Billy Elliot the Forum

More people in the EU's 27 nations speak English than German as a first or second languages. If a tour of most EU countries is envisaged, then English is the common language.

And the most genuine. If I were a Latvian with six years of English study in school, I would prefer to hear Shakespeare in English if the RSC comes to my country....

Are you American? Things are different in Europe.

kport, you might have misunderstood: There is no doubt about it, that if BETM would go on tour on the European Continent, it should of course be an Original UK Cast, doing it in English of course - as it is first foreighn language nearly everywhere and would be whidely understood - at least by the more educated people.

Just Germany, like the other big Countries in Europe, does have its own very successfull productions of most of the internationally renowned musicals (and theatre plays, operas etc. etc. alike) - running successfully in German musical theatres for years and years. So, why should BETM be an exception - why couldn't they do as the Koreans did?

But I would think this is not the proper thread to discuss this, as it is on the fantastic Gala performance! So we better talk about this in the "Where will 'BETM' play next?" thread:
http://www.billyelliottheforum.me.uk/fo ... 67&start=0

(Just on spoken languages btw: yes, you are right, English is foreign language No 1 for most of us in the European Union, but only the 59 Million in the UK and to a certain extent 4,5 Million Irish have English as their mother tongue - German is mother tongue for 82 million Germans + ca. 10 Million Austrians + ca. 4,6 Million of the Switzerland people.)

Funny, in the San Antonio thread I posted census statistics and the fact that English is a second language or not spoken by many of the residents in that area only in order to show roughly how many people would even be interested in seeing the show there and the post was deleted. But it's ok to talk about if it's based in the EU? Interesting.

dongringo wrote:Funny, in the San Antonio thread I posted census statistics and the fact that English is a second language or not spoken by many of the residents in that area only in order to show roughly how many people would even be interested in seeing the show there and the post was deleted. But it's ok to talk about if it's based in the EU? Interesting.

Yeah, that does seem strange it would be deleted, since you're stating a simple fact based on credible statistics.

Nothing has been deleted. We don't delete posts; we withdraw them.

I found your post, dongringo. It was not in the San Antonio thread, but in the US/CA Tour Schedule thread. Here it is:

dongringo wrote:

kport wrote:

BillyBob wrote:I've been watching the tickets sales for San Antonio. You could just about pick any seat in the theater on any day for the second week of the stay. I wonder if they just did not want to fight low ticket sales for Easter week and weekend?

Quite possibly. It is beginning to look as though the one week pattern is proving to be the most successful, in terms of filled theatres, in medium sized cities. SA has 1.33 million, so it should be able to support a second week, but it is up against Holy Week and I am never certain how 'certain cities' might 'take' to the message of BETM - whether there is enough support for a second week.

San Antonio was 63.2% hispanic according to the 2010 census (the correct percentage is larger), a large portion of which either doesn't speak English, doesn't speak English fluently, or speaks English as a second language. This would cut the able English theater going population down significantly. Of course there are the suburbs and nearby Austin which would raise the number of English speakers. My guess is there are approximately 1.5 million in the area who would be able to understand the show. Just a guess.

But in any case, as PaulWilly said, this thread is not the place for this discussion, as it is about the Gala Performance.

ERinVA wrote:But in any case, as PaulWilly said, this thread is not the place for this discussion, as it is about the Gala Performance.

Oops, sorry, my fault.

I knew it had to be somewhere around here...

The discussion about the show coming to Germany is ongoing in this thread: http://www.billyelliottheforum.me.uk/fo ... 017#p73017

The BETMUK website has been updated with a recap of the Gala festivities:

http://billyelliotthemusical.com/london ... rformances

Just a comment from Alex Ko's mom... Alex's family is in London for a month because Alex's mom's was issued a special invitation to King's College. Alex was invited to the gala because he was in town. The company did not make any special arrangements - he was not flown in specially for the event. The Billy Elliot production, management, and PR really do care about each Billy - they really are a special family. Wishing continued success for the West End production, as well as the US Tour!! We're particularly excited that the tour will stop in Des Moines!!

Anyone find a video of the curtain call yet?