Billy Elliot the Forum

A thread to discuss how the productions create Billy's "look."

What a good idea, Ellen.

Gee! Glad I thought of it!

Now, as for hair straightening.... There is something called a hot comb that can be used to straighten wavy hair without the person having to use a chemical relaxer. I assume that this is what Kiril had to use daily to style his hair in the British Schoolboy cut that they wanted his Billy to have.

http://www.instylerhair.com/?linkid=245 ... ing%20iron

hahah this makes me laugh that you put a link up to the InStyler. I'm not sure how widely used that product is used outside of infomercials, but I would guess they just used a regular flat iron.

Maybe. I have never needed to straighten my hair, so.... But the point is that there are ways to straighten your hair without chemically processing it.

Of course! Even many people with naturally curly hair don't need to do anything chemically to straighten their hair. All it requires is blowdrying it straight with a round brush and then running a flat iron through it. I don't know what exactly was done to Kiril's hair, but I'm sure running a flat iron through it would have done the trick. The last show I saw Kiril perform in, it looked like they straightened the front of his hair, but forgot or just didn't have time to do the back.

As far as lightening hair, I'm sure it's to make the "older" Billys appear younger. Many young kids have red or blonde hair in childhood and the hair will gradually get darker with age. The production team probably feels the lighter shade makes a 13/14 year old look more believable as an 11/12 year old.

That's a really good point, Satin. The lighter hair also attracts your attention to Billy on stage, I think. So if they can lighten his hair to achieve that, they will. But obviously it doesn't work for every boy who plays Billy.

ERinVA wrote:There are a lot of wigs in the show, of course.

Who besides Mrs. Wilkinson, Mr. Braithwaite, and Grandma?

On Broadway and in London:

Mrs. Wilkinson has more than one. Hair up/hair down.
The scab wears a wig, and a different one as posh dad.
Dead Mum wears one, and another one when she is playing one of the village women.
Leslie.
Various other ensemble women.
The woman policeman.
Clipboard woman.
Thommie the Miner (Broadway) has a different wig than Mr. Braithwaite.

In London, there is also one miner who has a bald/combover wig.
And when Phil Whitchurch played Dad in London, he wore a hairpiece.

I have probably missed some, but those are the ones I can think of right away.