“Billy Elliot: Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” – Elton John
May 13, 2010
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Many say that Billy Elliot tickets are selling so fast because of the story. Others say Elton John’s musical score is the driving force behind the Billy Elliot schedule and its amazing success on Broadway, and still others will tell you that the dance routines and cast are the reason. The truth is that Billy Elliot tickets are selling so well because of a combination of all these things. The production is such a perfect fit for the company, the technical crew, the writers and director, that Elton John’s score was like a vast pile of elegant icing on a huge layered cake. But how did Elton John become involved in the Billy Elliot story?
It goes back to the time Elton made a surprise visit to a screening room while at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. Elton made his way there unannounced, with no security staff or special plans, with his partner, David Furnish. Showing that night was a film made by theatre director Stephen Daldry. it was a film about an unlikely lad who dreamed of being a dancer, and it was set in the even more unlikely northeast England, where flat caps, coal-mining and heavy consumption of Newcastle Brown Ale were the order of the day, not pirouetting and prancing.
Daldry had called the film “Dancer” and the main character had been named Billy Elliot by screenwriter Lee Hall. Daldry’s film was set in 1984, at a time when the British coal mining industry was experiencing huge industrial unrest; the miners were on strike across the country and mounted police struggled to control riotious outbreaks of violence whenever “scabs” (men who wanted to work through the strike) tried to cross picket lines. Margaret Thatcher was in power at the time, hated by the blue-collar north, loved by the wealthy in the south, and the mood in Billy’s community was bleak to say the least. As Thatcher fought to destroy the National Union of Mineworkers with police horses, dogs and truncheons, Billy’s father and brother resisted them every day, and much blood was shed. As a backdrop to this dour mayhem the music is relentless, and it is the music of the people: The Jam, The Clash, T. Rex, etc, the kind of glam, rebellious stuff that Britain was full of back in the 70s and 80s.
Apparently, when Elton saw the film it sent him into emotional paroxysms, as he related Billy’s struggles to his own in life, especially his relationship with his father. Elton remembered using music as his escape in life, in the same way Billy used dance, and it moved him to tears. Elton’s partner, David Furnish, could only wonder how he would smuggle Elton John out of there breaking his heart crying at this epic story!
This was the first encounter Elton John had with Billy Elliot, and it is how Elton’s “Billy Elliot the Musical,” score came to be introduced to London’s West End in 2005. Could Elton have dreamed that Billy Elliot tickets would still be selling in the West End, and now on Broadway, and in Chicago?! The Billy Elliot story is one that touches everyone in different ways, and this is the real reason that tickets to Billy Elliot are in such huge demand. It makes no difference who you are, you will be moved by this awesome tale of the extraordinary boy with the talent and the desire to make a dream come true.
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Billy Elliot Chicago Pays Respects to West Virginia Miners
April 12, 2010
Billy Elliot Chicago tickets have been selling fast for the production’s run in the Windy City, but as the show opened this week, there was a tinge of sadness in the form of an insert in the program notes. The American miners injured or killed in the explosion in West Virginia were noted, and the cast and crew of Billy Elliot wanted the audience to know that they had “the families of the West Virginia miners in their hearts and minds”. Billy Elliot, set as it is in a British coal-mining community, set the story in jarring contrast to the current realities of the people who lost loved ones in West Virginia. Theater is very often a means to express ugly truths, and the question marks hanging over the dead miners were surrounded by the names of those who had died before them, a legacy of shame and exploitation that plagues a dangerous but essential industry.
The program also noted that the boy who is to play Billy Elliot Chicago is to be Cesar Corrales, a Canadian of Cuban descent who is the son of two dancers. Corrales has been described as a magnificent dancer, with an endearing and emotional appearance. Four actors will alternate in the role of Billy, and it is one of current theater’s most demanding, as a huge amount of dancing is performed. Corrales captivates the Billy Elliot Chicago audience with his reflective and authentic rendition of the English lad, with Elton John’s awesome musical score urging him on to ever more daring and original dance moves. Elton John was indeed there at the opening night of Billy Elliot Chicago, and he enjoyed some time before the cameras on the red carpet outside the Ford Center for the Performing Arts in the city.
It was a poignant evening in Illinois, as news of the missing miners trickled into the media and the death toll increased. The musical captured the mood effortlessly, and the notion of a young boy escaping the fate that befell his father and grandfather in a community that lives in the shadow of the pit was never more desirable. The music, as ever, was immensely varied and lush, and of course loaded with English humor. The choreography was second to none (some people even claim that Billy Elliot Chicago is superior to Billy Elliot New York!) and the latest addition to the honored list of Billies rose to the challenge amazingly well. We have a new musical star in Cesar Corrales, that’s for sure, and Billy Elliot tickets are going to be selling for a long while yet!
Billy Elliot in Chicago!
April 8, 2010
Billy Elliot has danced his way over to Chicago, Illinois at Ford Center for the Performing Arts and will be playing through the summer until August 8, 2010.
Billy Elliot braves the windy city!
The Youngest Ever Billy Elliot Takes on Role
April 6, 2010
There’s always a new reason to want to buy Billy Elliot tickets and this time it involves the title role of Billy himself. The latest in the string of child actors to play Billy Elliot will be Jacob Clemente, who is the 9th “Billy” so far.
Clemente, at age 12, is the youngest Billy Elliot of them all on Broadway, and fittingly Clemente grew up in a coal mining family in upstate New York. Clemente has appeared on Broadway before, in the production Gypsy. He has also earned several dance honors such as the 2007 Junior Mr. Starquest and the 2008 National NYCDA Mini Outstanding Dancer. It will be interesting to see how Clemente’s joining the production affects Billy Elliot ticket sales. The exact date in the Billy Elliot Broadway schedule when Clemente will join the show will be announced soon.
Among Clemente’s alternate Billies are actors Alex Ko, Liam Redhead, Michael Dameski and Dayton Tavares. The role of Billy’s teacher Mrs. Wilkinson is being played by Kate Hennig, and Philip Whitchurch is fitting in very well after joining the production as Billy’s dad.
Set in a northeastern English mining town, Billy Elliot tells the unlikely tale of the lad who goes to a ballet class and rides his passion all the way to the bright lights of London. Elton John’s musical score and brilliant choreography by Peter Darling took Billy Elliot all the way to 10 Tony Awards in 2009, a formidable achievement.