Billy Elliot the Forum

porschesrule wrote:Here's a not so positive review from a writer on the examiner.com. This review will be sure to elicit some comments from Forum members I'm sure

http://www.examiner.com/review/review-o ... erspective

"If you don’t see any more coverage from this reviewer, then you know that this review did not go-over well with the event sponsor"

Fingers crossed . . .

There are some positive reviews from Jacksonville. This is a great one.

http://jacksonville.com/entertainment/a ... an-theater

accessmenj wrote:There are some positive reviews from Jacksonville. This is a great one.

http://jacksonville.com/entertainment/a ... an-theater

That one was already posted previously in this short thread, but I do appreciate the reminder that most liked it! =)

Even in conservative, "Church Lady" Jacksonville, most get it.

Speaking for the majority, Denise M. Reagan of Folio.Weekly.com was "blown away" by BETM.

As an example she says "If the movie didn’t accomplish this, surely the musical will convince anyone that ballet and boys are a powerful mix."

http://folioweekly.com/Blown-Away-by-Billy,2073

I loved that review. She got right to the heart of what is right about the show.

It’s rare to see a musical that stretches the medium, but “Billy Elliot the Musical” does just that. Instead of simply telling the story from the movie, the creative team reimagined the narrative as if it were originally being told in the musical format.

That was my feeling exactly the first time I saw the show in London, and I still agree with it today.

Me too, I was so surprised and delighted at how different the show was from the movie!

I loved this line:

Chairs play so many roles in this production, from dancing partners to symbols of defiance to the baggage of life.

Is the last a reference to the suitcase on the chair at the end, or a more generalized reference? If the former, I'd never thought of it that way until now, that the element we see Billy trying to conquer and dance with would also become the platform he packs away his old life on and begins anew.

another random thought came to me as I was reading the article:

While it's probably been mentioned before, I wonder if the production team ever considered staging Michael's closet (his sister's closet, I guess) as the place where all the dancing dresses would eventually emerge from? Wouldn't that be a cool update next time around?

I took the "baggage of life" reference to be a generalized one.

A very brief positive review:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... xcvTguqKg0

ERinVA wrote:A very brief positive review:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... xcvTguqKg0

Omg, she thought the music was just great.