Billy Elliot -
The Musical
Victoria Palace, London
****

‘the stars look down on the mean and hungry, the stars look down and show the way…’ – Lyrics by Lee Hall.

Billy Elliot, The Musical follows the story of a young boy living in the North East in the early 80's. Due to privatisation his family is profoundly affected by the Miners’ Strike of 1984 and he finds solace in a raw talent – dance. The social constraints around him however, threaten to crush the twelve-year old’s dreams.

This tale is compelling but most of us have already seen the movie. How does it work is a musical? Here it gets a sixty percent mark. That’s pretty good compared to Saturday Night Fever’s ten percent and Beauty and the Beast’s zero percent. Though the staging sometimes relies very heavily on what would be filmic shots, such as a two-floor elevated set which has every detail of the Elliot family’s kitchen and Billy’s bedroom.

Sally Dexter was endearing as the uncoordinated and worn Mrs Wilkinson, Phillip Whitchurch utterly believable as a caring father and so was Chris Lennon as the hot-headed older brother, Tony. The star of this particular show however is the young Colin Bates. He played Billy with the ease of a West-End veteran. His natural talent and boundless energy infected the audience to rise to their feet.
Set is usually very important for the stage but this show only truly came to life when all the painted wood was taken away and there was only this captivating dancing. The ‘Ballet Dream Sequence’ where Billy and his dream-self dance is a breathtaking piece to the Nutcracker Suite.

The music of the show certainly makes it. All the new musical pieces invoke the sentiment of original Andrew Llloyd Webber’s greats. Elton John (Music) and Lee Hall (Lyrics) wrote spectacularly, songs like ‘The Stars Look Down’, ‘Shine’, ‘Expressing Yourself’ and ‘Electricity’ which convey the spectrum of human emotion. These songs will soon be standards in musical theatre repertoire.

Billy Elliot, The Musical has, in short everything needed in a stage production in copious amounts. Stephen Daldry should be proud of directing this masterpiece. It is a must for theatre-lovers.

by Elizabeth Amisu