Re: Costa Mesa Reviews
Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 8:52 pm
This OC Register reviewer seems to like the performances but not necessarily the story.
__________
'Billy Elliot' soars, but not often enough
By PAUL HODGINS / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
"Billy Elliot" is a popular but problematic musical.
Nobody can deny that it's uplifting: A working-class British boy's dancing dreams triumph over his strike-torn surroundings. Hooray!
But despite the contributions of some top-drawer talent, including songs by Sir Elton John, the story is clumsy in execution, over-telegraphs its message and overstays its welcome. (During the bows at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts on Wednesday, a member of the touring cast even made a joke about it, telling us – tongue in cheek, thank God – that they had a 40-minute post-curtain presentation planned.)
This isn't the first time in the history of musicals that big shows commit big sins. "Show Boat" goes on and on. "Carousel's" wife-beating leading man makes us feel queasy. "Ragtime" sells its messages as subtly as a fishmonger.
"Billy Elliot's" problems emanate from the source material. It's based on a gritty but effective movie about a 1984 strike in northern England – a bitter, drawn-out battle that pitted Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government against 300,000 angry coal miners. She won, their profession disappeared, and the incident left lingering bad feelings that even bubbled to the surface at Thatcher's recent funeral.
A tough tale isn't impossible to turn into a musical. "The Full Monty" took a similar milieu and mood – unemployed steelworkers in a working-class town – and made Broadway gold. (That story's grubby Sheffield, England setting was turned into Buffalo, N.Y., when the movie became a musical.)
In fact, you could argue that many great musicals soar because of the seriousness of their subjects. Rogers and Hammerstein tackled hot-button issues as enthusiastically as any radical playwright.
But "Billy Elliot's" two narrative threads never co-exist comfortably.
It's easy to get behind Billy (Mitchell Tobin at Wednesday's performance) after he discovers by chance that he's got a passion and talent for ballet. He lingers after a disastrous boxing lesson so he can hand the keys to the studio over to a gruff dance teacher named Mrs. Wilkinson (Janet Dickinson). He is pulled into her boisterous dance lesson, and that provides the spark.
The dance studio scenes are among the musical's strongest. Wilkinson is a no-nonsense woman with a "tough love" philosophy and an eye for talent. Billy is drawn to her for many reasons, one of them obvious – he misses his dead mother terribly – but Wilkinson is careful not to provide that kind of bond with the boy. She nurtures his passion for dance but steers clear of letting him get too close, a sometimes heartbreaking but ultimately wise decision. Tobin and Dickinson connect poignantly in these scenes.
But "Billy Elliot" frequently gets bogged down when it switches focus. The plight of the miners seems like it belongs in a different play – something by John Osborne or Clifford Odets, perhaps. Lee Hall (book and lyrics) makes their defiant stand against the government seem not only futile but dull. It's a "little people against big forces" parable that's too familiar and predictable to be interesting.
Lee's attempts to fuse the two parts results in some missteps. At the end of the first act, Billy's angry dance with a corps of riot police descends to the level of camp.
Still, there are enough magic moments to make "Billy Elliot" a guilty pleasure. In a fantasy sequence, Billy's soaring pas de deux with a male dancer who represents his possible future is perhaps the best of them. Choreographer Peter Darling makes the potentially hammy flying effect seem perfectly appropriate.
This touring show contains many strong performances.
Rich Hebert strikes a delicate balance as Billy's dad, a widower who hides his grief behind anger and bluster. But though he's often mean to Billy, especially in the first act, his actions can't be so harsh that we turn against the character. Hebert preserves a core of decency that allows us to cheer for his character when he finally, reluctantly, begins to support Billy's dream.
Jake Kitchin is wonderfully nonchalant as Michael, Billy's cross-dressing, eccentric friend (he shares the role with Sam Poon). Playing Billy's dotty grandmother, Patti Perkins knows how to get laughs out of simple bits of stage business. Cullen R. Titmas brings surprising moments of humor to an essentially humorless part, Billy's older brother Tony, a striker and firebrand who clashes frequently with his dad.
But "Billy Elliot" sinks or soars on the strength of its leading character. The touring production travels with four Billies; each plays two shows per week.
If the others share the potent combination of dance talent, raw energy and emotional range that Tobin possesses, then this production is lucky indeed. Of course, credit must be given to director Stephen Daldry for capturing the tricky mix of youthful exuberance and grim north-of-England fatalism that Billy and his fellow townsfolk possess.
If Daldry could reconcile the script's two warring halves, "Billy" would soar as high as its star does. But that task falls to the writer, not the director.
__________
'Billy Elliot' soars, but not often enough
By PAUL HODGINS / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
"Billy Elliot" is a popular but problematic musical.
Nobody can deny that it's uplifting: A working-class British boy's dancing dreams triumph over his strike-torn surroundings. Hooray!
But despite the contributions of some top-drawer talent, including songs by Sir Elton John, the story is clumsy in execution, over-telegraphs its message and overstays its welcome. (During the bows at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts on Wednesday, a member of the touring cast even made a joke about it, telling us – tongue in cheek, thank God – that they had a 40-minute post-curtain presentation planned.)
This isn't the first time in the history of musicals that big shows commit big sins. "Show Boat" goes on and on. "Carousel's" wife-beating leading man makes us feel queasy. "Ragtime" sells its messages as subtly as a fishmonger.
"Billy Elliot's" problems emanate from the source material. It's based on a gritty but effective movie about a 1984 strike in northern England – a bitter, drawn-out battle that pitted Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government against 300,000 angry coal miners. She won, their profession disappeared, and the incident left lingering bad feelings that even bubbled to the surface at Thatcher's recent funeral.
A tough tale isn't impossible to turn into a musical. "The Full Monty" took a similar milieu and mood – unemployed steelworkers in a working-class town – and made Broadway gold. (That story's grubby Sheffield, England setting was turned into Buffalo, N.Y., when the movie became a musical.)
In fact, you could argue that many great musicals soar because of the seriousness of their subjects. Rogers and Hammerstein tackled hot-button issues as enthusiastically as any radical playwright.
But "Billy Elliot's" two narrative threads never co-exist comfortably.
It's easy to get behind Billy (Mitchell Tobin at Wednesday's performance) after he discovers by chance that he's got a passion and talent for ballet. He lingers after a disastrous boxing lesson so he can hand the keys to the studio over to a gruff dance teacher named Mrs. Wilkinson (Janet Dickinson). He is pulled into her boisterous dance lesson, and that provides the spark.
The dance studio scenes are among the musical's strongest. Wilkinson is a no-nonsense woman with a "tough love" philosophy and an eye for talent. Billy is drawn to her for many reasons, one of them obvious – he misses his dead mother terribly – but Wilkinson is careful not to provide that kind of bond with the boy. She nurtures his passion for dance but steers clear of letting him get too close, a sometimes heartbreaking but ultimately wise decision. Tobin and Dickinson connect poignantly in these scenes.
But "Billy Elliot" frequently gets bogged down when it switches focus. The plight of the miners seems like it belongs in a different play – something by John Osborne or Clifford Odets, perhaps. Lee Hall (book and lyrics) makes their defiant stand against the government seem not only futile but dull. It's a "little people against big forces" parable that's too familiar and predictable to be interesting.
Lee's attempts to fuse the two parts results in some missteps. At the end of the first act, Billy's angry dance with a corps of riot police descends to the level of camp.
Still, there are enough magic moments to make "Billy Elliot" a guilty pleasure. In a fantasy sequence, Billy's soaring pas de deux with a male dancer who represents his possible future is perhaps the best of them. Choreographer Peter Darling makes the potentially hammy flying effect seem perfectly appropriate.
This touring show contains many strong performances.
Rich Hebert strikes a delicate balance as Billy's dad, a widower who hides his grief behind anger and bluster. But though he's often mean to Billy, especially in the first act, his actions can't be so harsh that we turn against the character. Hebert preserves a core of decency that allows us to cheer for his character when he finally, reluctantly, begins to support Billy's dream.
Jake Kitchin is wonderfully nonchalant as Michael, Billy's cross-dressing, eccentric friend (he shares the role with Sam Poon). Playing Billy's dotty grandmother, Patti Perkins knows how to get laughs out of simple bits of stage business. Cullen R. Titmas brings surprising moments of humor to an essentially humorless part, Billy's older brother Tony, a striker and firebrand who clashes frequently with his dad.
But "Billy Elliot" sinks or soars on the strength of its leading character. The touring production travels with four Billies; each plays two shows per week.
If the others share the potent combination of dance talent, raw energy and emotional range that Tobin possesses, then this production is lucky indeed. Of course, credit must be given to director Stephen Daldry for capturing the tricky mix of youthful exuberance and grim north-of-England fatalism that Billy and his fellow townsfolk possess.
If Daldry could reconcile the script's two warring halves, "Billy" would soar as high as its star does. But that task falls to the writer, not the director.