Billy Elliot the Forum

Now more than his hair stylish knows for sure

A cute story from DNAinfo.com about how a "Hair Salon Beating the Odds in Hell's Kitchen". It's clients include none other that BETM Broadway's Joseph Harrington:

http://www.dnainfo.com/20110222/chelsea ... z1EnJX3Q68

This from the public Twitter of My Ballet (which stands for Manhattan Youth Ballet):

"Alumni Joseph Harrington now Billy Elliot on Broadway taking class with Level 5, class taught tonight by Jacqueline Schiller."

According to their website, the academy's program is modeled after the great European schools of ballet wherein students (aged 8-17) progress through levels of training that are carefully designed to address their physical, technical and artistic development. Generally, students will spend two years at each level. At age 12, Joseph is at level 5, out of a total of 8 levels.

More information on the school:

http://www.manhattanyouthballet.org/

I saw Joseph on MLK weekend. Here is a copy of my review:

By the time I got to TKTS (around 5:54) there were no BETM tickets available. So I bought a ticket from a guy who had tickets to get rid of --$60. This seat was in the very last row of the balcony. Jospeh was on so I can still say I've seen all Broadway Billys except for Dayton. Joseph has a nice singing voice and is a spot on dancer --his Swan Lake was more in sync with Older BIlly than Jacob's was earlier that day. But it is clear that Joseph is still finding his way. When he wasn't dancing he seemed a little stiff. Maybe I was spoiled by Jacob's performance. It doesn't seem as if Joseph has found the character of Billy yet. I am sure it will come in time. It could also be the fact that I was sitting so far away (though I did use my binoculars) and had been treated to the ubelievable Jacob at the matinee. In Joseph's defense the audience LOVED him. He got a HUGE ovation for ELECTRICITY and at the curtain call. Hope to see how Peter has progressed tomorrow.

Here is a review of my second time seeing Joseph:

Well, I am just back from the Friday 2/25 matinee --not sure why they had a matinee today, but the mezz and balcony were only about half full. Obviously people don't think of going to a Broadway matinee on a Friday. Maybe that is why I lucked out again and got second row aisle seats. Great to be that close again. And they were dsicount too!
I have to say, I was a little concerned when I saw on the board that Joseph would be Billy. Saw him about a month ago and he was still finding his way. Well, NOT ANY MORE!! I have to say, he has grown a LOT in one month. He just seems so much more comfortable on that stage now and he's really turned into a terrific Billy. Of course, he could have just had an off day the last time I saw him. But today he was outstanding. Some things he needs to work on are his yelling during ANGRY DANCE --he does very little yelling and when he does it doesn't seem to be routed in deep anger. He is just...yelling. He needs to find his "inner cavemen" and let loose with anger and frustrtion. Still, his AD was amazing!
I still love Emily Skinner's Mrs. Wilkinson. Tdoay there were a couple of "mic farts" --where there is this sudden bug noise from someone's mic. And when mom came on for the end her "Bye Billy" was not heard because her mic was off.
But it was another terrific performance of this show.

I think the reason for the matinee was that schools had the day off as part of the Presidents Day holiday.

Saw Joseph last night, and all I can say is Wow! I thought he was phenomenal. As he was performing "Electricity," I was watching his face, not only as he was singing, but also as he was dancing. I have never seen a Billy dance that number with such a determined, almost defiant "I'll show YOU" expression on his face throughout the whole thing. For me, it was very reminiscent of Jamie Bell's expression when he dances for his dad in the boxing hall. This fits perfectly with Joseph's Billy, who is a very determined kid, and it is exactly what Billy would do after being so frustrated that there was "no dance" as part of the audition.

I was at the same show...the look on Joseph's face...at the end of this number....I have NEVER seen that before.....BRILLIANT...

Re: Ellen's comments about Joseph's "I'll show you" expression while dancing "Electricity." It immediately struck a note with me regarding JP and Cesar in the Toronto production [when seeing them so frequently while they were at the Oriental]. I really think one of the pleasures of watching these youngsters perform "Electricity" is, in fact, observing closely their facial expressions as an extension of their dancing and their frustration of the moment. I just recall JP and Cesar literally squeezing forth every ounce of frustrated emotion in their facial expressions which literally drew the audience into the height of their emotion, if not, anger. Any way, beyond the beauty of the dance, the contrast with that of the frustration we also felt for Billy, I think only broadens the color of that wonderful moment in the Show. Just a comment that was triggered by Ellen's observation regarding Joseph's interpretation. Best to everyone, Colin

Here's a great interview with Joseph from Cincinnati's Q102:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php ... 8811058125

Great interview.

This is the longer (complete) version of that same interview with Joseph that Ellen posted:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php ... 3&comments