“The only possible way to make the hurt feel okay: to remind us of the smile that was with us all the while.”
The sad story we knew we’d be experiencing on that fateful Sunday afternoon was safely bookended by so much sheer joy that it just felt so much better than I thought it would. Between Friday afternoon and Sunday night, fans like me had SO much going on nonstop, it felt like a convention at times—albeit the most awesome convention you’ve ever attended. I'll post my best recollections and sharing of emotions felt before, during and since the final weekend of Billy Elliot on Broadway between here and the January Reviews thread.
Billy Elliot Farewell Celebration - Part 1
On Friday, January 6th, 2012, SuperFans from around the world, representing 10 countries globally, came together for a celebration of all things Billy Elliot. On the way to the Celebration, some of us met up first across the street for lunch. Trent, Tommy, and their moms were there too, which upped the excitement right away, as did seeing the beautiful poster designed by Ellen and the book of messages to the cast from so many of our Forum members!
I was too excited to eat, so I went over to the studio extra early to see if they needed any help setting up. Some of our Forum friends were already there helping Thommie set up, a great crew of volunteers making sure everything would go off fabulously! In the lobby, a bunch of fans were already hanging out, a full hour before the registration hour was set to even begin! And every few minutes, more fans and cast members past and present would pour into the room.
At First Preview, I showed up for dinner at The Edison Café and met Forum members in person for the very first time. Each one introduced him/herself to me by first name and Forum name, and with each one my smile got wider. “So YOU’RE (fill in Forum user name)!” It was really nice putting faces to user names. Fast forward three years and three months later, and as more and more people arrived for the Fan Celebration, I knew 90% of the room by first name, and many are very good friends now. Because I’m a New York-based fan, I’ve gotten to know more people than most, so I sometimes felt like a politician must as I worked my way through the now-crowded lobby and tried to spend as much time as possible with as many people as I could.
Once the event got underway, we were first ushered into a huge room to claim our seats for the performances that would come later on. I ended up with one of the worst seats in the room, but I could still see well enough anyway. There would be enough videos posted of the event too, so even if my angle wasn’t perfect for various numbers, I’d still have a great seat for posterity.
And funnily enough, I was completely surrounded by people I DIDN’T know! Overall it was as if the theatre gods knew I had to keep my big ego in place now and then.
After saving our great seats, we went into the room next door to learn the dance from the show. Now in the past two workshops, which I was also fortunate enough to attend, we were a large but manageable group. The size of this gathering though was HUGE! Over a hundred fans and then TONS of cast past and present and their families too! Someone recently shared video footage from YouTube of one of our past gatherings, and what seemed large then is positively tiny in comparison! Suffice it to say, it would be a major task teaching this many people to dance. Somehow, Master Dance Teacher and Broadway Star Thommie Retter managed to do it! Though it was an abbreviated version of our past dance “classes” with Thommie, it was still a ton of fun!
He taught the group how to dance and sing part of the Finale number from the show, with the help of 4 Billys Elliot, Trent Kowalik, Tommy Batchelor, Peter Mazurowski, and Giuseppe Bausilio. We also sang “Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher” together, and someone asked the 4 Billys to play the parts of the 4 boys on stage for that number, Billy, Michael, Tall Boy, and Small Boy. Shawn Gough asked the boys if they each knew which part to take—there was practically no worry about what each one’s lines were—and suggested that Peter, the shortest of the 4, play Tall Boy.
Then Giuseppe made us laugh by pretending to be Small Boy before Tommy Batchelor called out, "Trent should be Small Boy!"
I found documentation of this here beginning around the 5:45 mark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ak72FvR ... W4di_gDC8P
After this fun, we were ushered back into the performance room. Videos of most performers’ bits can be found on a number of YouTube channels, so search around for those. If you’re technologically challenged, feel free to click the “
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Every one of them, from the youngest to the oldest, performed for us like they were performing on stage at The Imperial, and gave us everything they had. None of the performances were Billy related, they were all just awesome demonstrations of the incredible talent that each and every one of the Broadway cast and crew have. And you could really see throughout the afternoon how fortunate we all have been to have these amazing performers lend their talents to our favorite show these past three years.
I’d hate to single out some performers and not others, so I’m going to give a VERY QUICK run through of each performance in a post to come.
To Be Continued...below! (keep reading) =)