Rating (out of four stars): ★★
Phoenix Theatre’s latest production is a spectacle of stunning visuals and talent that communicates an overlying message of acceptance, but at times the expressive creative choices get in the way of storytelling.
“Billy Elliot” follows the story of a boy living in northern England during the coal miners’ strike in the ’80s. When the boy, Billy Elliot, chooses to forgo boxing for dance, the people in his town accuse him of being a “puff.” As tensions between the police and miners rise, tensions within Billy’s family boil over. At the end, the entire community realizes the importance of acceptance when they support Billy’s dreams of going to the Royal Ballet School in order to keep him from a future in the mines.
It’s rare to find a musical with such well-rounded talent. Typically, central roles in musicals are awarded to performers who specialize in dance or song; because of this, they might be exceptionally strong in one area and weak in anything other than their specialty. The cast of Billy Elliot was evenly balanced and proved they could do it all — sing, dance and act — at an exceptional level.
Rather than immersing the audience in the story, the talent of the performers created more of a spectacle for the audience. However, this was to the production’s benefit. It was clear that the individuals onstage were skilled independently, but also as a team.
Their strong camaraderie supported the story and added to the sense of community in the town. The setting was integral to the story and created a feeling of close-knit intimacy that would be found in a small English town.
The set, built mostly of steel, was versatile and detailed. The walls of the set elongated the perspective of the proscenium stage. They were arranged to look like the audience could see way into the distance by angling inwards as they stretched upstage. Backdrops flown in to the middle of the set broke up this sense of perspective, and indicated to the audience when scenes were indoors.
The lighting emphasized the stark difference between Billy’s reality and his wild internal expression, and in this way set the mood for his dance numbers. One scene in particular was reminiscent of Disneyland’s Peter Pan ride in that Billy soared through London’s night sky.
In the dream ballet, Billy dances in midair attached to a rigging system accompanied by an older version of himself, played by the show’s choreographer Sam Hay. Hay controlled Billy’s side-to-side movement onstage, but I caught up with the flyman, who helped control his up-and-down movement, after the show.
This is recent Northern Arizona University graduate Jared Hansen’s first time flying an actor, and he said although he’s backstage, there’s a lot of pressure attached to being in charge of a character’s movement onstage.
“The tech director stood next to me the first few times, and it was nerve-racking at first,” he said. “My heart was definitely pounding because one flip, and bad things can happen.”
Hansen gets direction from the deck manager on how and when to hoist Billy through a headset.
“After a few runs, I got comfortable enough to where I’m not too nervous,” he said. Hansen called it “the correct amount of nervous.”
Hansen also had a hand — or a head — in the visuals of the production through puppeteering. He controlled the head of a giant papier-mache portrayal of England’s former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Puppets were used in a few numbers, including one aptly named “Expressing Yourself” in which Billy and his male friend dress up in women’s clothing and dance around with life-size dresses, purses and pants.
Although the production followed the theme of acceptance, at times the motivations behind the message was unclear. The camaraderie of the cast made an onstage community, but their motivations in helping Elliot weren’t well-supported by the writing. The strike seemed to make them more bitter, but they became increasingly gentle with Elliot. They would call him names or question his manliness, and there wasn’t a moment where the audience could see the townspeople transition from resenting Billy to supporting him. It could be because he’s symbolic of a hopeful future, but their motivations for doing so were unclear.
Unfortunately, other times the strong creative expression hindered the storytelling. In the last scene of the first act, the audience finally sees a culmination of Billy’s internal stress.
He expresses his internal conflict through a compelling tap dance number, lit with blazing red lights. The scene was composed of compelling imagery, but the addition of blood-curdling shrieks went too far.
Regardless of the type of expression, the mounting tensions have to rise in levels without reaching the maximum level until the end. Once an actor maxes out their volume in such a way, there’s nothing to build on because they’ve reached the pinnacle. As a result, the audience assumed the scene was over earlier than it actually was because the first shriek had a finality to it.
By the time the shrieks were used ten times over, they became an unpleasant accompaniment to the music that didn’t add anything to the scene.
Some of the violent outbursts of Billy’s family were so expressive that they became uncontrolled in a sloppy way. This could have been a choice to show intoxication, but it didn’t work in the show because their movements looked rehearsed.
Regardless of a few shortcomings, this show has powerful overlying themes and a great cast that make it a treat for the eyes and, at most times, the ears.
Contact the author at Alena.Sanderson@asu.edu. Contact the columnist at Faith.Anne.Miller@asu.edu.
