Following the premiere of "Billy Elliot" at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, a sobbing Elton John,who by chance happened to be at the screening, had to be helped from thetheater. “It touched me so much,” he said. “The story is very similarto mine: Trying to be something out of the ordinary. Having a talent andwanting to break free from what your parents want you to do. Wanting approvalfrom your father, especially when your father doesn’t approve of the professionyou’ve chosen.”
Billy Elliot isthe story of an adolescent who discovers he has a talent and passion forballet, and pursues it despite the vehement objections of his father and thederision of his community, a coal-mining village in Northern England. Intertwinedwith Billy’s journey is the unfolding of the 1984 coal miners’ strike in GreatBritain, an event so devastating that the repercussions are still felt to thisday.
John was so moved and so inspired by the movie that heimmediately envisioned the piece as a stage musical. Neither director StephenDaldry, nor screenwriter Lee Hall, initially shared his enthusiasm, but Johnchanged their minds.
“What Elton felt was very personal to him, and he understoodthe story from the inside,” Hall said. “One of my big concerns was to keep anemotional core. I also realized there was a tradition of musical theater thatcompletely embraced all the things BillyElliot is about. Going back as far as ShowBoat, musicals have dealt with issues and politics. So I realized that themusic from the mining communities – the folk songs, the hymnal singing – could providea kind of soundtrack for this show.” The musical puts a greater emphasis on the plight of theminers than there is in the film.
“What appealed to me most about doing the show was to havethe opportunity to delve into the miners’ strike,” Daldry said. “That strike was one of the most importantevents in my life, as well as in domestic village politics. It’s not possibleto exaggerate the cultural flowering that happened during that year in the pitvillages. There was a real shift in consciousness for everybody involved inthose villages, which is part of the sadness of the whole story. Becausesomething extraordinary happened – and then it was wiped out as they shut downthe pits. So we wanted to talk about the community and the family as much asBilly in the musical. The strike bookends the show. The theater lends itself tobig, working-class anthems of struggle and loss. You can present that in a muchmore believable and moving way onstage than on film.”
The two strands of the narrative are so thoroughlyintegrated in the show that, in the end, each story is incomplete without theother. But making the miners more prominent posed a special challenge for choreographerPeter Darling: How could he create dances for characters who were so opposed todance? “You want to include them in the dances, because a musicalcan encompass a wider community,” Darling said. “But they make fun of dance, sohow was this going to work? I started to think about when men dance. They dosocial dancing and folk dancing. So that’s where I started. And I believe thatall human movement – walking, running, jumping and falling – is dance. Ifsomeone corrals it and gives it form, before you know it, it’s dance.” Since opening in London in 2005, Billy Elliot the Musical has become an international phenomenon,the recipient of more than 70 awards. In 2009 the show won 10 Tony Awards,including best musical; Daldry won for best direction of a musical, Hall forbook of a musical, and Darling for choreography.
“You can’t just look at BillyElliot as a piece of theater,” Hall said, “because it actually transformsthe lives of these boys. If there had been no Billy Elliot, if these boys had not been discovered for the role, thenthey would not have flourished in the way that they do. Their growth is almosta symbol, a metaphor at the heart of the piece. We actually demonstrate that itis possible, if everyone pulls together, to achieve something quite extraordinary.”
Billy Elliot the Musical will play June 19-24, 2012 at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit foxcitiespac.com!
Content Disclaimer: Billy Elliot the Musical contains profane language and some scenes of confrontation between police officers and minors. © 2010 Billy National Tour II LP.
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