One of the most celebrated and successful musicals of the early 21st Century BILLY ELLIOT was adapted by writer Lee Hall, director Stephen Daldry and choreographer Peter Darling from their low budget British film of the same name, itself partly adapted from A. J. Cronin's 1935 novel THE STARS LOOK DOWN.
Despite a largely unmemorable score by Elton John the staging is so vivid and the plot about a young boy's unlikely rise from poverty to a career in ballet is so uplifting that it has triumphed in productions around the world.
The background to Billy's story is the British coal miners’ strike of 1984 and its impact on the blue collar workers of the UK's North East. It's a tough, sometimes brutal environment in which men were expected to conform to traditional ideas of machismo and where male ballet has no place. Despite this our young hero discovers he possesses great skill and appreciation of the art form. His early steps are taken at a local dance class but when it becomes clear that his ambitions could take him further his family must make considerable sacrifices to send him to a prestigious ballet school. The hardships they face are exacerbated by a lack of income during a strike to save the local mining industry from the callous cuts of Margaret Thatcher’s government.
Oppression and Aspiration
Some of the most poignant moments in the production juxtapose gritty depictions of industrial unrest with children's ballet, most notably when a chorus line of young ballerinas dance amidst a line of riot police. Despite the hardships that Billy and his family face the production gives full expression to his soaring ambitions, including some spectacular aerial work.
The original production opened at The Victoria Palace in London's West End. A plan for it to open in the community where the story is set was abandoned when the local theatre could not finance or accommodate the increasing demands of the staging. The 5.5 million pound production eventually cost more than the original film and includes a spectacular set by Ian MacNeil which brings scenic elements in from above and deep below the stage.
The stars of the production and the many subsequent remounts are the three boys who alternate the role of Billy. The demands of the part, and often local licensing laws, prohibit a single child actor from playing every performance. In order to provide the production with a supply of young performers with the necessary acting, singing and dancing skills and mastery of the tricky accent required, a series of training schemes have been set up for boys where ever the show is produced.
Multi Award Winning International Success
BILLY ELLIOT regularly triumphs in theatre awards whenever it is mounted. The original London production won four Laurence Olivier Awards: Best New Musical, Best Actor (awarded jointly to James Lomas, George Maguire and Liam Mower, the boys who played Billy), Best Sound design and Best Choreographer. The Broadway production received 15 Tony Award nominations winning ten, including the Best Musical.
Like all the most successful musical productions BILLY ELLIOT continues to make headlines. When Margaret Thatcher died the audiences was asked to vote on whether a song gleefully anticipating the event should be performed. It was. Over the weekend when the stage show was filmed live for cinema it topped the box office charts beating the latest Hollywood blockbuster into second place. Regular guest appearances from past, now adult, Billys continue to charm the public and make for popular photo opportunities to mark significant anniversaries in the musicals history.
Notable replicate productions have been big hits across America, in Australia, Holland and Korea.
This is the first major revival of