Billy Elliot
Victoria Palace Theatre
The Show
Billy Elliot The Musical is a funny and heart warming musical based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot. The music for the show was composed by Elton John and the lyrics are by Lee Hall. The musical revolves around motherless Billy, who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes.
Set in County Durham, against the backdrop of the 1980s coal miners' strike, eleven-year-old Billy inadvertently finds his way into a girls' ballet class run by Mrs. Wilkinson and is attracted to the grace of the dance. Without telling his family, who would prefer that he study boxing, Billy continues to come to the dance class, and Mrs. Wilkinson, recognising his talent, encourages him to audition for the Royal Ballet School in London.
Billy's friend Michael is a boy with homosexual feelings, and Mrs. Wilkinson's daughter Debbie is another friend of Billy's. Meanwhile Billy's gruff, conservative father and brother are engaged in a daily battle with policemen in riot gear protecting strike breakers. They struggle to get the family by with very little strike pay. The father comes to terms with his son's desire to be a dancer, as he becomes resigned to the realisation that coal mining is a dying business.
What the Press Say
"This is not a time to beat about the bush. Billy Elliot strikes me as the greatest British musical I have ever seen, and I have not forgotten Lionel Bart's Oliver! or Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. There is a rawness, a warm humour and a sheer humanity here that is worlds removed from the soulless slickness of most musicals." Daily Telegraph
Notes
This show is not suitable for small children as it contains some strong language. The producers recommend that children be aged 12 years or above. No under 8s will be admitted.
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