And these words bind it to The Best Musical Ever:
It is this theme that dominates one of the most emblematic of all 21st-century Britain’s cultural triumphs, the musical version of the film Billy Elliot. For while the musical mourns the death of our coal-mining villages in the 1980s, it also celebrates the story of Billy himself – a talented boy who dances his way out of poverty.
It’s no wonder that the story appealed to another self-made man whose musical talents catapulted him to astonishing wealth and stardom. ‘As a child,’ explained Elton John after he’d written the music for the West End version, ‘I dreamt of a career in music, escaping into my treasured record collection for inspiration and hope... Like Billy, the opportunity to express myself artistically was a passport to a better, more fulfilling life.’ That, of course, is the dream that appeals to so many contestants on shows like The X Factor.
I should hardly need to point out that it is essentially a fantasy, a mirage, an illusion cultivated by the show’s producers. But as the last two centuries of British culture have shown, there will always be a market for crowd-pleasing fantasies.
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