Review - Chorzow, Poland

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Darth_Revan
Ballet Girl
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Location: Dublin, Ireland

Review - Chorzow, Poland

Post by Darth_Revan »

I saw Billy Elliot in Chorzow on the 30th and 31st may. Unfortunately I did not see both Billys, only Karol. He won first place in a dance competition and he appeared in Oliver! before (as one of the orphans, although he would have been a perfect Oliver). Michael was played by Ambrozy, who played in the Sound of Music before, and he has music background he plays the piano.

The theatre is in an old building, but it is very modern inside, it must have been renovated quite recently. The stage was HUGE! I'm not sure if they built the stage just for Billy, but it was extended so it covered the first two rows of seats as well.
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Of course there was no orchestra pit, the musicians were situated in one of the boxes on the circle.

The sets were clever, on the two sides there were two old tv walls (I barely saw them, as I sat in the middle in row 3 (which was the first row by the way)

The revolving stage's one side was Billy's house, the other was the boxing hall. Billy's room was upstairs on the right, and he could go up on a ladder. On the left hand side, there was another room upstairs, Mrs Wilkinson's living room.

When the stage was not moved full 180 degrees, but only 90, then it was Michael's room and just a brick wall on the opposite side. (see picture)
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While the audience members were slowly taking their seats, the miners appeared on stage and started to protest , then a television crew (reporter, sound guy and cameraman) arrived and they were setting up for broadcast. The reporter had her text in two copies, and she asked Michael to hold one and one random patron to hold the other.

Then we had the warning to turn off our mobiles and the show started with the reporter telling all about the background and there were archive footage also on the tv wall.

The miners were not very nice to the tv crew and they managed to chase them off.

Billy was waving a big flag (strike written on it) while he was singing his solo during Stars look down. At the end he jumped over the flagpole while he was holding it around his waist height.

Next scene, after grandma left the stage and Billy started to drink the milk from the bottle, his mother appeared in Billy's room. She was rather ghost like figure, with her pale face and white dress.

When Mrs Wilkinson appeared on stage, the expression on her face showed boredom and a little disgust by her team of ballet girls, as if she did not enjoy teaching the girls.

By the way the ballet girls were very well trained, and they did excellent performances on both days.

Billy took part of the shine, and he was moving with the girls, not like some uncertain first steps, but as if he's already was a pro. (it was strange as he was lost again at the beginning of Solidarity)

Billy's shadow dance was projected on the wall, and he got more and more out of sync with his shadow and finally the shadow jumped up and fly up and disappeared.

During gramdma's song her young self and yung grandpa was dancing. When she showed us the finger, Billy got embarrassed and hid it with his hand. Then he danced with her grandma.

Billy then struggled whether he should go back to ballet or not. While he was hesitating to join or not the girls started the class.

By the way it was the most static Solidarity I ever seen. Two policemen came to stage at the beginning, then a drunk woman appeared on stage (later I found out she was Tony's girlfriend). The two policemen were harassing the drunk girlfriend while Billy was on the other side of the stage struggling to join or not.

The stage revolved multiple times, Billy and the ballet girls in the boxing hall, mostly sitting, and the miners and the policemen in Billy's room sitting/laying down.

No dancing whatsoever. Quite strange concept.

Then at the end the ensemble did some moves, while Mrs Wilkinson was training Billy in the background.

At the beginning of Expressing yourself, Michael literally came out of the closet

The strange choreography continued: the two boys were just sitting through the first half of Expressing yourself: they were scoring the miners, who came to the stage one by one wearing tutu and did some ballet steps.

Then they put on their tapping shoes and they performed a brilliant ending.

Mum visited Tony while he was looking for the crowbar.

During the letter, mum appeared again in Billy's room. This time she had extra short hair and had an infusion attached to her arm, still wearing the white dress, that looked like a hospital gown.

Billy was crying, as many in the audience.

Debbie was in the boxing hall with her mother and Billy the whole time. And when they started the boogie, everybody from the ensemble was joining in with them

Before Angry Dance, when Billy shouted: "me mum would have let us" mum appeared behind dad, Billy tried to reach her hand, but dad hold him and he couldn't, and then Dad said your mother is dead and left.

Billy wore a pair of sneaker during Angry "Dance", it was rather Angry "Running". The atmosphere was good, little chaotic, fight between the policemen and the miners, but I was missing Billy dancing. Ha was running up and down, kicking in the air and stuff. Again, a choreography which did not make sense: Billy was doing tap dance earlier, so it was not his lack of skill, but a stupid decision by the director/choreographer.

The christmass celebration started with Billy playing on the trumpet, then with the Maggie puppet show. Billy and the other boys sat on the edge of the stage (Billy sat between seat 12/13, I sat on seat 13)

The maggie song ended with a fight, the girls attacked the boys, kicking them and stuff. Billy stayed curled up for a long time, then he sat back to the edge beside his father (this time he sat between seat 12/11)

Dad sang through the whole Deep Into the Ground. Then he wanted to attack the audience with an empty beer bottle, Tony grabbed him and they left the stage for Michael and Billy.

Michael did not have a gift doll or anything. After the hand warming there was a quick kiss, then Billy gave him the tutu. Michael convinced Billy to dance a little, so they do the basic ballet moves. First Billy commented what they were doing, but soon after we heard Mrs Wilkinson's voice. Micheal left the stage and Billy took off his sweater and revealed his prince outfit from Swan Lake. Older Billy was wearing the same. They were dancing on top of two tables, then Billy moved to the side while older Billy danced alone. Then mum entered, this time with long blonde hair, danced with older Billy. Billy was trying to reach her mum, but he couldn't. There was no flying.

It was not Tony, who did not let dad to go back to work, but two other miners.

Electricity had a weird choreography again. Billy finally got a chance to show his dancing skills, but he was not alone on the stage, first Michael joined him, the the ballet girls and all other children. They stayed in the background, they sang together with Billy. After the first dance routine Billy did not continue singing, the other children continued the song, then soon after Billy joined them.

After Billy and the rest of the cast left the stage dad saw his dead wife, through the fence. He tried to reach her, but she disappeared. He called her Sandra(!)

Tony's girlfriend had a little bigger role here, she was there when Billy got the letter and she was the one, who picked it up after Billy threw it to the ground.

After Billy said goodbye to his mum, he collapsed to the ground and he was sobbing, Michael came, called him "prima ballerina". Billy gave him a passionate hug, and on the first show a quick kiss as well, but the second time I saw it there was no kiss.

Michael left the stage, Billy took his suitcase gave a huge smile to the audience and left the stage, ovation from the audience. Then older billy came back with the same suitcase and danced the finale with the ballet girls.

On the Saturday show: standing ovation.

Five curtain calls!

I wasn't 100% happy with the show, because of the choreography, but I enjoyed it and I found Karol an excellent Billy, unfortunately the director did not use Karol's full talent and potential.

Billy will come back in September.
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István
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