Billy Elliot the Musical is a musical based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot. The music is bySir Elton John, and book and lyrics are by Lee Hall (who wrote the film's screenplay). The musical revolves around motherless Billy, who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes. The story of his personal struggle and fulfilment are balanced against a counterstory of family and community strife caused by the 1980s coal miners' strike. Hall's screenplay was inspired in part by A.J. Cronin's novel, The Stars Look Down, and the musical's opening song is an homage.
The musical opened in London's West End in 2005 and was nominated for nine Laurence Olivier Awards, winning four including Best New Musical. The success of Billy Elliot the Musical has led to productions in Australia and on Broadway.
The work premiered in March 2005 at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London, where it is still showing; it reportedly cost £5.5 million to make (the original film version cost $5 million).[2] It is directed by Stephen Daldry and choreographed by Peter Darling, as was the original film. The producers were Working Title Films, Old Vic Productions Plc and David Furnish. Ian MacNeil designed the sets, Nicky Gillibrand designed the costumes, and Rick Fisher designed the lighting. The original cast album was released on January 10, 2006. The musical received favourable reviews and won Three Laurence Olivier Awards: Best New Musical, Best Actor and Choreographer. It also won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical.
Synopsis
Set in County Durham, against the backdrop of the 1984-85 coal miners' strike, motherless eleven-year-old Billy inadvertently finds his way into a girls' ballet class run by Mrs. Wilkinson and is attracted to the grace of the dance. Without telling his family, who would prefer that he study boxing, Billy continues to come to the dance class, and Mrs. Wilkinson, recognising his talent, encourages him to audition for the Royal Ballet School in London. Billy's friend Michael is a boy with homosexual feelings, and Mrs. Wilkinson's daughter Debbie is another friend of Billy's. Meanwhile, Billy's gruff, conservative father and brother are engaged in a daily battle with policemen in riot gear protecting strike breakers. They struggle to get the family by with very little strike pay. The father comes to terms with his son's desire to be a dancer, as he becomes resigned to the realisation that coal mining is a dying business. The musical gives more emphasis to the miner's strike than the film, and consequently its tone is a bit darker and harder-edged than the film's, but the ending is uplifting.
Musical numbers
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Awards and milestones
The show was nominated for nine Laurence Olivier Awards and won four of them in 2006. These were best musical, best choreography (Peter Darling), best sound design (Paul Arditti), and best actor(s) in a musical (James Lomas, George Maguire, and Liam Mower). At thirteen, Mower was the youngest actor ever to win the award. The actors were also the first to win the award in a shared capacity. Lomas, Maguire, and Mower also jointly received the Theatre Goers' Choice Award 2005 for The Most Promising Newcomer. Billy Elliot the Musical has also won The Evening Standard Award 2005, among others.[12]
On 12 May 2006, the three original Billys (Lomas, Maguire and Mower) appeared in a final show together to celebrate the show's first anniversary. The three rotated the role during the performance and were joined at the end by Sir Elton John. When the musical celebrated its third anniversary in London, the newly-cast Billys for the Broadway production danced to “Electricity”.
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