“Billy Elliot”: Broadway’s return to the classic musical

Well the first thing you should know about “Billy Elliot” is that it’s more of a play that has integrated songs and dance to make a spectacular whole theater piece. All the elements of a musical are there, but each seems to not only complement, but also enhance and expand on the other. In scope “Billy Elliot is very much like Fellini’s “Amarcord” or Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander” where a whole youthful world is remembered and embroidered on by great artists. That is same way “Billy Elliot” is to me. It also weaves a myriad of themes so perfectly, that as a play I had to reach back to “Angles in America” to find anything as comparable. As for musical theater, I can only think of the great “Carousel” where music and dance are as well entwined.

The next thing to know is that “Billy Elliot” is a very adult play. What I mean by that is, despite having a young Billy at the center, there is lack of romanticizing or softening of his world. All the adults and children are presented as real human beings with the virtues and faults we all possess. It’s more “Great Expectations’ than “David Copperfield”. There is a clear-eyed lack of judgmental quality that permeates throughout. This also means that the language is rough-hewn, coarse and common, but true to the actual location and circumstances of the mining community in northern England.

It is also clear from the get-go that the creators of “Billy Elliot” not only know the background and lives of these people, but also this is their own story or some variation thereof, that is being told. So much of the attitudes, feelings and emotions of these characters just sound real. By the end of the play, even the minor characters seem to have a life and story that was included.

Based on the 1995 film, “Billy Elliot” tells the story of a motherless boy, growing up in the harsh world of a fading mining town, who almost accidentally discovers not only an aptitude for, but a love of ballet. (Or ‘ballie’ as they pronounce it) Of course this goes against the standard norms that are prevalent all over the western world. Billy should be practicing boxing or some other manly sport. Dancing is for girls or ‘poofs’! Importantly, Billy is never presented as lonely or an outcast, but just a kid looking to find something that actually interests him which, much to his own surprise, is ballet. All this is presented against the turbulent background of Thatcherite England where a miner’s strike has been going on for a year due to the ‘Iron Lady’ trying to break the powerful labor unions in an effort to privatize industry. (To really understand the reasons for the depth of anger and fury this action caused, just read A.J. Cronin’s “The Citadel” or Richard Llewellyn’s “How Green Was My Valley”, or at least the movie versions, to learn how exploited the people and the land were by private companies.)

Once Billy has embraced his passion for dance, with a great assist from his fey best friend Michael, his struggle then becomes between not just his own world, but with a more universal one, that of fathers and sons. In fact, I think that the other major story in “Billy Elliot” is of his father’s acceptance of his son’s aspiration to dance and the sacrifices that entails. Not only must Frank Elliot find the money to send Billy to London for an audition at the Royal Ballet School, but also he has to go against the community and fellow strikers that he lives with. To its great credit, the play gives Frank the time to express the turmoil and toll his decisions take.

“Billy Elliot” is so much about people who look to their past for the sense of who they are, but are also willing to acknowledge that change is coming. Two major dance pieces illuminate this theme; in the first act, Billy explodes with frustration at the forces that he sees as trapping him in a life that he no longer wants. No words can express his pent up emotions and desires so he does the only thing he can do, which is dance. It’s an angry and wild ride filled with steps that he can only improvise since his dance vocabulary is so limited and his inner turmoil so great.

In the second act, Billy sees his own future as a dancer and the steps are classical and glorious. Set to Peter Tchaikovsky’s most romantic music, Billy, youth and adult, do a pas de deux that is so visually stunning and moving that it literally takes ones breath away. Ending on a note of defiance, Billy crosses over from boy to young manhood and dares his own father to stop him from growing up. This is quite the coup de theatre!

Finally in the climatic dance “Electricity”, Billy realizes and admits what he is capable of doing and he is able to leave the only world he knows behind. His mother is dead and his town and its way of life are dying. But they will not be forgotten. Billy Elliot has great hope for the future and so do we.

MY Liza Minneli Problem

A couple of weeks ago my friend Christine asked if I wanted to join her and a co-worker in seeing “Liza’s at the Palace”. I had been a fan of Liza’s from way back when, seeing her when she toured the Midwest and then on Broadway in almost all her shows including “Chicago”, “The Act” and “The Rink” (No, I was too young for “Flora, the Red Menace”) even collecting her LPs and watching every broadcast of “Liza with a Z!” each time it was on. Well I am a gayboy who grew up in the 1970’s! I was a big fan, maybe not as big as some, but still a fan.

But then sometime in the early 90’s I began to lose interest probably due to the times and my changing tastes. I was also tired of all the tabloid gossip regarding her reckless lifestyle and lack of professionalism. (The stories coming out about her behavior while in “Victor/Victoria” were ‘not kind’!) Friends of mine, who know her, said she was a perfectly sweet woman and very nice. No doubt this is true, but seeing her on TV looking haggard and sounding shrill was awfully painful. Even on “Arrested Development” the camera seemed to trying to cut away so as not to embarrass her.

With all this in the back of my mind, the three of went last Friday night a week ago. We sat in the first row of the mezzanine and the house was packed. I would say that the majority were gay men (of all ages), but certainly also lots of straight people. As the houselights went down (on time) and the orchestra started up, the intensity and excitement were reaching a fever pitch and then Liza appeared and all pandemonium broke out, the audience was screaming and jumping to its collative feet and yelling “We Love You, Liza!!!!!” I will say she looked far better then she has in years and certainly commanded that stage.

Unfortunately for me (and as it turned out Christine) the show then went off a cliff. After all her surgeries (vocal cords, hips, brain and god knows what else) Liza Minnelli can hardly walk, talk or dance. I was looking at a faded facsimile of the entertainer she once was. Firstly, I was really bothered by her diction and that sibilance that was so pronounced. I knew the lyrics to all her songs and I still couldn’t understand a word. (Why she even attempted the tongue twisting “If You Hadn’t, But You Did” is beyond logic.) Next I was put off by her heavy, rapid breathing even during her songs, but most pronounced while she talked or just waited to catch her breath, which took longer and longer as the evening wore on. She even had to sit down while she sang “Maybe This Time” which I felt undercut the whole meaning of the song!

Given all her physical limitations, it became apparent that she was still trying to be the young Liza of “Cabaret” and “The Act” when she was at her peak. (And really quite beautiful.) Her act hasn’t grown or even changed, so there was no sense of time and maturity deepening and coloring her style. Liza was trying to be that young girl excited about playing dress-up and singing for an audience even if she didn’t relate to the songs themselves. In the most ghoulish way, I was reminded of Bette Davis as ‘Baby Jane’.

But the most dispiriting part was that Liza was determined to show that she was back! An entertaining force of nature! Liza Minnelli Superstar! And to this end the audience gave her everything she craved and needed. They stood after every song and they cheered and screamed and yelled and laughed and applauded and applauded and applauded! Her need for everyone to LOVE her was palatable. For me though, it was draining. I felt that if I personally didn’t LOVE her as much as she needed me too, it was back to pills & liquor and it would have been MY fault. I guess this neediness is why “Liza’s at the Palace” came across to me as an almost melancholy act and not much of a show. All I could think during it was “What about my needs Liza? Pay attention to ME.”

Afterwards, we three left with big grins plastered to our faces, but mine was mostly so Christine wouldn’t see me as disappointed or her friend wouldn’t think I was a snob. He was so excited that he talked about going again and again and I just nodded. Saying goodbye, Christine and I went to the train together and that’s when I learned how confused she was. “What was the big deal and why all the screaming? I mean I couldn’t even understand what she was singing about.” I replied, “Well said Christine, well said.”

All the shows that I have seen lately with capsule reviews

It's been a while since I have put my reviews here and I've been seeing a bunch of shows so I thought I would just put them all together in one large post starting with the oldest first so here goes;

I first saw  "Forbidden Broadway" way back in 1982 at the then Paulson's Supper Club on 72nd and Broadway. It had me in stitches then.  Each number was as fresh as a new bright morning. WE (everyone) had never experienced such a mean, nasty, gossipy show that expressed our love/hate of the theater. With it's over the top (maybe!) takes on theater legends like Ethel Merman and Patti LuPone and even Stephen Sondheim, this was THE insider's guide to New York Musical Theater and everyone came (including Merman, LuPone and Sondheim) to laugh.

Over the years material ripe for satire became awfully thin and an occasional visit was all that was needed.  Some skits continues to work (I still laughed at their take on "Les Miz"), but others fell flat.  There was just not enough humor to mine. In the past few years, the Broadway musical theater became a parody of itself. Perhaps the nadir was the show "Spamalot" which seemed to be emulating "Forbidden Broadway" itself, so much so that several recent editions used a song from that show 'whole'. "FB's" was no longer comic fringe, but mainstream.  Crappy shows like "The Producers" and "Young Frankenstein" and even good shows like "Hairspray" were just extensions of the knowing, winking camp eye.  Their were no outsiders, laughing at the pretension of those inside.  

Now "Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab"  is to be the last (at least for a while) and it's easy to see why.  While I Loved, Loved Loved this edition, I also realized that was only funny to a dwindling group of people.  In order for the satire to work most of the audience really has to not just get it, but has to care about the subjects being satirized, and that's just not the case anymore.  I (we) know that Patti LuPone (again after all these years!) is a way over-the-top personality with perhaps a monstrous ego, and that's what I (we) love and adore about her, but frankly the tourists who now make up 75% of the audience have no idea nor do they care.

With very few exceptions ("Spring Awakenings" wonderfully inventive staging is perfect for parody),  making fun of theater has become a harder and harder task. Now when the Broadway theater faces it's most depressing period (In Jan. 09 6-8 shows are closing and very few are coming in), maybe a long stint in rehab might just work.