Billy Elliot the Forum

In this clip http://news.sky.com/home/showbiz-news/article/16239278 Elton reveals the show is going to Germany!

I have been waiting for this for some time. The cast can work anywhere in the EU and could train from London, but follow the new US Tour model - short stays in large venues - 27 countries to visit! Judging by the number of German, Polish and other EU people I have seen at the VPT, it should do well in the EU.

I wonder - will it be done in English? I can see no reason why not.

The BillyElliotUK Twitter re-tweeted a link, this morning, to a great headline in Metro:

http://t.co/WfX58fou

Germany is economically strong; the EU not so. Germany will either drag the EU up or the EU will drag Germany down.

The artist in me says "Go for it, BETM". The bean-counter in me says to be careful.. Watch to see if the EU starts to lose members. Watch the results of other touring shows for the next six months. Then be ready for a European tour if it is justified.

Why are you primarily thinking of touring Germany with a British BETM cast??

So many great world-class musicals have been running here for years and years in German major cities and are still running (of course in German productions in German language for the German audience) - just for example “Starlight Express”, where James Lomas is now in, has been running in Bochum in the densely populated Ruhr area for more than 21 very successful years now(!!) - btw in a theatre especially built for it. Or the German version of “Lions’ King” (“Koenig der Loewen”) is running in its successful 11th year in Hamburg, “Tarzan”, “Rocky”, and “Sister Act” have been on there as well for years now and are still running successfully. And many other German productions of world hits like for example “Cats” or “Phantom of the Opera” (“Phantom der Oper”) had been on for decades here before.

Would there be a German cast, adults, ballet girls and so exceptionally talented boys to do a German production of BETM (like the Koreans did it in their own language)? Oh, yes - after some advertising and very careful auditions like in the UK - and the huge logistics wouldn’t be too great a problem either - and it would last here at least longer will full houses than in Korea or in Australia. Would the Germans understand the story: Oh yes, very much so - most people in Germany do know and love the film Billy Elliot (very successfully dubbed in German) - so it’s repeated 3 or 4 times by different German TV stations every year around Christmas.
The only real problem has been so far to look for a most careful transfer of Lee Hall's great lyrics and prose texts into German by keeping up the British flavour as much as feasible, and the lyrics then still fitting to Elton's scores - a task near to impossible, that might explain why it takes so long to have BETM started here. So they needed a very creative, witty, funky team for that - and they might have found it in the meantime hopefully, as the success will stand or fall with that!

We would really like BETM permanently here for years and years in a German production.
(BTW and just for example: How long would have “Lés Misérables” stayed in the West End, had they adhered to it to do it in original French with an original French cast?!)
Of course a touring UK cast for some weeks would be nice as well - and at least much better than nothing,

Billy Whiz wrote:Stephen then introduced onto the stage original Billys George Maguire, Liam Mower and Leon Cooke.

Nice to see Leon finally getting to be an "original" Billy. I remember thinking it was nice that Leon got to accept the Bafta award on behalf of Peter Darling the year that "Billy Elliot" won so many of the awards, when James, George and Liam won the collective best actor award. Leon was there from the very beginning - as documented in photos taken at the time - and was an excellent Billy . .. one of the best I've seen in the 7 year history of the show. And while both he and Tommy Batchelor (in the Broadway show) weren't in the original Billy rotation in their respective cities, they both seem to be thought of very highly by those involved with the show, based on Leon's Bafta appearance and Tommy's mention by Greg Jbara when he won his Tony Award (I remember hearing Greg say one time that he rehearsed more with Tommy before the show's Broadway opening than he did any of the other Billys).

Billy Whiz wrote:Michael Peavoy is an excellent actor and Tony. Personally I just wish he would reduce the decibels in the shouting – which sadly that is what Tony does for most of the show. Of course I am saying this as a layman for he may well have been instructed to do it that way.

That does seem to be a characteristic of several of the Tonys. I remember thinking that Chris Lennon needed to tone down the intensity as well, as it can get a bit too "shouty" after awhile. It would be interesting to know how much say the actors have in how they perform their lines, as several other Tonys - Jeff Kready and Patrick Mulvey from the U.S. tour and the Broadway show come to mind - hit more of a happy medium with their intensity, in my opinion.

I found Patrick Mulvey to be too "shouty" when I saw him near the beginning of the run in Chicago. By the time he made it to Toronto, he had created a much more nuanced performance, which was much more powerful. However, for one line, "Dance, you little bastard", I prefer his Chicago version.

On

Leon was there from the very beginning

That's a bit overdoing: Leon himself admitted in more than one interview that he joined the cast of BETM in April 2005 - as the first "Billy-in-Training" (and that's why he was seen on quite some cast- and stage door- photos from then on), whereas the three Original London Billys had long (since late autumn 2004 or so) been involved in the demanding process of the making of the musical. Leon went on stage as the first "Replacement Billy" only after James had left the show in September 2005 - and when Liam had been ill before in summer 2005 (for a bit more than a week or so), George & James did 4 shows a week alternating as Billy and had to be there as the substitutes for each other for the other 4 shows, should something happen. So Leon was not fully stage-ready at that time and cannot be fully compared with Tommy Bachelor, who - as far as I understand it - was a fully trained "Substitute-Billy" from the very beginning of the Broadway show.

But when they now had to learn that James could not make it to the 30 May 2012 Gala because of his First Night same evening in "Starlight Express" in Germany, I think it was a great and really next-best idea to fill the gap with James's replacement in the show and invite Leon - and make him a quasi "Original" for this event - as he was not only a really excellent Billy, but as well one of the longest serving so far!

(BTW: Leon's "Michael", Joey Phillips, joined the cast of BETM as well in April 2005 as first "Michael-in-Training" - and he can be discovered on a few cast- and stage door- photos from then on as well, but wasn't seen as an "Original Michael" either. )

My favourite theatre critic, Baz Bamigboye of the Daily Mail, mentions the Gala in his article this week.

Stephen Daldry, Elton John, Lee Hall and Peter Darling, whose musical stage version of the Working Title award-winning film Billy Elliot continues at the Victoria Palace as it enters its eighth year.

I’m writing this from abroad, so I missed the anniversary hoopla on Wednesday night, but I’ve seen the show about 20 times, in all corners of the world, and the thing that keeps coming through loud and clear is how vital the arts — theatre, cinema, television, audio, visual, whatever! — are to people of all walks of life.

For me, Billy Elliot remains the best musical on the London stage, and in this Jubilee year (and weekend) it’s a show the Queen cherishes.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... z1wdZd5NNJ

PaulWilly wrote:Why are you primarily thinking of touring Germany with a British BETM cast??

So many great world-class musicals have been running here for years and years in German major cities and are still running (of course in German productions in German language for the German audience) - just for example “Starlight Express”, where James Lomas is now in, has been running in Bochum in the densely populated Ruhr area for more than 21 very successful years now(!!) - btw in a theatre especially built for it. Or the German version of “Lions’ King” (“Koenig der Loewen”) is running in its successful 11th year in Hamburg, “Tarzan”, “Rocky”, and “Sister Act” have been on there as well for years now and are still running successfully. And many other German productions of world hits like for example “Cats” or “Phantom of the Opera” (“Phantom der Oper”) had been on for decades here before.

Would there be a German cast, adults, ballet girls and so exceptionally talented boys to do a German production of BETM (like the Koreans did it in their own language)? Oh, yes - after some advertising and very careful auditions like in the UK - and the huge logistics wouldn’t be too great a problem either - and it would last here at least longer will full houses than in Korea or in Australia. Would the Germans understand the story: Oh yes, very much so - most people in Germany do know and love the film Billy Elliot (very successfully dubbed in German) - so it’s repeated 3 or 4 times by different German TV stations every year around Christmas.
The only real problem has been so far to look for a most careful transfer of Lee Hall's great lyrics and prose texts into German by keeping up the British flavour as much as feasible, and the lyrics then still fitting to Elton's scores - a task near to impossible, that might explain why it takes so long to have BETM started here. So they needed a very creative, witty, funky team for that - and they might have found it in the meantime hopefully, as the success will stand or fall with that!

We would really like BETM permanently here for years and years in a German production.
(BTW and just for example: How long would have “Lés Misérables” stayed in the West End, had they adhered to it to do it in original French with an original French cast?!)
Of course a touring UK cast for some weeks would be nice as well - and at least much better than nothing,

The final goal should be a German production of Billy Elliot The Musical. But that would probably require an investment of millions of Euros. In these unstable economies, it would cost far less for a British-based tour that first toured the British Isles, and then Germany and elsewhere. The best time would be when the West End production could be converted to a tour while the theater is being renovated.This would probably be around 2014.