Billy Elliot dances its way to Curve Leicester

Based on the 2000 British coming-of-age comedy-drama that launched the career of Jamie Bell, Billy Elliot was adapted for West End theatres in 2005 with music composed by pop superstar Elton John.

Set during the miners’ strike in the mid-80s, the story sees a young boy explore his love for dance against a domineering father who finds it difficult to accept his son’s choice to take up ballet lessons. This all against the background of tense community relations and class warfare.

Grossing over $100 million and earning three Oscar nominations the musical followed and was also a huge success winning Laurence Olivier and Tony Awards.

And so building upon this well-earned success is a new Made at Curve production directed by Nikolai Foster and choreographed by Lucy Hind.

The show captures its northern working-class roots with an excellent stage set of industrial girders and scaffolding including large moveable metal gates and a sparse 3-story structure for Billy’s house which captured the feel of an impoverished northern town well.

Billy is played brilliantly by Jaden Shentall-Lee, making the character both likeable and gutsy whilst his dance moves were a joy to watch throughout. A large support cast helped convey the sense of community as part of their picket-line stance.

Also of note was the brilliant Sally Ann Triplett taking on the Julie Walters role from the film as the dance teacher who spots the talent of Billy in her ballet class. And Joe Caffrey as Billy’s dad Jackie was possibly the best of them all, mixing harsh northern grit with emotional moments of sadness and a sack-full of comedy in the show’s later stages.

But here’s the problem for me and there was very little the amazing talented cast and crew could do to overcome it. * clears throat * The music was disappointing to say the least. I don’t mean the musicianship , which was actually brilliant especially the 80s rocking riffs of guitarist Neil Morgan. And the cast’s singing was top notch too without a shadow of a doubt.

But a symphony orchestra couldn’t polish what I felt were unmelodious dirges.

So for me, Elton John’s songs were below-par and then some. And that’s difficult, nigh on impossible for a production to overcome. The already well-known Electricity was the best of a mediocre bunch but I have no memory of a single melody or lyric and nothing stuck in the mind or could be sung a long to.

And I’m a huge fan of Elton by the way! The man has two dozen classic hits under his belt without trying. I have seen him live at Leicester Cricket Ground and I even played Tiny Dancer on guitar as the first dance at a friend’s wedding. He’s a musical legend no question.

But this combined with the copious swearing made the first half a slog. And I don’t mind fucking swearing I assure you. However, in itself it’s not inherently funny to me – and it was overused as a “punchline” for so many conversations I got angry that the writing wasn’t better. Again, not this Curve production's fault granted.

But this is all just subjective and you may find many merry musical moments despite them unfortunately not resonating with me. And do stick around for the second half which is infinitely better too. There’s less songs * thumbs up *, more deep drama and much better comedy with clever gags, dollops of witty wordplay and subtle physical comedy when Billy and his dad get to his big audition in London.

The themes of the show were excellently portrayed in the second half too with more passionate moments of truth showing Billy’s individual determination against the traditional values of his family. The community’s strong spirit in the face of adversity and its exploration of acceptance and difference were splendidly handled also.

However – and I suspect I stand alone somewhat with my musical tastes here – I’ve got to be honest that after watching so many stage show musicals, the tunes just didn’t reach the quality I was expecting and that lingered throughout sadly.

That said, with plenty of attitude and gusto, Billy Elliot ends by pirouetting onto the Leicester stage with excellent performances and choreography from the outset, plus it had amazing professionalism, dedication and prowess displayed at every production level.

Michael Sales

TICKETS

£56 – £10 + concessions
15% off for Members
2-4-1 tickets for Friends and Supporters  on Fri 15 Jul, 7.30pm and Wed 20 Jul, 7pm

ACCESS PERFORMANCES
BSL Interpreted: Fri 29 Jul, 7.30pm
BSL Interpreter: Maria Fellows

Captioned: Sat 6 Aug, 2.15pm & 7.30pm
Captioner: Theatre Captioner Network – Steve Burrows

Relaxed Performance: Sun 7 Aug, 1pm

Dementia Friendly: Thu 11 Aug, 2.15pm

Audio Described: Sat 13 Aug, 2.15pm
with Touch Tour from 12.45pm
Audio Describers: Talking Sense – Nadine Beasley and Kate Taylor-Davies