
David Alvarez, one of three actors alternating in the title role of "Billy Elliot," with a score by Elton John, at the Imperial Theater. Your inner dancer is calling. Its voice, sweet but tough and insistent, pulses in every molecule of the new Broadway musical “Billy Elliot,” demanding that you wake up sleeping fantasies of slipping on tap or ballet shoes and soaring across a stage. Few people may have the gift of this show’s title character, a coal miner’s son in northern England who discovers he was born to pirouette. But the seductive, smashingly realized premise of “Billy Elliot,” which opened Thursday night at the Imperial Theater, is that everybody has the urge. And in exploring that urge among the population of a down-at-heels coal town suffering through the British miners’ strike of the mid-1980s, this show both artfully anatomizes and brazenly exploits the most fundamental and enduring appeal of musicals themselves.
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Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
David Alvarez, center, plays Billy Elliot in this musical adaptation of the 2000 film. It’s been more than three years since “Billy Elliot,” directed by Stephen Daldry and featuring a score by Elton John, first sent critics and audiences into a mass swoon in London, where it continues to play. The delay in bringing the show to Broadway hinted at fears that it might not sit comfortably on American soil.
Adapted by Lee Hall from his screenplay for the affectionately remembered 2000 movie of the same title (also directed by Mr. Daldry), “Billy Elliot” is told in thick working-class accents and an argot that, even in London, necessitated putting a glossary in the program. What’s more, the show traffics in a particularly British brand of bitter treacle, wallowing in the glory of the bravely defeated and the pathos of small, trapped lives.
But the timing of the production’s arrival here, with the United States newly chastened by severe financial woes and fears, gives it a resonance it might not have had in 2005, when big spenders ruled with complacency. “Billy Elliot” is a hard-times musical. And as the culture of the Great Depression made clear, in times of economic darkness there can be blessed relief in dreams of tripping the light.
Much of the power of “Billy Elliot” as an honest tear-jerker lies in its ability to give equal weight to the sweet dreams of terpsichorean flight and the sourness of a dream-denying reality, with the two elements locked in a vital and unending dialogue. This isn’t wholesale escapism à la Busby Berkeley or “Mamma Mia!” In tone, it’s closer to the song-dotted working-class films of Terence Davies or, on television, Dennis Potter’s “Pennies From Heaven.”
This production never lets us forget the elemental tug of war between Billy’s longing to dance and the forces pulling him away from it. Mr. Daldry and his prodigiously inventive team make sure that the conflict is carried through on every level, from Peter Darling’s inspired scene-melding choreography, which gives a new spin to the idea of the integrated musical, to Ian MacNeil’s fluidly moving sets and Rick Fisher’s shadow-casting lighting. And it’s telling that Mr. John’s songs (with lyrics by Mr. Hall) are as infused with the energy of anger as of joy.
The plot, which sticks close to that of Mr. Hall’s screenplay, doesn’t even try to avoid the clichés common to tales of talented, odds-beating backwater youth. Billy is, natch, a motherless boy with a loving but unlettered father (a touching Gregory Jbara) and an adorably addled grandmother, played by the estimable Carole Shelley. Billy is portrayed by three young teenagers, Trent Kowalik, Kiril Kulish and, in the performance I saw, the excellent David Alvarez. (No public schedule is available for which Billy performs on which night.)
There’s the inevitable inspirational teacher, a Mrs. Wilkinson (the sublime Haydn Gwynne, who created the role in London), who sees a spark of greatness in the lad. There’s the time-honored progression from resistance — here by a rough, masculine culture — suspicious of all things arty (embodied by Billy’s brother, played by Santino Fontana, and his father) to acceptance, when the whole town bands together to help send the boy to London for his big audition. There are even, heaven help us, visitations by the fond ghost of Billy’s mother (Leah Hocking).
Yet Mr. Daldry and company turn tripe into triumph by making us understand the depth of the appeal of its classic show-business fairy tale, not only to us but also to the people whose dreary daily existences touch on Billy’s. The evidence of this appeal is abundant in “Billy Elliot,” most obviously in the motley ballet classes presided over by the wryly disparaging Mrs. Wilkinson and a Christmas frolic at the miners’ hall where everybody dresses up as their favorite villainess, Margaret Thatcher. But it’s not just the amateur performers who feel the ineffable pull of song and dance.
Billy’s grandma shucks her shabby housecoat to reveal a sparkling dress and summons a spectral chorus of partners past as she recalls the respite from an unhappy marriage provided by nights of dancing with her alcoholic husband. Mrs. Wilkinson’s grubby rehearsal pianist (Thommie Retter) strips out of his civvies to become a gyrating disco boy for a number called “Born to Boogie.”
And Billy’s best friend, Michael (Frank Dolce, who alternates with David Bologna), reveals the thrill of dressing up in his sister’s clothes and making like Sophie Tucker in the show-stopping “Expressing Yourself.” (The everyday metamorphosis-ready costumes are by Nicky Gillibrand.)
That number — and an electric outcry of frustration called “Angry Dance” — come closest to what one might expect from a venerable pop-chart topper like Mr. John. But much of his work here, far more restrained than his more mawkish scores for Disney musicals, is in a folksier vein, drawn from North country ballads and protest songs. And undercurrents of anxiety, wistfulness and melancholy run through the most tuneful pieces.
In Hard Times, Born to Pirouette
(Page 2 of 2) This show makes sure that we always keep in mind the grittiness and despair of the society that produced Billy, so that the poetry of his dancing seems all the more startling and inexplicable. Mr. Darling’s surreal blending of Mrs. Wilkinson’s dance class with a clash between miners and police is one of the freshest, most exciting uses of narrative dance I’ve seen in years. And until the finale (which is a tad overdone), he rations his big, knock-’em-dead sequences. “Billy Elliot,” you see, isn’t a dance show; it’s about why people need dance.
The performances, for the most part, are broader than they were in London, with more mugging and heart-tugging stickiness. But the two most essential portrayals — that of Ms. Gwynne and Mr. Alvarez — were spot-on the night I saw the show. Hard-shelled and all too wary of the limits of her life, Ms. Gwynne’s Mrs. Wilkinson perfectly embodies the tricky balance of sweet and salty the show requires.
And Mr. Alvarez, a natural lyrical dancer, exudes just the right air of conviction and perplexity. This Billy can’t articulate his need for dance, but he understands the potency and worth of his emotions. You always feel his ambivalence and, in the final scenes, his confounded sense of the privilege — and guilt — in entering another realm.
For everyone else in the play, like most of us in the audience, the transcendence of dance is something to be sampled, falteringly and only occasionally, rather than lived. Billy’s grandmother sings of her youthful nights on the dance floor: “It was bliss for an hour or so/But then they called time to go/And in the morning we were sober.”
“Billy Elliot” never doubts that it’s the sobriety that endures in life. Which makes those intoxicating, fleet-footed flashes of art, where leaden bodies fly and discord turns into harmony, all the more to be cherished.
BILLY ELLIOT
The Musical
Book and lyrics by Lee Hall, based on the Universal Pictures/Studio Canal film; music by Elton John; directed by Stephen Daldry; choreography by Peter Darling; sets by Ian MacNeil; associate director, Julian Webber; produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jon Finn and Sally Greene; executive producers, David Furnish and Angela Morrison; costumes by Nicky Gillibrand; lighting by Rick Fisher; sound by Paul Arditti; general manager, Nina Lannan Associates/Devin
Keudell; production stage manager, Bonnie L. Becker; music contractor, Michael Keller; production supervisors, Arthur Siccardi and Patrick Sullivan; hair, wig and makeup design by Campbell Young; music supervision and orchestrations by Martin Koch; music director, David Chase. Presented by Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Working Title Films and Old Vic Productions in association with Weinstein Live Entertainment. At the Imperial Theater, 249 West 45th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-6200. Running time: 2 hours 50 minutes.
WITH: Haydn Gwynne (Mrs. Wilkinson), Gregory Jbara (Dad), Carole Shelley (Grandma), Santino Fontana (Tony), David Bologna and Frank Dolce (Michael) and David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish (Billy).
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11132008/gossip/pagesix/triple_fun_138384.htm
TRIPLE FUN November 13, 2008 -- THE most fanatic fans of "Billy Elliot" will have to see the show three times, because three different boys play the demanding title role that requires 2 ½ hours of ballet, tap-dancing, singing and emoting. The three Billys were chosen after a year-long national talent hunt which drew more then 1,500 hopefuls to auditions in eight cities. The final 15 underwent a grueling eight-day callback last summer in New York. At Tuesday night's preview, David Alvarez, 14, drew a standing ovation. The show, based on the hit 2000 movie with music by Elton John, opens at the Imperial tonight, having already been a hit in London and Sydney. Theater Review of Billy Elliot: The Musical
http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/stage/blog/2008/11/theater_review_of_billy_elliot.html  4 out of 4 Stars
“Billy Elliot: The Musical” is the real deal: a truly compelling and absolutely spectacular theatrical experience destined to be a smash hit. Easily the best British musical since “Les Miz,” it feels appropriate that it is playing at the Imperial Theatre, once home to that long running musical. Simply put, you cannot miss it.
Based directly on 2000 hit film, “Billy Elliot” follows an 11-year-old boy in mid-1980s Northeastern England who discovers that he has an extraordinary talent as a ballet dancer. Meanwhile, his father and older brother are coal miners striking against Margaret Thatcher’s privatization and destruction of their industry. It is a tale of downsizing and layoffs that is scarily relevant to our current economy.
“Billy Elliot” builds upon and surpasses the film version thanks to the collaboration of Stephen Daldry (the movie director), Peter Darling (choreographer), Lee Hall (writer) and Elton John (music). In his first great score for the theater, John mixes rock and roll, folk ballads, political anthems and parody.
We could go on for days discussing the sheer brilliance of the staging. In addition to the beauty of the dance scenes, Daldry and Darling cinematically blend movement from the entire cast into the story. The showstopper “Solidarity,” for instance, seamlessly juxtaposes the violence between the miners and police with the peaceful ballet students.
The title role is so demanding it is shared by three young actors. 14-year-old David Alvarez, who we saw perform the role, is not much of a singer, but his dancing is astonishing. Acting-wise, he performs the role in a withdrawn and noticeably restrained manner, only exploding in solo scenes like the Act One finale “Angry Dance” and “Electricity,” where he loses himself to the freedom of dance.
The supporting cast is also excellent, especially Haydn Gwynne as Billy’s sarcastic dance teacher and Gregory Jbara as his brutish but loving father.
Though you may need to refer to a glossary in the playbill to understand some dialectic terms, you should have no problem appreciating the show’s masterful storytelling, nonstop theatrical energy and authentic emotional power.
Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th St, 212-239-6200, $41-136. Tues 8pm, Wed 2 & 8pm, Thurs-Fri 8pm, Sat 2 & 8pm, Sun 3pm. Open Run.   November 14, 2008 --
ELTON John - whose blue-collar father died before Elton became a star and never endorsed his son's musical career - is still overwhelmed by the story of "Billy Elliot," [See review and Michael Riedel: Page 41] the hit movie he turned into a musical. Having seen the Broadway production the night before, John discussed the parallels between his life and that of the ballet-dancing, coal miner's son over lunch at Michael's yesterday with his husband David Furnish, who co-produced the show, and Stephen Daldry, who directed it, plus Joe Armstrong and Barbara Walters. Also in the eatery: Ben Stiller and his wife Christine Taylor, Charles Koppelman, Anna Wintour, Christine Lahti, Robert Zimmerman and Ed Rollins. Here is a 2 minute & 35 second video on Billy Elliot:
 'Billy Elliot' makes a great leap onto Broadway
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By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — The producers of Billy Elliot: The Musical (* * * out of four) must be pinching themselves.
Sure, this adaptation of the 2000 film about a coal miner's son struggling to realize his dreams of ballet glory is already an established hit in London. There, its plot — set in Northern England in the 1980s, when those in Billy's dad's line of work were doing battle with Margaret Thatcher — resonated with audiences accustomed to a more rigid class structure and thus less likely to take social mobility for granted. But the show arrives on Broadway at a time when Americans are just as primed for its feel-good populism. In a period of economic turmoil, after a presidential campaign marked on both sides by a defiant hopefulness, Billy Elliot feels very much in sync with the mood in the nation today. Mind you, the working-class types on display at the Imperial Theatre, where the musical opened Thursday, are obviously not from our side of the Atlantic — their thick Geordie accents occasionally threaten to bury the dialogue. Luckily, neither original screenwriter Lee Hall's libretto nor the lyrics he wrote to accompany Elton John's unapologetically sentimental score require us to hear every word. The characters are drawn in broad strokes, with good humor but little nuance; their function is more to serve a larger message than to relay compelling idiosyncrasies. FIND MORE STORIES IN: London | Atlantic | Broadway | Elton John | Margaret Thatcher | Tchaikovsky | Swan Lake | Billy Elliot | Imperial Theatre | Stephen Daldry | Northern England | David Alvarez | Lee Hall | Kiril Kulish | Haydn Gwynne | Peter Darling
That includes Billy, played at this preview by David Alvarez, a 14-year-old with the face of a sad angel. (Trent Kowalik, 13, and Kiril Kulish, 14, also alternate in the title role.) His beloved mum is dead, and Dad, a macho type, can't abide Billy's artistic ambitions. Even if you haven't seen the film, you'll have a pretty good idea early on of how this tale ends, and what ideals it promotes. Those ideals — tolerance, empathy, individual expression — are noble ones, and director Stephen Daldry and his company infuse them with irresistible heart. As Billy's father, Gregory Jbara finds moving moments in a predictable evolution. Carole Shelley and Haydn Gwynne add sass as Billy's feisty grandmother and feistier dance teacher. But Billy Elliot shines brightest when its younger cast members are center stage, particularly when they're on their toes. A few production numbers lean too heavily on cute shtick — there are dancing dresses and an enormous Thatcher puppet that may scare the kids — but Peter Darling's choreography makes the raw, restless exuberance of youth accessible to all. In one sequence, Billy imagines and shadows an older version of himself, and both leap across the stage as the rapturous strains of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake swell around them. And for a few moments — no matter where you're from — it's impossible to not be transported by this kid's amazing grace. | |||||||||||
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