Billy Elliot - The Musical, as inspired by the 2000 film and now a long-running stage show, is Auckland Theatre Company's end-of- year musical and launches its new home at the ASB Waterfront Theatre.
It's an intriguing choice; Billy Elliot is a work of social commentary set in mid-1980s Thatcher's Britain, highlighting issues such as rising poverty and unemployment, homelessness, benefit cuts, and a long-running miners' strike. It is also an uplifting tale of a talented boy from a mining family who takes up ballet and gets a chance for a different future.
[Ed's note: ATC artistic director Colin McColl says he choose Billy Elliot because it mirrors the company's struggle to get its own theatre and the triumph of believing you can achieve your dream].
The show has terrific music by Elton John, with lyrics and book by Lee Hall. There is a memorable anthem built around the labour movement staple Solidarity, belted out with pride by the ensemble of 29, and deeply moving duets, Deep Into the Ground, sung with considerable emotion by Billy and his dad (Jaxson Cook* and Stephen Lovatt), and The Letter, sung by Billy, his ballet teacher, Mrs Wilkinson, (Jodie Dorday) and his dead mum (Lana MacFarlane). The eight member band, led by John Gibson, who are visible at the back of an extended depth stage, are for, the most part, terrific, too.
But I thought the characters came across as broad caricatures of hapless but defensive miners, downtrodden families, shrieking ballet girls, a loopy granny and a ballet teacher who gives class routines unlike any real class. Every now and then, the veneer cracked and an actor's interpretation got a chance to peek through and, at these moments, the whole thing started to come alive.
