To my joy, Mum revealed that in the afternoon we were heading to London, to see Billy Elliot! (But first, in the morning I of course had my private ballet lesson; we worked on a couple of lovely grand allegro enchainements!)
Also, I had time to visit dad and his family, which was lovely because I got to see my elderly great grandma, who I'd not seen in quite a while!
Upon arriving in London, we travelled to our hotel on the underground- poor mum hasn't been to London as frequently as I have, so was somewhat baffled- after we'd brought her an Oyster card, she peered around like a curious child; luckily I knew exactly where to go!!!
The Cavendish hotel was beautifully luxurious; after an amazing dinner in a restaurant overlooking Fortnum & Mason, we headed to the Victoria Palace theatre. It was smaller than I had expected, but completely packed nonetheless! The opening song, "The Stars Look Down", was charged with energy and emotion, powerfully expressing the plight of the 1984 miners' struggle against Thatcherism. It had a similar effect on me to the Swan Lake overture; already I felt emotional, anticipating what I could sense was going to be an utterly incredible performance.
I thought the staging was incredibly clever, for example in Mrs Wilkinson's ballet class scenes, the miners often stood at the sides of the stage, singing "Solidarity", to portray how their struggle never ceased. The young girl playing Susan Parks had excellent charisma, stage presence, and a natural ballet physique. Unfortunately, photographs of the ballet girls were not given in the programme- which, nonetheless, was a luscious 48 page souvenir, filled with interviews and dazzling images, all for just £6 (take note, Queensland Ballet!!!).
Expressing Yourself became a truly vivacious showbiz number, complete with excellent tap dancing from Nat Sweeney, and ????? As Michael. The musical flitted rapidly between moments of brilliant comedy and touching sensitivity, as in the next scene, Ruthie Henshall displayed a heart-rending motherly affection for Billy as they read his mam's letter.
The second half opened with "Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher"; a strong sense of irony and loathing clearly resonated through the lyrics! When Dad went to visit Mrs Wilkinson, the Christmas feel was emphasised by a beautiful snowfall, which reminded me somewhat of the Nutcracker snow!
As far as staging is concerned, it excelled beyond any other production I have ever seen. From neatly crafted backdrops that covered the entire upstage prosce
The highlight of the second act, for me was the iconic "chair twirling" scene in which Billy dances with his older self- whose autograph I managed to get after the show! At one point, Billy flew magnificently across the stage in a harness, spinning so fast at such a height that I felt sorry for the poor young actor, as he must have felt awfully dizzy!
I thought Billy's Audition scene was delightfully accurate; I empathised very much with Billy's last minute trepidation, "Dad! Dad I've changed me mind!" and his Dad's working class sense of unease, stood next to a snooty stereotypical ballet parent (luckily I've only encountered a few of those, most ballet parents are lovely but there are the occasional few who appear eager to intimidate!!) Also, when Billy pulled his solo music out of his pocket, to see the tape had unravelled itself, he swore, then swore again as though he was annoyed at himself for swearing, which gave a lovely lighthearted feel to the scene. I had wondered how the staging would portray White Lodge, however instead it was cleverly transformed to show the stage of the Royal Opera House...... As wonderful as it was to visit the Covent Garden studios for my Royal audition, it made me wish that I too could've danced on the Opera House stage! In the audition scene, one of the judges even resembled Mark Annear, who of course was on the panel for the real auditions! Also, when Billy and his dad were interview, they sat directly facing the audience, and the interviewers' questions were a recording, firstly implying that they were sat up in the gods, but secondly giving the vital sense of omnipresence and emotionally detached judgement that auditioners sometimes show.
When Billy received his letter, he didn't tear it open immediately as I would've done (although his somewhat explicit reaction to seeing it, was exactly what I would've said too!!!), he instead took it to his room- which was incredibly cleverly staged; the staircase leading to his room rose up from beneath the stage, which allowed for effortless scene changes.
The musical ended with Billy leaving for White Lodge, as Michael waved him off and his dad headed back down the coal mine, which gave an uplifting sense of love; Jackie Elliot sacrificed his beliefs about the strike, and returned to mining, to earn the money for Billy to have his chance at life.
The entire theatre's standing ovation which remained throughout the curtain calls was deserved by every single cast member, who truly have their all, to inspire- and in the way that my first Swan Lake inspired me to pursue ballet, Billy Elliot made me glad that our curriculum at Ballet West also covers jazz, acting and singing- perhaps being in the ensemble of a west end production would be just as good for me to aspire to as being in the corps de ballet of a classical company!
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