"Like Electricity..."

Ok about a week ago I went and saw Billy Elliot The Musical for the first time. It completely blew me away. The story, the dancing, the kids, the music is all wonderful. The show was much more emotional than I was anticipating, too. You may have heard of it because it is based off of a movie from a few years back and the music is by Elton John.

Basically Billy Elliot is about a 12 year old boy who lives in a small mining town in County Durham, England during the 1980s miner's strike. His whole family are miners, but one day he gets caught up in a ballet class by accident and decides he wants to be a ballet dancer. The musical explores how he struggles with the expectations of his family and his community in order to pursue his dream.

We got so lucky with our tickets. The great thing about being in London for 5 weeks is that we don't have to buy tickets ahead of time. Most places offer day tickets for way more than half price off that are on the first two rows and some places offer student tickets as well. We went to the Billy theatre about 4 hours before showtime and got front row seats for about a third of the price! This was my view.

Some of our view was restricted, but I just love to be so close to the stage, that I did not care one bit! So many of the actors would come and sit smack in front of us on the edge of the stage. We totes made a connection with Billy too. I think it's so fun when you're so close that you constantly make eye contact with the actors.

Our little Billy was 12 year old Ollie Gardner. SO CUTE! I just wanted to steal him! I was totally blown away by what these kids do onstage. In addition to Billy there are 3 other little boys and about 15 hilarious ballet girls. But Ollie totally dominated this show. Billy has to be able to tap, sing, act, ballet, street dance and so much else. And this kid was awesome at all of it.

One thing I do not enjoy about English theatre is the audiences. Seriously, everywhere we go it is like pulling teeth to get a standing ovation. One of the craziest moves in Billy Elliot is during the song "Electricity". The boy has been dancing and sing for awhile already and then at the very end he runs up a wall and does a back flip. WHAT?! I was freaking out and in America that would totally deserve a standing O. So I almost jumped out of my seat (and the Billy jerked his head to look at me) and had to restrain myself from standing up. Come on England!

So at the end of the musical me and the girl I went with were one of maybe 8-10 people in the entire theatre who stood up. Come on now. In America even the dumbest plays get standing ovations. A-mazing.

One thing about this show is that it really has depth and heart. There were moment where you were laughing so hard one second and then on the verge of tears next. The show really has complexity to it. You have political tensions (heightened by the weird scene with a giant Margaret Thatcher puppet), family issues and then just the simple fact that a boy wants to dance.

Everyone else in the show was great as well, just a little upstaged by all the kids in the cast! I really like Mr. Elliot and Tony Elliot. The scenes between the two of them especially when they would watch Billy dance were just so sweet. Watching two grown men cry is never easy!

All in all I highly recommend this show. I think anyone would like it whether you like dance or not. It's a feel good show with a good, however cliche, message to follow your dreams and do what you love.