Billy Elliot The Musical. Book and Lyrics by Lee Hall.
Music by Elton John. Directed by Jarrad West. Musical directors Katrina Tang
and Caleb Campbell. Choreographer Michelle Heine. Assistant director Jill Young. Set design Dr. Cate Clelland. Costume design Tanya
Taylor. Lighting design Jacob Aquilina.
Sound design Dillan Wilding. Producer Anne Somes. Free Rain Theatre Company. The Q Theatre
Queanbeyan. April 9 – May 5.
Bookings: 6285 6290. www.theq.org.au
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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Janie Lawson as Mrs. Wilkinson and students of her dance academy
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Take a producer with an instinct
for success, a director with vision, musical directors with passion and a
choreographer with imagination and flair and you have a hit on your hands. Add to this the talented cast, musicians and
creatives and Free Rain Theatre’s Billy
Elliot The Musical playing at the Q
Theatre in Queanbeyan becomes a smash
hit. Set against the turmoil of Thatcher’s cruel forced mine closures of the
north, Elton John and Lee Hall’s musical tells the story of a young lad’s dream
against all odds to become a ballet dancer.
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Joe Dinn as Jackie Elliot. Fergus Paterson as Billy
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From the opening scene in the
county hall, designed by Dr Cate
Clelland with meticulous attention to working class authenticity, director
Jarrad West creates an immediate sense of community as the stage bursts into
life. Writer and lyricist Lee Hall and composer Elton John have created a work
inspired by the struggles, the dreams and the drama of people’s lives in the
north of England under the ruthless and callous policies of division of the
Thatcher government. West imbues the production with dramatic force. Michelle Heine’s choreography is spirited
and inventive. WC Field’s advice to never work with children or animals is
proof enough in the wonderful performances by the children in Mrs Wilkinson’s
dance academy.
Musical directors Katrina Tang
and Caleb Campbell with their talented small orchestra create a musical
tapestry of musicianship and song that captures John’s eclectic range from
strings to brass, from classical to ballad to rock, complemented by Dillan
Wilding’s dramatic sound design, The result is a riveting insight into the
lives of individuals during the cruel dismantling of a mining community.
Contrasted with the tensions and the conflicts of people struggling to survive
is the aesthete of the graceful art of ballet. The defiance of the song Solidarity in the first act and
performed by the ballet girls. Mrs. Wilkinson (Janie Lawson), Police and Miners
contrasts with Tchaikovsky’s Dream Ballet from Swan Lake, magically danced and flown with aerial grace by Billy
(Fergus Paterson) in a pas de deux with Older Billy (Australian Ballet School
graduate Jordan Dwight). This is one of the most magical moments in a show that
abounds with imagination and theatrical inspiration.
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The Ensemble as the protestors in Billy Elliot The Musical
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Hall and John have created a
musical that demands authenticity, conviction and passion. Free Rain Theatre’s
company of cast and creatives delivers this in spades. Nowhere is this more
apparent than in performances that carry the audience along on a rollercoaster
ride of emotions . Janie Lawson is outstanding as the feisty, larger than life
dance teacher in a small town. In a rousing rendition of Shine one feels that it reverberates with the unfulfilled dream
that she knows she can realize in young Billy. Lawson is well supported by her highly camp
repetiteur and assistant choreographer James Tolhurst-Close. The Elliot family
is the archetypal working class family eking out a living as best they can in
the industrial north. Alice Ferguson is thoroughly convincing as the grandmother,
teetering on the edge of dementia and upholding her dream of life and
independence, free of a long marriage to her sod of a husband in Grandma’s Song. There is spunk in
Ferguson’s grandma, but with a feeling of regret that her time has passed her
by. Billy’s brother Tony (Lachlan Elderton) bristles with the anger of
injustice.
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Fergus Paterson as Billy. Jordan Dwight as Older Billy
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Paterson in the pivotal role of Billy is entirely natural, exuding a
teenage insecurity and conscious of being an outsider. It is a demanding role
but Paterson sings like an angel and dances with the promise of great things to
come. In a moment of explosive release he gives vent to the force that is his
creative inspiration in the song
Electricity. Only in the spoken dialogue scenes does he tend to lose
projection. He still needs to find the balance between the power of his dancing
and singing and the energy of his spoken dialogue. He is a performer to watch
for in the future. As the tormented
father Jackie, Joe Dinn is a force of nature. Belligerent and bull-headed he
achieves an audience’s dislike of his
character only to later sway their emotions and arouse their sympathy with his
painful confession in Deep Into The
Ground and his eventual acceptance of his son. Only his bellowing ,
appropriate though it was to his rough-edged character was unnecessarily loud
for the excellent acoustics of the Q Theatre. The principals receive excellent
support from Jo Zaharias as Billy’s gentle and loving Mum and Charlie Murphy as
Billy’s crossdressing friend Michael. Their tap dancing routine to Expressing Yourself is a highlight of
the first act amongst a number of highlights and performances by an excellent
ensemble.
Lee Hall and Elton John’s musical is grit and grime with the promise of
hope and salvation. At times it sparkles and shines. At other times it tugs at
the heartstrings and brings forth the tears. You will laugh and cry and delight
at Free Rain Theatre’s Billy Elliot
The Musical. Don’t miss it.
