Billy Elliot the Forum

I had the occasion this past weekend to travel up to Kalamazoo to catch the Civic Theater's ("The Civic") production of Billy Elliot which is nearing the end of its run at their venue. It has been far too long for me in remembering both the last time experiencing the "Billy Elliot the Musical" environment and following up with a review of sorts, so, I plead somewhat guilty if this comes across as somewhat inadequate.

Let me start off by saying, the "Civic" itself was a very small venue with a seating capacity of 500, with a main floor and small balcony. The stage was also comparatively small given those we may have been use to in seeing this musical. Three very strong pluses, however! Number one, given its comparative size, it had a stage front orchestra pit low enough it was mostly unobservable, and for this show they had a dozen or more pieces which accompanied the cast. It provided an overall generous sound. Secondly, despite its size, the auditorium possessed a certain style and class which would be hard pressed to be equaled anywhere. Lastly, there was a full house for the show which I thought was a fantastic treat for all the mothers in the audience, given it was Mother's Day.

That at least sets the scene as the curtain went up. What followed was a performance of mostly local talent, all of whom showed great energy and enthusiasm working with rather sparse props throughout the show. That energy was easily transferred to their telling of the story for which this musical is so well known. I might add, that Kalamazoo being in Western Michigan, "Conservative country," nevertheless, there was no shortcuts regarding the use of the foul language to which we are accustomed and which has been somewhat unique to this show involving adults and children. That was a pleasant surprise maintaining its authenticity.

Without being in anyway critical, I need to mention those characteristics of the show which I sorely missed. As an example, there was no recording or news video to initiate the first curtain. Many scenes were either abbreviate, if not, underplayed. Two glaring examples were the "Angry Dance" and "Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher." The show was devoid of any tap dancing whatsoever. Billy's actual audition was elimated and the cast celebration dance following the final curtain was also drastically cut back. "Electricity" was executed mostly with tumbling moves and was missing any real display of balletic expertise. This was true of both Billy and Michael throughout the show. Allow it to be noted, however, that anyone who had not seen the show before, these voids probably would have had little if any consequence to them. This certainly was obvious in the audience's generous reactions.

Andrew Klepser who played Billy, performed the role with great gusto, emotion, and animation throughout, and as we know a Billy can, he carried the show from the get-go. Here was a 7th grader, a mouth literally full of upper and lower braces, who never missed a beat or line from start to finish. Andrew deserves profound kudos for his efforts and I made it a point to convey that to him following the performance. And as far as I could ascertain, there were some 500 folks who left the auditorium most gratified by what they had experienced. Again, as I previously suggested, for me it was just great to finally be amongest a "Billy Crowd" once again.

Regards,

Colin

You were very kind in your review Colin, focusing on the positives and listing the things you liked. Although I haven't seen this particular production, what you described here is very similar to several other community theater versions of BETM that I've been to.

I think this type of production points to some of the difficulties of having seen the show so many times in London or on Broadway, or on the tours where it's performed at the highest level with a professionally trained cast, and then seeing a somewhat scaled down version of it in productions like these. For those who haven't seen the show before, they're probably more inclined to be impressed with what they're seeing, since - for lack of a better expression - they don't know what they're missing. But for the rest of us, it's pretty hard to not think of how the show was performed in London, New York, etc. and not think, "Yeah, but I miss all the intricate lighting that I've seen them use in 'Angry Dance' " or "Yeah, but 'Electricity' really wows people when the actor playing Billy shows how far he's come by demonstrating a high level of ballet and tap dancing."

Kudos to all the cast members of this production and other regional theater productions who give it their all and perform with enthusiasm and gusto. I imagine the audiences will find it an enjoyable night at the theater, especially if they don't have a higher-level version of the show to compare it to.