The Show in Athens

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Darth_Revan
Ballet Girl
Posts: 281
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2013 11:35 am
Location: Dublin, Ireland

The Show in Athens

Post by Darth_Revan »

I went to Athens last Friday to see the Greek version of Billy Elliot.

I managed to book 4 performances for a very good price (top priced tickets cost 20 euro only!) The booking system was horrible, it was available only in Greek and Google translate was not able to automatically translate the site into English. There was no seat selection, the system gave me seats in row 4. But it turned out there were lots of empty seats in row 1 to 3, but whatever.

The Pallas theatre was quite big, the seats were very comfortable with ample legroom.

There theatre was nicely decorated with Billy Elliot photos and posters. You could buy Billy Elliot cookies and cupcakes in the bar.

There are 3 boys playing Billy in Greece, I saw all of them and as I watched 4 performances I got to see Petros Zambakas twice.

Obviously their training was not as thorough as the London Billys', but their performances were spot on. The choreography was similar to London, but a bit "simplified", so the boys with limited training could shine. And all of them gave 100%, I liked that.

My only complaint is the lack of tap dancing during Expressing Yourself and especially during Angry Dance. The boys put on their tapping shoes in the finale, so the reason couldn't have been the lack of talent. I'm pretty sure all three boys could have learnt a great tapping routine if they had the chance.

There are two boys playing small boy. They start the show with a short, funny speech, I wish I could understand it. They started the second act as well with a short speech, then a short acro routine (sorry, I don't know their names, there was no cast announcement board) The dark haired boy was great at acro, the blond boy didn't really do the acro part, but he was way too cute.

The sets were interesting, I did not like the hanging ballerinas and I didn't understand the umbrellas, but otherwise the sets were looking good.

The expressing yourself didn't have dancing dresses, but dancing barbie dolls (and one Ken).
The props did not design very well for this fast paced numbers and the boys had their difficulties changing clothes/accessories, but they were so professionals handling these situations, so it just flow naturally :)

Billy was not dressed in women's clothing, he had a huge bow tie, a large vest and a pair of safety googles on.

Micheal did not give a kiss to Billy after the Christmas party, but still there was and angry man during the last show I saw who left after Micheal revealed he was gay. His wife and daughter stayed in their seats, but after the man looked at them angrily they followed him, then the whole middle section of the first row left. It might have been just a coincidence, but might have been homophobia.

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István
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