There’s a new theater production in Phoenix that our reviewer Robrt Pela thinks should be your choice this holiday season:
"Billy Elliot: The Musical" is set in County Durham, a village in North Eastern England where everyone is explosively grouchy. You can tell they’re mad all the time because they yell constantly and punctuate every sentence with the phrase “Piss off!” And you can tell their story in song is being told by Phoenix Theatre because every musical number is played directly to the audience, a long-held tradition of this company and of this production’s talented director.
The Durham villagers are upset because they’re poor and because the coal miner’s strike of 1984 is making them even poorer. Poverty is hard, although not as hard as being an eleven-year-old boy who wants to study dance in a town where guys are expected to learn boxing. Billy Elliot has been secretly taking ballet classes from Mrs. Wilkinson until his father finds out and makes him stop. Mr. Elliot is especially cross: He’s a striking coal miner whose wife is dead, which doesn’t prevent her from occasionally visiting her son when no one else is around.
Mrs. Wilkinson convinces Billy’s dad to let him audition for the Royal Ballet School in London. Mr. Elliot hollers angrily and then stomps off to attend a miner’s riot, after which Mrs. Wilkinson shrieks with rage and runs off somewhere else. Billy tops them both with a colossal temper tantrum proving no one in County Durham is as angry as a kid who wants to demi-plie but can’t.
For the next year or so, Billy gives up dance. One night after a party though… he caves and performs a fantasy sequence with a grownup version of himself who’s wearing a Spandex singlet. Billy’s dad sees him dancing and, impressed by his son’s Soutenu and the effects of an offstage smoke machine, agrees to let Billy attend this year’s Royal Ballet audition. Billy’s travel expenses are paid by the miners, who have suddenly decided the heck with colliery closures; little boys in toe shoes are what they should be fighting for. Billy aces his audition and heads offstage to a happily-ever-after, probably scored by Tim Rice or Cliff Richard and—if Phoenix Theatre gets hold of it—performed straight out into the audience.
The many delightful performances in this production are trumped by Matthew Dean’s magnificent Billy Elliot. His en pointe is polished, his singing is superb, and “Angry Dance,” in which he explodes into a ball of fury, is worth, as the saying goes, the price of admission. Maria Amorocho’s joyful take on “Grandma’s Song” makes it a showstopper. And charming Ross Nemeth, who plays Billy’s best friend Michael, stomps off joyfully with every scene he’s in. Sam Hay’s skillful choreography makes even non-dancers appear poised, and director Michael Barnard, when he isn’t recreating a musical police lineup, brings his usual style to the proceedings. You have likely already seen a production of A Christmas Carol; so why not make Billy Elliot your holiday choice this year.
Billy Elliot continues through January 1 at 100 East McDowell Road. Visit www.phoenixtheatre.com or call 602-254-2151.
Robrt Pela’s reviews appear in the Phoenix New Times.
EDITOR'S NOTE: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of the reviewer.