Closing????

[jdmag44]

If anyone has checked out Hartford lately there are NO good seats left especially for what might be the last show. I'm glad I got mine back in Oct.

HOWEVER for those who live near Grand Rapids there are GREAT seats through Ticketmaster MANY MANY in the first and second rows for all the weekend shows.

[angelenroute]

I spoke to a member of the company during the Ottawa stop. Closing in May after Las Vegas had been discussed, but now it will continue into June. If you want to be at the last show of the North American tour, buy your tickets for Hartford!

Not saying you're wrong (I have no idea offhand) but just a pro-forma reminder that anything's possible, and without official word from the company, there are no guarantees.

[ERinVA]

Thanks, Sean. We have seen situations before where changes happened; for example, the time of the final Broadway show.

So a word to the wise if you're planning a trip to Hartford: If it turns out that the show extends, you will just have to be glad you had a good time in Hartford, and if it doesn't extend, then you can still be glad you had a good time in Hartford.

[jotunheim]

kport originally posted this link in the Casting Call page, but there is relevant information here to this thread as well. Again, it looks like Hartford is indeed the end of the road if booking agents are being told the show is "cancelled and will not be rescheduled" for next season.

http://bbs.backstage.com/groupee/forums ... /590102044

[LiamM]

If you want to be at the last show of the North American tour, buy your tickets for Hartford!

... but if you want to be at the real last show, wait until Brazil (unless there is more in the works after that!).

[jotunheim]

The production team has already updated the bebilly.com website with the Brazil information that was released a few days ago, presumably to sustain interest in recruiting for end dates that are rapidly approaching. This looks to confirm that as suspected by many here that it was the NA tour handling this short extension - and hopefully this will be extended further!

http://bebilly.com

[jdmag44]

I spoke to the young man who sells the Billy Elliot souvenirs He has been traveling with the show for a year. He said Hartford is the end of the North American tour. Brazil was a unique opportunity so they took it. He is not aware of any plans beyond that.

[accessmenj]

My observation is that something is up for the future of the BETM tour: auditions for children, auditions for adult cast, the recent Tampa Bay article urging potential future Billys to contact Nora on the website, and finally the difficulty that I am having getting good seats in many cities. BETM has a future.

[Mactor17]

I really hope so...When it closed on Broadway I was sad enough...but I knew everytime it came near enough to drive I would go (Boston, Baltimore ect). Can't wait to see it in Ct. in June. Hope that is not the last time.

[kport]

The thing is this: it is too easy to close something like this production down, and almost impossible to start it again from scratch. I say 'almost' with caution, because it can be done, but the process of training the Billys and Michaels works best when it is ongoing within an existing production; an apprenticeship of sorts, where older boys pass on their expertise to younger ones through example as well as training (if you require an example of this, watch the videos of Cal with Ben). The present tour was reborn from the previous tour; , and from the Broadway, Toronto, Chicago, and Sydney and Melbourne productions. The present tour has four amazingly gifted boys in the lead, and two very gifted Michaels; imagine how long it would take to train up six young lads (and of course the ten Ballet Girls, Tall and Small Boy, and all the adult cast) from scratch in a studio situation far removed from the staged production? The way I see it now is that there is a goldmine - nay, a tradition - here that must continue to help the performers, especially the children, to learn to perform, to train as dancers ,to rehearse the words and the stagecraft, and to flourish - socially as well as professionally - as a well honed group. Adults (with their experience and maturity) can come and go, and start from scratch, but the process of training boys - and girls, but especially boys - takes a long, long time, and even longer if there are not the older boys from whom younger ones can emulate as they learn. This is not just a Tour, but a school, an academy, long in tradition garnered from many cities and countries and even continents. To end this Tour will be the end to the traditions of Sydney and Melbourne, of Toronto, of Chicago, of Broadway, and of the previous Tours. It is that significant. It will not be just the end of a Tour, but the end of an era with roots spanning back to November 13 2007.

Let me draw an analogy: if the choristers of The Chapel Royal or Westminster Abbey or St Thomas Church 5th Avenue were disbanded (as indeed happened to the first two choral establishments during the Cromwellian period - Henry Purcell being one chorister pensioned off, only to return as a man after the Restoration to reform the Choir of the Chapel Royal and Westminster Abbey - a task he felt he had not completed by the time of his death a decade later) then it would take years before a reformed group of choristers would be anywhere as good as those who were disbanded. To close the present tour in the summer and disband the child actors would be a major setback to starting it up again. It could be done, but at a far greater cost and a lot more time and effort.

I know of many cities and many theatres through North America (and many more in South America) where BETM has not yet appeared; I find it hard to believe that a successful tour cannot continue into the autumn and beyond. My fear is the day when the VPT has to close for refurbishments and, for a while, BETM will not be performed anywhere in the world.