January 2012 Reviews - NYC

[BillyElliotLover]

I love all of these descriptions... thank you for spending the time to write them out to us.... they are truly fantastic and magical.....
Although I was not able to see the show, with all of these descriptions, I feel like I have.
This seems like it was truly amazing, and I'm sure every Billy Elliot fan had a blast!
Such a good ending to such an amazing show.

[rootbeer]

Who were the 5 other Billys that weren't the original 3 or final 4?
Tommy is all I've heard of so far.

Thanks for the reviews/timeline of the show so far and keep 'em coming!

[atreyu]

Who were the 5 other Billys that weren't the original 3 or final 4?
Tommy is all I've heard of so far.

Thanks for the reviews/timeline of the show so far and keep 'em coming!

Alex, Jacob and Giuseppe are the ones I recognize.

[ERinVA]

The other one was Liam Redhead.

[atreyu]

Grrr. The intermittent Internet access on the train is driving me mental!

A few more personal thoughts. Naturally I hate the fact that the show is now closed. But since it had to close, I can't possibly imagine a better way for it to do so. The New York Post had it right in calling BETM the Best Show You'll Ever See and this closing show was the best of the best. We will not see a spectacle like this on Broadway ever again.

And this last show was actually not that great for new BETM viewers. This was one for the (super)fans, those well familiar with every detail. Bravo and many thanks to all who made that happen.

To Stephen Daldry and the entire NY cast go one final standing ovation. They can hold their heads high with the fine work. Even though the show lasted only 3 years, the legacy and legend will go on forever.

[CJ-Rochester]

Thanks for documenting everything so thoroughly atreyu. Well done! Your memory was perfect. And I thought I was the only one who bothered to take notes.

Again I wanted to comment on how brilliant the transitions from one Billy to the next were. The first one, shadow dance, was especially beautiful as Julian and Tade faced each other and performed as if in mirror images. In most of other transitions a new Billy would appear, stand next to the current one and take over. The previous Billy would step back a bit but not immediately run off. Instead he usually watched the action for a second or two before departing. It was eerie in a way, reminding me of some kind of "Twilight Zone" or "Doctor Who" episode.

[angelenroute]

I'll be writing more later, but a few words on yesterday's masterpiece--which will go down in history as one of the most enthralling, amazing, enchanting theatrical experiences EVER!!!

The transitions between the Billys was an absolutely beautiful and artistic accomplishment that was just inspired from start to finish. It was like watching pure poetry come alive at times. The first transition, and one of my favorites (I'll just list my favorites now), was the Shadow Dance before We'd Go Dancing, when Billy makes the shadows on the back wall with his hands. By this point in the show, we knew there would be transitions of course, but we didn't know how or when. And because Tade was on as Billy by himself up until this point, I was stunned to suddenly see Julian AND Tade standing there next to each other, each performing that incredibly beautiful little dance. I gasped when I saw it, and the tears began flowing. Absolutely stunning, breathtaking theatre!

Another favorite moment was the end of Solidarity, when Billy takes center stage to wow the audience majorly for the first time. In the blink of an eye, completely unexpectedly, ALL 4 boys were standing before us and finishing the number together. I have to say, I've never gotten so emotional so fast. I was sobbing in my seat watching such a beautiful exhibition of theatrical magic! When they all finished, the eruption from the audience was HUMONGOUS!!! And it went on forever. When Daniel Jenkins (Dad) emerged, and we took our seats again, he looked around at his son x 4 and exclaimed, "What the............F***ING hell is going on here??????!!!!!!!!!" which had us all laughing hysterically. Two boys ran off and the last two, Joseph and Tade, did a rock, paper, scissors to determine who had to stay on stage and deal with Dad. Tade won, gave a little celebratory exclamation and ran off, while Joseph looked upset he had to stay. Hysterical!!!!!

In the "hoo hoo" scene, both Julian and Peter are standing there next to each other when Debbie (the always awesome Lilla Crawford) tells them both, "If you want, I'll show you me hoo hoo." After they both look surprised by this, they then turn and look at each other, asking if maybe they should consider it. Soooooo, sooooooo funny!!!!!!!

In another piece of absolute artistic GENIUS, Joseph is spinning the chair to start Dream Ballet and instead of just Stephen Hanna as Older Billy emerging from the back, Julian arrives too, walks up to Joseph and without missing a beat, continues spinning the same chair, as Joseph lets go!!! It was incredible!!!

And finally, the last of my favorites for now, Peter is Billy at the close of the show, and climbs down off the stage. Michael rides out on stage on his bicycle and calls out, "Oi, Dancin Boy!" Peter begins walking back toward the stage but then stops in his tracks, turns to look to the back of the theatre and says a soft, "oi!" toward the darkness of the rear of the Orchestra. And then there they were, all of the other 3 Billys walking up to join him. All four Billys!!! They all walked up and took places to the left and right of Michael on his bike, and then each one leaned in and kissed him on one cheek or the other in turn before climbing back down to exit the stage. Michael called out over the audience's cheers as they walked away, "See ya Peter! See ya Tade! See ya Julian! See ya Joseph!" Stunning, touching, beautiful, INSPIRED!

And these were just SOME of the awesome ways Billy Elliot The Musical triumphed in its final dance on Broadway. Well, until it returns again some day to Shine once more!

Sean

P.S. Thank you to CJRochester and atreyu for their notes on who played Billy when. If there are any accidental errors, I'll edit later.

P.P.S. Have made some fun edits to my show count now below.

[CJ-Rochester]

P.P.S. Have made some fun edits to my show count now below.

That's a good way to do it. I have now done the same for mine.

[dancingboy]

For anyone who is interested I shall write my review of the show when I get home to London on Tuesday. Dancingboy,

[yanks1153]

Thanks for the lovely reviews atyreu and sean. Both were very nice to read and brought me back to last night.
Will try to write my review of Mary Poppins with former ballet girl Kara Oates(Keeley Gibson) as Jane Banks, and the last show review which both are going to emotional.
Dancingboy and CJrochester can't wait to read your reviews.