Billy Elliot the Forum

Yes,I agree. It is important to have a presentation of BETM that allows parents to bring young children, or let them watch it on TV. Ten of thousands of kids around the world were probably kept from this show in the past.

Anyone who thinks that removing the strong words and gestures would ruin Billy Elliot The Musical, is almost insulting Lee Hall. The musical is so much more than shocking the audience. They also would be saying that the youth presentations of the musical were a bad idea. They were a good idea and I hope they do something similar around the world.

Things are looking up for 2014. The Netherlands is training 30 boys, so they have a good chance of finding some Billys and some Michaels to present the show in 2014. Ogunquit regional theater seems to be certain to have a 2014 presentation of BETM. And Denmark will begin the work for a 2015 presentation.

Even more interesting, is that many young boys will be in training for these difficult roles. This will help support additional presentations. The long and expensive training has always been an obstacle for anyone presenting Billy Elliot The Musical. But now, when a Dutch Billy has performed the maximum number of shows that Dutch child labor laws allow, he can be coached in the Geordi accent and can probably go elsewhere. Giuseppe has proven that children can be taught to speak any language without their native accent.

The Billy and Michael from Ogunquit could be available for additional regional theaters. Since the children's training takes the longest amount of time, we may even see other presentations in 2014. Let's hope!

ALLMIXEDUP, you are an incurable optimist. The Ogunquit production of Billy Elliot will probably use a small stature older teen to play Billy, since he will be better trained. They will cover his five-o'clock shadow with makeup, shave his legs, and have him occasionally breathe Helium. He will already have outgrown the part, and will not be able to perform in any more 2014 productions.

LOL Madashell

What will be interesting to see is how many Billys will be cast in a regional production such as Ogunquit's, and how will they be trained? Don't the shows there run for just a couple of weeks? It can't be financially possible for the huge investment in training that was made for all of the previous productions to be made for a short run regional show. As far as the idea of reusing the Ogunquit Billy(s) for future regional shows, it would be a way to justify more training up front and spread out the costs of it, but there would have to be some coordination of productions.

Knowing the Ogunquit Playhouse quite well, I am intrigued about the set they will employ. The stage is smaller than those on the past Tour(s); I find it hard to believe that the old Tour set would work without major alterations. So....cast...flying(?)....sets...smaller audiences (the OPH seats lest than 800) all makes me think this will have to be trimmed down a tad. I view that as a plus...........many of us want to see a regional production that can be seen by more people in venues that are not so large (and a school production, too). This will be interesting.

I just want to mention a possibility in the regional productions that none of us want to see: that the producer will go the easiest and cheapest route of "Peter Pan"-ing it. Having an adult woman play the role of Billy(or Michael) would simplify everything, but ruin the show. I hope that they never even consider it.

There is no need for this. Having been at many dance studio recitals, both my own studio and Elite Danceworx, home of Ty and Julian, I can say with confidence that there is more than enough talent to go around. The Billys on Broadway and Tour may have been the best of the best of the best, but the best of the best are still pretty stunning. Playing to a smaller venue, they don't need to be as good to provide the same amount of wow to the average viewer. Remember that in addition to the Billys we know are those who auditioned and were cut after one or more call-backs. I've seen four such people perform that I know of (two live and two online), and they are really good.

They likely won't have as much time to train, so it wouldn't surprise me to see things like the flying cut. The ballet in "Dream" might be slightly less perfect, "Electricity" might be slightly toned down, "Angry Dance" might be a bit less angry, but the overall effect will still impress, inspire, and tell the core of the story: The some boys love to dance and we need to support them to follow their dream.

2014 looks like a good year for Billy Elliot The Musical, provided you're willing to travel to the five locations around the world where Billy will be performed. Plan vacations now.

The thing is:

BETM left our shores last June. It will return this June/July, for five weeks......almost one year to the day it left.

London/VPT continues to soldier on, with an American Billy from last year's tour very much flying the flag.

There really is a lot of good news at the moment!