Billy Elliott: The Musical

[bedsitter23]

I was a big fan of the movie Billy Elliott, so I actually was looking forward to this. Besides, the musical has won tons of awards. The story is all-time great (boy decides to do the thing he loves whether it is deemed by society to be correct by society’s view on gender roles or not). The movie also features a lot of T Rex (and Jam/Style Council and Clash) so that makes it quite watchable as well.

In this case, it’s dance, and it’s specifically ballet- not particularly my cup of tea. The musical was written by Elton John (music) and Lee Hall-the guy who wrote the movie (lyrics), so there’s some potential (I neither adore nor detest Sir Elton, so I am open. I like some of his stuff).

This is a pretty good time for sure, but it isn’t a musical I would sit through again. The first half particularly seems to drag. Additionally, there doesn’t seem like there are any songs that you will take a way with you. The best number appears to be the Part 1 finale, which is Billy dancing while accompanied by a heavy percussive beat (provided by the policemen hitting their truncheons against their riot shields as they disperse striking miners) not unlike the music of Test Dept.

Speaking of Test Dept, a band that got a lot of artistic creativity out of the Miner’s Strike- there really aren’t any memorable tunes around that subject. Surely, Lee and Reg could have come together with something better. The strikers’ songs here don’t sound any better that anything Billy Bragg couldn’t have written in his sleep. So, that is a bit disappointing as it seems a real missed opportunity (Evita, Les Miz- you got to have a great angry proletarian song).

Overall, I felt Billy Elliott was simply too long. It’s a fairly basic story too, so it’s not that the extra time was needed to develop the storyline. There’s a lot to like about the musical- Billy, his friend, the grandmother character. The story itself is a necessary one (and perhaps if you aren’t already familiar with the movie, you will really enjoy it.) I just feel that maybe they should have stuck to the T Rex songs to help propel the story along (the one nod is at the beginning when Billy takes the stage listening to “Ride a Wild Swan).  Certainly, worth watching, but maybe not as exciting as hoped.