After care

Is the Music live? Where are auditons held?
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cheltonian
Small Boy
Posts: 64
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2016 12:10 am

After care

Post by cheltonian »

This is a question that's been on my mind. I did a search and couldn't see it had been raised before. It isn't really specific to the UK tour, or to the London production, I've raised it here just because the UK tour is current. I won't take offence if the moderators think it belongs elsewhere!

It strikes me that it must be incredibly difficult to retire from the experience of being Billy, or Michael to a lesser extent. To experience night after night of standing ovations, rightly, for outstanding performance. But then it comes to an end, and is it back to school? Obviously if you are Tom Holland or Dean Charles Chapman the dream continues, but what happens to the other boys? We know that the Billy School exists to nurture them and prepare them for this extraordinary role, but, and I'm sure they are not, are they just tossed aside and left to cope when their run comes to an end, what help and support are they given to adjust to normality?
Todd
Dad
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Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:05 am
Location: Kansas City, USA

Re: After care

Post by Todd »

I've always thought this sort of question was very interesting, whether the person was a stage performer or an athlete or a movie star. Any job that involves a large group of people cheering for you, calling out your name, asking you for autographs, etc. would definitely require more of an adjustment back to everyday life than most other jobs. Retired professional football players in the U.S. have said that nothing they did in their later jobs or careers ever gave them the same high or the same adrenaline rush as playing football. Of course, these are adults in their 30's or 40's, so you can imagine the difficulty for someone in their early teens having to deal with a similar loss of adulation, applause, stardom, etc.

I'm sure some of the Billys were ready to be back home, see their old friends, and be a normal kid again. But there's no doubt that the performing bug must have certainly bit some of them, and that going back to the hum-drum life of a school routine must be difficult. I was visiting one time with someone who had been involved with the Broadway production of Billy Elliot, and asked him about some of the cast members he had kept in contact with who were no longer in the show. I inquired about one particular Billy who had left a few months earlier after having been in the show a long time. I asked how he was coping with being back home in school, and he said, "He's like an addict who's going through withdrawal." So in other words, he was missing the smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd - which is very understandable.

One would hope that some sort of follow-up was put in place to check on the young cast members periodically to see how they're adjusting to being away from the show. I thought I'd heard somewhere that Elton John was going to set up something that would help the original three London Billys to transition back into everyday life, cover the cost of performing arts school for them if they couldn't afford it otherwise, etc. Not sure if that only applied to the original three or if he was planning to do the same thing for all the subsequent Billys. One could see how difficult that might be considering how many boys have gone on to play Billy since then. And do you draw the line at just the Billys, or open it up to the other child cast members as well ? Given those tough questions and the fact I haven't heard any more about it, I'm guessing the plan was scrapped - if it even existed in the first place.
Real Geordie
Ballet Girl
Posts: 267
Joined: Mon Nov 09, 2015 8:02 pm
Location: England

Re: After care

Post by Real Geordie »

This article has been referenced previously and deals with child actors and some of the pressures they face. The article concludes with a Billy Elliot reference.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/the ... 127-gl9zmg
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