Chat AboutArts Club Theatre Co, Vancouver, 5/12 - 7/10, 2016

[Eltonjohn]

http://www.insidevancouver.ca/2016/05/0 ... more-63639

Word's getting out...

[ERinVA]

The summary got it wrong right out of the gate! The setting is not Everington (the fictitious name used in the 2000 film), but Easington, as we all know from having seen the show more than once.

Does anyone want to let them in on the error?

I have passed along your obviouservation to a contact with the show.
(I earlier pointed out that it is Cluff, not Club, the last name of Older Billy portrayer, in some PR.)

But the notes do say later on that Everington is the film's fictitious setting. And the musical is based on the film. Ergo fictional Billy is an Everington-er ("Every (coal mining) town"). The MCMThatcher lyrics do cite Easington, just one of the several County Durham and other locales or communities that play 'home' to Billy as filming location. So perhaps Everington is the better/best amalgam.

http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/b ... zDSQdRfOK0

It is most definitely Easington in the show. In the scene with Posh Dad, Jackie used to tell him he is from Easington, County Durham. However, somewhere along the way, that line got dropped from the scene. I always liked it, because when Jackie mentions Durham, Posh Dad starts talking about Durham Cathedral, saying, "It's a wonderful cathedral, isn't it?" To which Jackie replies, "Don't know. Never been." This exchange is very revealing of the insular and limited world that Jackie inhabits.

Considering the fact that the London production has had a history of financially supporting Easington over the course of its run, and especially since all the proceeds of the final show were donated to a welfare organization in Easington, and also that the Easington Colliery Brass Band actually participated in the final show, I do not agree that Everington is the best amalgam. The town in the stage show has always been Easington, so this summary should refer to Easington, not Everington.

[Eltonjohn]

Here's the program...

http://artsclub.com/shows/2015-2016/pdf ... elliot.pdf

[Eltonjohn]

W.R.T. Easington vs Everington, perhaps the production will adjust the lyrics and lines to the latter, who knows? That way the audience won't get confused by the inconsistency. I'll certainly be listening out for this!

[ERinVA]

Compounding a mistake?

[Eltonjohn]

Compounding a mistake?

This suggests an interesting question:
How did fictional Ev in the film morph into Es on stage; and why?
Does anyone have an explanation, theory or quotation or other reference that can help to explain the transition?

[ERinVA]

I think that the movie producers, and especially Lee Hall, who is a true Geordie with a deep roots in the North-east, came to realize how their story could help the real people of the real Easington, both psychologically and materially. So when the film was translated to the stage in 2005, Hall chose to ground the story in reality by strengthening its political message and acknowledging the fact that Easington is a real place that is still struggling to this day to recover from the strike.

Ever since the show opened, there have been ties established to the real Easington, with monetary support for programs for youth in the town, etc. When BETM Live was screened around the UK, there was a special screening in Easington, acknowledging it as Billy's home, and as I mentioned before, the proceeds from the final performance of the London show all went to support services in Easington.

Here are a couple of interesting articles:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/th ... 89961.html

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/s ... -screening

Easington also has its own thread on this forum here: http://www.billyelliottheforum.me.uk/fo ... =easington

[Eltonjohn]

I think that the movie producers, and especially Lee Hall, who is a true Geordie with a deep roots in the North-east, came to realize how their story could help the real people of the real Easington, both psychologically and materially.

So when the film was translated to the stage in 2005, Hall chose to ground the story in reality by strengthening its political message and acknowledging the fact that Easington is a real place that is still struggling to this day to recover from the strike.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see whether Lee Hall is ever interviewed on the matter to fully understand the motivation behind Everytown on film crystalizing into Easington on stage. At the time, the future success of the blockbuster musical version could not have been foreseen exactly. The hardship affected not only Easington, so I wonder how among many other locales it came to be selected to be singled out.

[kport]

I think that the movie producers, and especially Lee Hall, who is a true Geordie with a deep roots in the North-east, came to realize how their story could help the real people of the real Easington, both psychologically and materially.

So when the film was translated to the stage in 2005, Hall chose to ground the story in reality by strengthening its political message and acknowledging the fact that Easington is a real place that is still struggling to this day to recover from the strike.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see whether Lee Hall is ever interviewed on the matter to fully understand the motivation behind Everytown on film crystalizing into Easington on stage. At the time, the future success of the blockbuster musical version could not have been foreseen exactly. The hardship affected not only Easington, so I wonder how among many other locales it came to be selected to be singled out.

Do you mean Everington?

[Eltonjohn]

I think that the movie producers, and especially Lee Hall, who is a true Geordie with a deep roots in the North-east, came to realize how their story could help the real people of the real Easington, both psychologically and materially.

So when the film was translated to the stage in 2005, Hall chose to ground the story in reality by strengthening its political message and acknowledging the fact that Easington is a real place that is still struggling to this day to recover from the strike.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see whether Lee Hall is ever interviewed on the matter to fully understand the motivation behind Everytown on film crystalizing into Easington on stage. At the time, the future success of the blockbuster musical version could not have been foreseen exactly. The hardship affected not only Easington, so I wonder how among many other locales it came to be selected to be singled out.

Do you mean Everington?

Yes, for to me the expression Everington is like Everyman, that is, it symbolizes the multiple coal mining communities that were hard hit in the mid-1980s. The Billy Elliot character could maybe well have come from any of those striken places. For some reason(?), Easington was singled out by or was emblematic in some way to the fiction writer(?). It probably wasn't an arbitrary choice (?)