Billy Elliot is the story of a young boy from County Durham, growing up, as a wannabe ballet dancer, during the 1984/85 Miners strike. The musical shows the challenges faced by Billy on his route to the Royal Ballet School, as well as the year long battle between Northern Miners and Maragret Thatcher, who was trying to close them down. The musical is currently on a UK and Ireland tour after recently celebrating its 11th birthday and, sadly, closing on the west end (not for too long I hope).
I mentioned in my first post that Billy Elliot is my favourite musical, adn has been since I first saw in in 2012. I was lucky enough to see it 3 times whilst on the shows Cardiff run of the tour.
On the most recent visit, 14th July, I had Matthew Lyons as Billy, Henry Farmer as Michael and Italia Ross as Debbie. All three of the children were outstanding and their performance skills were as high as the adults in the cast, however Matthew brought a child-likeness to the role of Billy that made you instantly remember that he is, after all, a 12 year old boy, doing what he loves to do. His passion really showed throughout the whole of the show, especially during the Angry Dance. Although Matthew was extremely funny to watch, I did question how he would cope with the emotional scenes that Billy is in, as I thought because he was so funny that he may struggle but he didn't at all. In emotional scenes such as 'The Letter', th emotion coming from Matthew could be felt throughout the theatre.
Matthew and the Cover of Billy's Older Self, Jack Butterworth's Dream Ballet was sentational and I simply couldn't take my eyes of either of them. Jack's facial expressions as he danced showed some sort of nostalgia, as though he could remember being a young boy wanting to dance and the faces he was making toward Matthew throughout the scene were excellent, he looked as though he was, in fact, older Billy and so proud of how far he had come, it was simply sensational.
Henry Farmer, who was playing Michael was very well cast. His comedy timing was spot in and he really knew how to work the crowd at the end of 'Expressing Yourself'. Italia Ross, who played Debbie, played her extremely witty and was very funny within the role, even down to her body language! And I am certain that all three of these young actors will be seen back on the west end stage in the not so distant future!
For all three shows I caught Martin Walsh as Jackie (Billy's Dad), Annette McLaughin as Mrs Wilkinson and Scott Garnham as Tony Elliot.
Martin Walsh's Jackie Elliot was amazing!! He seemed to be playing Jackie a lot more aggressive than he has in previous performances that I have seen of him but he knew the exact amount of aggresion needed and exactly when it was needed. You could feel Jackie's desperation during 'He Could Be A Star' and it made me feel very emotional. Annette McLaughin's Mrs Wilkinson never fails to blow me away! I have seen Mrs Wilkinson played as a really aggressive dance teacher, however Annette's take on her made her a loving ballet teacher who only wants what is best for her students, having said that, this take does not take away from how funny and sarcastic Mrs Wilkinson is.
For years I have been longing to see Scott Garnham on stage, after watching numerous videos of him performing on youtube and he did not disappoint. His Tony was completely mesmerising. I feel Tony can be a difficult character to portray as he can be very 2D. In previous performances that I have seen, Tony has been played as an angry and aggressive man who is angry at everyone for the awful time the strike had put the miners under, because of this I feel that Tony's passion and emotional side can sometimes be lost. However, Scott took all of these aspects into consideration when building his own Tony Elliot. He had the perfect balance of agression, passion and emotion and he completely blew me away with this. Scott's singing voice is beautiful and unique and even in the ensemble numbers you could hear it over other voices. Even when in the bigger ensemble scenes, Scott's facial expressions and body language instantly draw you in and he constantly looked like he was loving every second of the show. I was lucky enough to meet Scott after two of the three shows that I had seen and he is as fantastic off-stage as he is on.
The ensemble, young and old, were brilliant, the energy bounced off each and every individual and onto every person in the theatre. Everyone on that stage was a part of a team and I got the feeling that their off stage relationships were as tight as their characters' relationships were onstage.
This is one of the best casts I have ever been lucky enough to see and I will definitely be booking to see the show in other cities accross the UK before the tour ends.
The production is slightly different to the original west end production, some changes are suttle but some are obvious, and in my opinion, the new touring production takes the cake!! I cannot wait to see it again when it comes back down South!
For more information on tickets and tour dates got to http://billyelliotthemusical.com/tour-dates/
Trust me, it is not a production that you would want to miss.
Lucy x
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