Billy Elliot the Forum

Here's a very enthusiastic review of the show's opening night performance in Birmingham.
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.s ... tiona.html

BEtourfan wrote:Here's a very enthusiastic review of the show's opening night performance in Birmingham.
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.s ... tiona.html

Great review! I especially found these opening comments very interesting and hope our friends in tour management read this sterling review:


"The folks who run theater touring series these days really don’t like to hear it, but you get what you pay for.

With few exceptions, the less-expensive non-Equity shows pale in comparison to their Equity counterparts, the latter of which feature members of the Actors Equity Association. Cases in point: December’s less-than-stellar production of West Side Story, which was presented under the Broadway in Birmingham banner even though the only thing in that production that had been near the Great White Way was the music; and Billy Elliot, the stellar national tour that opened Tuesday night with Ben Cook, a 15-year-old who already has Broadway credentials under his belt, in the title role."

Let's hope the folks who may be considering making the tour non-union take these comments under advisement.

As much as I enjoy Billy Elliot The Musical, I would never attend a non-union show. This review says it all. You get what you pay for.

Well, eventually it will be licensed for local productions, I think. I might consider seeing one of those if it ever happens near me, just because it would be supporting the local arts community, but a non-union tour--don't think so.

Pardon my ignorance, are the many kids that are in the show in the union? Can they be union members at their age?

BEtourfan wrote:Here's a very enthusiastic review of the show's opening night performance in Birmingham.
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.s ... tiona.html

And oh, what a Billy Ben Cook makes. It’s a demanding role, and you can see why three other young actors rotate with Cook as Billy, but it’s hard to imagine that any of them would be any better than him.

Ben is of course absolutely wonderful, but it's always fun to hear a reviewer be so sure the others couldn't possibly be as good. Yes, they are! They're all fantastic!

...Janet Dickinson as Billy’s dance teacher and mentor Mrs. Wilkinson. She gets perhaps the best-known of Elton John’s songs, “Shine,”

I've never heard that before, but okay!

jdmag44 wrote:Pardon my ignorance, are the many kids that are in the show in the union? Can they be union members at their age?

Yes. The entire cast, including the child cast members, are Actor's Equity. It's a union show and it's mandated that they be.

Thanks for the clarification. I thought that was the answer but was not sure.