“Billy Elliot” Full of Heart and Hope

“Billy Elliot the Musical” is a show for the ages, full of heart and hope, in the midst of difficulties and defeat.

This laurel-laden show has amazing production numbers without being over-produced. It tells a heart-rending story without being saccharine and it boasts adorable children who manage to avoid being cute.

Billy Elliot the Musical opened this week at Chicago’s Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre and may it run there forever—although currently tickets are only on sale through the end of October.

The music by Elton John and the lyrics by Lee Hall are splendidly matched. Hall also wrote the book for the musical and the screenplay for the film “Billy Elliot.”

The story is set against the 1984/85 coal miners’ strike in the United Kingdom, the country’s longest national strike. Black and white newsreels from the strike are the backdrop for the opening number “The Stars Look Down,” as the miners’ pledge their solidarity.

Amid this hardscrabble setting comes the story of a lad who longs to become a ballet dancer and the inevitable family conflict that follows.

The show, still running on Broadway, won 10 Tony Awards in 2009, including Best Musical. In the Chicago production four young men are cast as Billy: Tommy Batchelor, Giuseppe Bausilio, Cesar Corrales, and J.P. Viernes.

Corrales, 13, danced on opening night and superlatives are superfluous. His moves dazzled. His final number, for the audition team at the Royal Ballet School, is titled “Electricity” and Corrales performs 16 fouettes before blurring into a spinning top!

The outstanding cast includes Armand Schultz as Billy’s Dad, Cynthia Darlow as Billy’s sassy Grandma, Patrick Mulvey as his hot-headed brother Tony, and Emily Skinner as the local dance teacher Mrs. Wilkinson.

Billy’s Mum, who is dead, appears only briefly in the person of popular Chicago actress Susie McMonagle. Her song “Dear Billy” is the tear-jerker of the evening.

For all the fabulous razzle-dazzle of the show’s multiple production numbers, director Stephen Daldry and choreographer Peter Darling, who also directed and choreographed the film, know when to simply let two characters talk on stage. In such moments characters become etched in memory.

Use any excuse to buy tickets — Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July. Tickets are currently on sale through Oct. 24, but don’t be surprised if they’ll also be the hottest stocking stuffers come December.

P.S. “Billy Elliot” is set in 1984, but coal miners have been in the news and in the opening night program there was a note suggesting that donations for the families of the West Virginia miners be sent to the American Red Cross.

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