Billy Elliot the Forum

In November, it was reported that Lee had written an open letter regarding potential budget cuts effecting the arts in his hometown of Newcastle and also has been widely interviewed by the press on that topic. Now he "is set to speak at a major public meeting in Newcastle on 9 January. The Save Newcastle Libraries event will be potentially one of the biggest and most important public meetings in Newcastle for some years."

http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/ne ... aign-event

Here's a BBC Radio 4 Cultural Exchange broadcast of Lee Hall discussing "Briggflatts," a poem by Basil Bunting:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/cultex

In the discussion from the beginning through 8.30, you get a very clear impression of Lee Hall as a literary intellectual. You can then skip forward to 21.30 to a discussion with Elton John and Lee about working together on BETM.

Well worth a listen!

Great interview! I was surprised to hear that Lee and Elton wrote and recorded five (5!) songs for BETM that didn't end up being used in the show! I was aware of one -- Billy's song to Grandma -- that was dropped from the show for time reasons during the previews for London. But FIVE songs?!

I may have to break in to that Atlanta recording studio to have a listen. No jury would convict me. And besides, my Forum membership would no doubt provide immunity.

tomtorfan wrote:I may have to break in to that Atlanta recording studio to have a listen. No jury would convict me. And besides, my Forum membership would no doubt provide immunity.

Don't bet on it, Tom! But I definitely agree with your enthusiasm! That really is an amazing fact that I'm sure has gotten a lot of us interested. Where might these secret recordings be now??? I want 'em!!!

Actually, the five songs are pretty available, or were. A few years back, a CDR bootleg album called 'Billy Elliot - The Demos' was being sold on ebay and other places. Along with eight songs that made it into the show, it included 'Goodbye Grandma' (Billy leaving), 'I Don't Have a Day' (Michael, about Billy), 'Not a Tea Dance' (boxing lesson), 'Not only Poofs' (guess where), and 'That's Fine' (Toilet scene).

It's interesting to listen to how the songs started, and compare that to how they ended up in the show.

[edit - just checked, copies are still on ebay, still look bootleggy]

Thanks Steadmam. Just listened to those five "lost" songs on YouTube. They're great....but I think the creatives made the right decison to reduce four of the five songs to brief dialogue. As for the fifth -- Goodbye Grandma -- this represents a real loss in my view. It covers emotional ground in the Grandma/Billy relationship that was not explored as much as it could have been in the final musical -- i.e. just how much Grandma meant to Billy. And coming near the end of the show, it would have been such a tear-jerker. I seem to recall an interview with Stephen Daldry in which he really lamented having to drop that song from his musical.

One question: Did any Forum members happen to see any London previews which had Goodbye Grandma? How did it play? Or am I mistaken in thinking that it was not dropped until after some previews had taken place?

Originally the idea was it was going to be WAY more a traditional mostly sung musical. After listening to the extra songs I VERY much agree they did the right thing in cutting them, honestly they are filler at best. The one true loss is Goodbye Grandma which is the only good song AND would have been the longest and most traditional song Billy would have performed, but it is long and mood wise doesn't quite fit in. It's always nice to hear Elton's version of Electricity sung as a pure song since its more acted on stage(as it should be). It's actually the only song from the demos that I prefer over the OCR.

I always liked this live performance by Elton John of "Expressing Yourself." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfsWwM0PvnQ

For those who are serious Elton John fans, you might notice that the chord progression of "What the hell's wrong with expressing yourself, being who you want to be . . . " was borrowed from the chorus of "Sweet Painted Lady," a song from his classic 1973 album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." Notice the similarity - although at a slower tempo - from around 1:16-1:25 . . . . .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up-q544g4sE.

Several reviews for Lee Hall's plays have popped up:

For Spoonface Steinberg at Jermyn Street Theatre, S.W.1:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/stag ... 2013_07_03

http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-thea ... 31187.html

For The Pitmen Painters at The Theatre Royal, Newcastle:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on ... al-4861817

steadmam wrote: I believe johnnyc said he saw it but I am not sure.

What I said was that goodbye grandma was in the first preview between the goodbye to Mrs Wilkinson scene and the scene where Billy packs his suitcase to leave for London. I based this on having HEARD an audio recording of the first preview performance. Sadly, I did not actually see the show till 13 May 2005.