Billy Elliot The Musical

I understand I have completely neglected this blog. I never intended to be one of those people who create a blog just to follow a trend and ignore it once I got it out of my system. But who was I kidding? I am one of those people. Needless to say I felt guilty when countless people asked me, "How's your blog?" Umm, as in the blog where the last thing I critiqued was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?

You know what, maybe its because I haven't seen anything worth critiquing in quite some time. Yeah, I'll blame it on that.

Anyways, this past week I saw the musical Billy Elliot on Broadway. Holy cow. This show was so powerful and amazing that I felt compelled to get back into the blogging groove and tell anyone willing to read this to GO SEE IT. I have seen many, many musicals in my 22 years of life so I would have to say I'm a hard client to please. I was brought up knowing the lyrics to such classics as My Fair Lady, Oliver, Annie, Guys and Dolls, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and The Sound of Music.

Recently the musicals I have seen on Broadway failed to live up to glorified expectations. I don't care what anyone else tells you but Rent, Wicked, The Lion King and Legally Blonde the Musical all SUCK. What separates the classics from these mindless shows is that they had depth and emotion. A musical should have the power to get to people and inspire people while at the same time make them wanna get out of their seats and dance and/or sing. This is exactly what Billy Elliot did for me and probably everyone else in the audience as witnessed by one act in which most people were trying to conceal their tears and another act where people were shimmying in their seats.

I don't want to give away too much of Billy Elliot's alluring plot, but the basic synopsis is that its about a little boy, Billy, growing up in Northern England during the Miner's Strike of the early 80's. His family is part of a lower class, blue-collar community where most of the workers are coal miners and engaged in the strike, including Billy's father and older brother. Billy's mother is deceased. Tensions run high as the family makes too little to make ends meet. Making matters worse, Billy is far more interested in dancing lessons than the boxing lessons his gruff father desires him to take. And to top it off Billy's a heck of a dancer. He is gooooood. Billy's homophobic father does whatever he can, including going to physically harmful extremes, to ensure that Billy doesn't do anything to make himself look like a ninny. But dance is the only solace Billy has in his lonely, downtrodden world.

I don't know if this blog did the show justice so I'll leave you with this:
Recently the tony nominations were announced and Billy Elliot is up for a WHOPPING 15 NOMINATIONS. Including best musical. Reviewers say that it is the unequivocal front runner. 'NUFF SAID.