I've seen Billy Elliot twice in London - the Billys were Elliott Hanna and Nat Sweeney (both were great). I saw the show in Tel Aviv and had really lousy seats, so maybe my review is affected by this. There were a few technical problems during the show (like Billy's microphone falling a few times) and that also affected my review . It also caused Billy to miss one dancing scene in "Solidarity" which was a real shame.
Let's talk about the cast:
Billy - Shon Granot Zilbershtein. Acting skills and dancing were descent. His singing skills were surprisingly good . He is also a lot older then the London Billys I have seen (He is 15). Had a scene where his mic fell off and he managed to continue the whole scene holding it in his hand. (Expressing yourself). I think this damaged the whole dance and he managed to stay in focus, but only with one hand (it was very distracting). It happened also in "Solidarity" and cuased him to miss a part of the dance. The "Electricity" dance was really great and very imppressive. He did a great job in "Angry Dance" also.
Michael - Sahar Lev-Shomer. Was excellent and prefect for the role. Both as an actor and a singer. One of best scenes was "Expressing yourself" and the chemistry between the actors was great (even with one hand).
Mrs. Wilkinson - Dafna Dekel. A very good singer and actress, not much of a dancer . She really managed to be both emotional and funny at the same time. I was very suprised by her acting skills because she' used to be a singer, not a professional actress.
Dad (Avi Kushnir) and Tony (Oshri Cohen). They did they're parts very well, but because they are very famous in Israel it was hard for me to be persuaded entirely by they're performance. The song that Avi (Dad) sings was pretty moving.
Grandma - Dina Doron. She was great, and it shows that she's an experienced actress. The "Grandma song" was excellent - funny and moving.
And now about the show:
The translation to Hebrew was great with a few chnges(even though a few lines sounds weird in Hebrew) and the songs were pretty much the same."Solidarity" for example was translated to "Iron Fist" (even though solidarity has the same meaning in hebrew). They added a few lines and jokes and a less cursing , there were quite a lot Maggie Thatcher speeches throughout the show. The live orchestra was great and not too loud. The theatre is brand new so the seats were comfortable and spacious. The acting was descent and the actors that played Micheal and Mrs. Wilkinson were very excellent. They added a few explanations about the Miner's strike and Maggie Thatcher for the Israeli audience and changed the video at the beginning. The set was a bit different, and they didn't have the rotating staircase with Billy's bed. This major change really cause a few scenes to lose their dramatic effect, especially "angry dance" and the letter scene . The stage was not as big as in the VPT, and that's why I think there were less ensemble members.
But there are a few changes I didn't like at all. Even though th he central storyline remained unchanged some of the major scenes were altered. The first act is almost identical. They altered the "I like to boogie" dance, and instead of using jump ropes they used broom to dance. Mr. Braithwaite is called Barney, and his charechter is a bit diffrent (he's messy and eccentric)
But in the second act they altered it quite a bit and not in a good way (this is my own opinion of course..).
The "Marry Christmas Maggie Thatcher" scene was without the jokes before the curtain unveils, and there was no giant Maggie Thatcher puppet (only a small one). The whole scene a lot less funny .
The audition scene was very different. They dropped the whole audition with the cassette and they really didn't show how Billy hit the other kid. They moved straight to the "Electricity scene".
There is no “William Elliot Is Queer/Esquire” scene probably because of the translation. The lines about the "The Philistines/Palestinians" were changed to "ignorant people" (political issues of course).
The last song where Billy wrote a letter to his mom was completely gone, and they just showed her standing on stage at the last songs of the miners (
). At the end of the show after Micheal shouts for Billy "Hey, Dancing boy!" - Billy just goes away and doesn't give him a kiss. The final scene where Michael stands and the orchestra plays, was way too short and not dramatic and emotional as the original scene.
The finale was very different with just a small tap number (done by Dad!!!). That was very disappointing because it's a great dance.
But the real disappointment was the choreography and the dancing itself. This was in no way as the original play. All the cast dancing scenes were shorter and they were not in perfect sync. Billy's dance scenes were also a little shorter, a lot less complicated and overall the dancing level was mediocre. Maybe beacuse the stage was smaller...
I must admit that the scene when they are reading Billy's letter from the Royal Ballet School was better and funnier then the original. The chemestry between the actors was also great. In "Angry dance" the music went silent, and it was also an improvment.
If I watched the play without watching the original, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I was a little disappointed after this show because when I saw the play for the first time I was blown away from the dancing scenes (especially the finale). But I must admit that overall production was good and in a relatively high standard, and it nice to see the show in Israel. The most disappointing thing was the technical problems .
I hope it will inspire the poeple in Israel.
