(I’m having trouble setting up a “Like on Facebook” button… I don’t think it is allowed under the plan I pay WordPress for 😦
Please! If you like what I’ve done, just do posts on the social medium of your choice, recommending https://TrixiesGems.com?) (What You Want To Know) Or go to the pages under my https://wywtk.com ULR, where there is more pages from me… with Facebook “like” buttons! (^_^)
The show impresses me, and brings me joy. Mostly for the chance it gives kids to do something hard. And it thrills me to see kids succeed magnificently with the challenge. (And that’s not just the Billies.)
The stories here are from the days of the original production, except as noted. Until I get more proficient, new stories will be added at the top. Some early posts have been converted to simple blog entries accessible via the “Search” tool at the top of this page, or by going to the Posts Index.
Accuracy: You are reading this on the internet. I am in no way an “official” voice for Billy. ‘Nuff said? I do my best. // I’ve explained the start of my “Billy Journey” on a dedicated page.
Repetition: If I accidentally repeat a story… please “complain”? (Extra apologies if you don’t have a channel to reach me… many do. As I said, the site is new, and I’m treading warily for now.) (Story added 29 Oct 19)
Sub-pages with more Billy stories…
Two burnt slices of fried bread… an egg, actually….
Early in the show, reference is made to “fried bread”. Ever had it? With marmalade? (Or marmite, another great “love it or hate it” delicacy.) Try everything once! It is exactly what it sounds like… a piece of bread, fried. For a few details an tips on the preparation of which wonderfully politically-incorrect delicacy, see http://bit.ly/DadsFriedBread (Item added 17 Nov 19)
Bloody shoe!
One day someone had thought it would be fun for the “Expressing Yourself” scene if the boys had funny think fuzzy high socks on.
Just one small snag… it made it difficult to get their tap shoes on for the tap number that the “race to don shoes” leads into.
By the time I’d notice something was amiss, Michael had already somehow totally lost one of his shoes, and wasn’t making much progress with donning the other.
Before long, being a great character, even for “the average” actor in that splendid role, he exploded “Bloody shoe!”, flung it into the wings, and did, very convincingly, a tap number in his stocking feet!… with a huge grin on his face! (Zak Atkinson, as I recall… or maybe Todd Bell.)
Twelve Minutes
It varies from production to production, of course, but I doubt it changes by much. In London, around 2007, someone (not me!) took a stopwatch to the show. In those days it ran for about 2- 1/2 hours, not counting the interval.
In that time, the longest Billy was off the stage in one continuous break was six minutes.
All of the other moments he was off stage, added together came to another six minutes. (Story added 13 Oct 2019, 9:18 (UK time))
Quick thinking
In London, when the stage was the hall where boxing and ballet taught, there were chairs around the sides of the room.
In Billy’s first (chaotic!) full lesson, at one point he shoots across the stage, leaps up onto a chair. At least that’s what’s meant to happen.
“Miss! I don’t know what to do!”, he cries pathetically.
She, normally, replied, “You can get down, for starters”
But then there was the night when Billy slipped slightly in his leap. “Landed” on his shin, on the edge of a chair already pushed back against the wall. Covered his pain magnificently.
Remember, of course, all of this happening a frenetic pace. “Get down” isn’t going to make a lot of sense! In a heartbeat, Mrs Wilkinson came up with “Pick yourself up, for starters”.
Speaking of chairs, as I was in previous story…
In the original production, the chairs that line the walls in the opening number, and play many roles in their time, came in three sizes. The baby chairs were at the back of the stage, the momma chairs in the middle distance, and the poppa chairs at the front of the stage. This little trick helped make the stage look deep.
Which is fine, and probably a good idea. But those chairs had to be moved around the stage a lot during the show, usually by the kids. And it wouldn’t do to put a chair just anywhere. Care had to be taken to move each chair, each time, to the right place, so that the different sizes wouldn’t show out, and so that the desired effect was achieved when they were along the walls.
Blood x 2
Not, of course, funny in every way. But…
One night in Billy’s brief career as a student of the boxing, either he or Michael received a blow that actually landed… and a gushing bloody nose ensued.
Another night, and I half remember that a mild concussion resulted, so even less “funny”, but…
In several versions I’ve seen, when Billy is in the toilet stall… “But I’ve only just learned to pirouette”… once or twice he flings the door open, says something, pulls it violently shut again, with the satisfying big bang that resulted. Sadly, one night, he was leaning forward a bit too far, hit his forehead with the closing door… more blood!
Who would be an actor?
Blood, sweat, tears…
One of the reasons I love the show is that it creates a chance for a few specially talented, specially lucky kids to really get stuck in to something.
Of course, that calls for some real blood, sweat and tears. But they can do it! Our society today is over “protective” of young people. It denies them healthy challenges, which will help the kids grow strong.
Once, early in the days of preparing the original London production, Liam Mower was “missing”, when it was time for him to rehearse something. He didn’t get the job without having proved elsewhere that he was a professional, could be relied upon to be in the right place at the right time.
He was found eventually, “hiding” in a dark corner, being sick into a bucket. The pace of the physical training was just a bit too high. It was modified.
This is how hard these kids work to deliver a performance of this standard.
But recently, the “blood” part of the equation has been taken to a new level…
In productions after the original, Billy rushes into the fight between Dad and Tony. I will never fully get over my reaction to him (acting) being hurt the first time I saw that varient.
In the Goodspeed production, Billy catches an elbow to his face. And “gets a split lip”, complete with stage blood. I’ve watched the scene several times… I am still baffled as to how, exactly, he pulls the illusion off. There is actual stage blood trickling from his mouth… but I can’t figure out where the capsule (?) is until the moment it is needed. (And I don’t want to be told, if anyone reading this can tell me… I’m hoping I’ll manage to figure it out by myself. But the actors are not making it easy!)
Once I was a young man
One night, London… c. 2014?… Dad sang “Once I was a young man…”, as usual.
Except it wasn’t “as usual”. When he finished, it was as if everyone in the theater was paralyzed. Dead silence. No one moved. And then the world somehow started to turn again.
“The power of art”? An alignment of the stars? I don’t know what it was. Yes, he’d sung it tenderly, at the end, after a suitably “drunken” start. Perhaps it was the pacing of the progression? I spend most of my time looking at things from a scientist’s point of view. There are mysteries, but we can figure them out, eventually. It is good, once in a while, to experience the artist’s world. There are some mysteries which will never be explained.
It was just one of those moments. I cannot imagine I will ever see a better performance of that song. I remember that performance every time I hear the song again.
How much Billy is on stage
A few years into the original London production, someone timed how often Billy was off the stage. The total time was 12 minutes. His longest continuous “break” was 6 minutes. At the time, the show ran for nearly three hours, including a 25 minute interval.
An awkward moment
One night, in the early part of “The Letter”, Billy forgot to say “You can read it, if you like.”
Ruthie Henshall didn’t want an awkward moment, didn’t want to have just started reading it when he remembered to say his line. She waited very slightly, and then said, “So… can I read it?” The twinkling smile that passed between her and Billy was amusing. Thomas Hazelby, as I recall. (01 Oct 2019, 21:30)
Angry Dance
In some of the big, long running productions, sometimes for a special occasion, the show will be changed somewhat. On at least one occasion, if memory serves, in each case when there were four boys sharing the title role, Angry Dance started as usual… but then the other boys joined in. Angry Dance… with four Billies. It was amazing.
We don’t have dirty money in here…
In the London production, when The Scab comes to the Hall to offer money to the collection for Billy, Billy is sitting with Dad’s helmet, and the money collected so far, in the middle of quite a large empty space. Tony and The Scab are just behind Billy on the stage. (As seen in Billy Live).
Tony snatches the money The Scab is offering, throws it back at his chest, and… normally… the money flutters to the ground more or less still in a wadge, near Billy.
Except for one night. For some reason, that night, the money went everywhere! Poor Billy had quite a scramble to retrieve it all.
And if my memory serves… I’m pretty sure I have this right… it was Brodie Donagher’s first night. (19 November, 2014) (He shared a first night with a Debbie that brought a whole lot of personality to the role- Connie Fisher. Both were part of the final show of the original production.) (29 Sep 19)
Deeply, bitterly ironic…
For me, one of the most important speeches in the show is what Tony says to Billy, late in the show. Billy has just got the letter from the Royal Ballet School… and then the family learns that the strike is over. Billy says to Tony, “It will be all right.”
In most shows I’ve seen, Tony says “In ten years time, there won’t be any pits left….” (Though Goodspeed has chosen to make that “When you are my age…”
Billy, the musical, opened in London on 11 May 2005.
The last deep pit mine, Kellingley Colliery, North Yorkshire (WP), closed on 18 December 2015.
When I visited Easington in 2016, seeing a train loaded with coal pass by, along the coast, between the town and the sea… I believe it was imported from the Ukraine… did nothing to raise my spirits.
Please turn off pagers, no photos, exits…
In London the standard announcement before the show was done with a recording, but at least they made it less boring by having the text read by one of the children from the cast.
For a long time, I thought it was being read by Small Boy, which would have been quite amusing, especially for is delivery of “filming, recording, or the thanking of photographs is NOT ALLOWED!” He was so fierce, that it would be hard to imagine anyone daring to do any of the proscribed activities!
It was, of course, delivered in Georgie, “filming” consisting of three syllables. The first recording was eventually replaced by a similar one, with a slightly less aggressive “not allowed”. Maybe the lawyers needed some other bit of the text tweaked, too. Who knows?
Eventually that the second recording was done by one of the Debbies, Demi Lee, if my memory serves.
I always wished that the announcement could have been done “live” by Small Boy, but maybe that would have taken him out of character, disrupted the start of the show.
At Goodspeed (Sept/Nov 2019) I have been delighted by how the kids are trusted in many, many ways. For instance, the director found a way to make the wretched announcement as part of the first moments of the show, and delivered by Small Boy, hurrah! SB says “turn off pagers, and anything else that might make a noise”. (There not yet being any cell phones in that earlier era.) One night he got the line slightly wrong, pressed on, got himself in a terrible tangle… and then got himself (quite) smoothly out the other end, and he had even, along the way, covered the “essential” notices. (Posted midnight, 26/27 Sept 2019)
Some older stories have been converted to blog posts, accessible via the “Search” tool at the top of this page, or by going to the Posts Index (Click, or use link in menu under photo at top of page.)
(I’m having trouble setting up “Like on Facebook” button… please, if you like, just do post on social media of your choice, recommending http://bit.ly/BEStories ?)
(thank you to the person who alerted me to button problems!)
I hope the content of this site will amuse or at least interest you.
This site isn’t “clever”. But I hope that the content is good. I’ve been around the internet a while, but this is my first serious attempt at WordPress. For now, I will be concentrating on getting some Billy Elliot stories onto the site.
Without (much) further ado, or for now any frills, “here we go”… (a “line” from the show, of course, but at only 3 words that’s a bit lame? Amazing, though, how many times when I need some words to express something, there is relevant material in the script.)
The stories here are from the days of the original production, except as noted. Until I get more proficient, new stories will be added at the top. Some early posts have been converted to simple blog entries accessible via the “Search” tool at the top of this page, or by going to the Posts Index.
Accuracy: You are reading this on the internet. I am in no way an “official” voice for Billy. ‘Nuff said? I do my best. // I’ve explained the start of my “Billy Journey” on a dedicated page.
Repetition: If I accidentally repeat a story… please “complain”? (Extra apologies if you don’t have a channel to reach me… many do. As I said, the site is new, and I’m treading warily for now.) (Story added 29 Oct 19)
=======================
Two burnt slices of fried bread… an egg, actually….
Early in the show, reference is made to “fried bread”. Ever had it? With marmalade? (Or marmite, another great “love it or hate it” delicacy.) Try everything once! It is exactly what it sounds like… a piece of bread, fried. For a few details an tips on the preparation of which wonderfully politically-incorrect delicacy, see http://bit.ly/DadsFriedBread (Item added 17 Nov 19)
Bloody shoe!
One day someone had thought it would be fun for the “Expressing Yourself” scene if the boys had funny think fuzzy high socks on.
Just one small snag… it made it difficult to get their tap shoes on for the tap number that the “race to don shoes” leads into.
By the time I’d notice something was amiss, Michael had already somehow totally lost one of his shoes, and wasn’t making much progress with donning the other.
Before long, being a great character, even for “the average” actor in that splendid role, he exploded “Bloody shoe!”, flung it into the wings, and did, very convincingly, a tap number in his stocking feet!… with a huge grin on his face! (Zak Atkinson, as I recall… or maybe Todd Bell.)
Twelve Minutes
It varies from production to production, of course, but I doubt it changes by much. In London, around 2007, someone (not me!) took a stopwatch to the show. In those days it ran for about 2- 1/2 hours, not counting the interval.
In that time, the longest Billy was off the stage in one continuous break was six minutes.
All of the other moments he was off stage, added together came to another six minutes. (Story added 13 Oct 2019, 9:18 (UK time))
Quick thinking
In London, when the stage was the hall where boxing and ballet taught, there were chairs around the sides of the room.
In Billy’s first (chaotic!) full lesson, at one point he shoots across the stage, leaps up onto a chair. At least that’s what’s meant to happen.
“Miss! I don’t know what to do!”, he cries pathetically.
She, normally, replied, “You can get down, for starters”
But then there was the night when Billy slipped slightly in his leap. “Landed” on his shin, on the edge of a chair already pushed back against the wall. Covered his pain magnificently.
Remember, of course, all of this happening a frenetic pace. “Get down” isn’t going to make a lot of sense! In a heartbeat, Mrs Wilkinson came up with “Pick yourself up, for starters”.
Speaking of chairs, as I was in previous story…
In the original production, the chairs that line the walls in the opening number, and play many roles in their time, came in three sizes. The baby chairs were at the back of the stage, the momma chairs in the middle distance, and the poppa chairs at the front of the stage. This little trick helped make the stage look deep.
Which is fine, and probably a good idea. But those chairs had to be moved around the stage a lot during the show, usually by the kids. And it wouldn’t do to put a chair just anywhere. Care had to be taken to move each chair, each time, to the right place, so that the different sizes wouldn’t show out, and so that the desired effect was achieved when they were along the walls.
Blood x 2
Not, of course, funny in every way. But…
One night in Billy’s brief career as a student of the boxing, either he or Michael received a blow that actually landed… and a gushing bloody nose ensued.
Another night, and I half remember that a mild concussion resulted, so even less “funny”, but…
In several versions I’ve seen, when Billy is in the toilet stall… “But I’ve only just learned to pirouette”… once or twice he flings the door open, says something, pulls it violently shut again, with the satisfying big bang that resulted. Sadly, one night, he was leaning forward a bit too far, hit his forehead with the closing door… more blood!
Who would be an actor?
Blood, sweat, tears…
One of the reasons I love the show is that it creates a chance for a few specially talented, specially lucky kids to really get stuck in to something.
Of course, that calls for some real blood, sweat and tears. But they can do it! Our society today is over “protective” of young people. It denies them healthy challenges, which will help the kids grow strong.
Once, early in the days of preparing the original London production, Liam Mower was “missing”, when it was time for him to rehearse something. He didn’t get the job without having proved elsewhere that he was a professional, could be relied upon to be in the right place at the right time.
He was found eventually, “hiding” in a dark corner, being sick into a bucket. The pace of the physical training was just a bit too high. It was modified.
This is how hard these kids work to deliver a performance of this standard.
But recently, the “blood” part of the equation has been taken to a new level…
In productions after the original, Billy rushes into the fight between Dad and Tony. I will never fully get over my reaction to him (acting) being hurt the first time I saw that varient.
In the Goodspeed production, Billy catches an elbow to his face. And “gets a split lip”, complete with stage blood. I’ve watched the scene several times… I am still baffled as to how, exactly, he pulls the illusion off. There is actual stage blood trickling from his mouth… but I can’t figure out where the capsule (?) is until the moment it is needed. (And I don’t want to be told, if anyone reading this can tell me… I’m hoping I’ll manage to figure it out by myself. But the actors are not making it easy!)
Once I was a young man
One night, London… c. 2014?… Dad sang “Once I was a young man…”, as usual.
Except it wasn’t “as usual”. When he finished, it was as if everyone in the theater was paralyzed. Dead silence. No one moved. And then the world somehow started to turn again.
“The power of art”? An alignment of the stars? I don’t know what it was. Yes, he’d sung it tenderly, at the end, after a suitably “drunken” start. Perhaps it was the pacing of the progression? I spend most of my time looking at things from a scientist’s point of view. There are mysteries, but we can figure them out, eventually. It is good, once in a while, to experience the artist’s world. There are some mysteries which will never be explained.
It was just one of those moments. I cannot imagine I will ever see a better performance of that song. I remember that performance every time I hear the song again.
How much Billy is on stage
A few years into the original London production, someone timed how often Billy was off the stage. The total time was 12 minutes. His longest continuous “break” was 6 minutes. At the time, the show ran for nearly three hours, including a 25 minute interval.
An awkward moment
One night, in the early part of “The Letter”, Billy forgot to say “You can read it, if you like.”
Ruthie Henshall didn’t want an awkward moment, didn’t want to have just started reading it when he remembered to say his line. She waited very slightly, and then said, “So… can I read it?” The twinkling smile that passed between her and Billy was amusing. Thomas Hazelby, as I recall. (01 Oct 2019, 21:30)
Angry Dance
In some of the big, long running productions, sometimes for a special occasion, the show will be changed somewhat. On at least one occasion, if memory serves, in each case when there were four boys sharing the title role, Angry Dance started as usual… but then the other boys joined in. Angry Dance… with four Billies. It was amazing.
We don’t have dirty money in here…
In the London production, when The Scab comes to the Hall to offer money to the collection for Billy, Billy is sitting with Dad’s helmet, and the money collected so far, in the middle of quite a large empty space. Tony and The Scab are just behind Billy on the stage. (As seen in Billy Live).
Tony snatches the money The Scab is offering, throws it back at his chest, and… normally… the money flutters to the ground more or less still in a wadge, near Billy.
Except for one night. For some reason, that night, the money went everywhere! Poor Billy had quite a scramble to retrieve it all.
And if my memory serves… I’m pretty sure I have this right… it was Brodie Donagher’s first night. (19 November, 2014) (He shared a first night with a Debbie that brought a whole lot of personality to the role- Connie Fisher. Both were part of the final show of the original production.) (29 Sep 19)
Deeply, bitterly ironic…
For me, one of the most important speeches in the show is what Tony says to Billy, late in the show. Billy has just got the letter from the Royal Ballet School… and then the family learns that the strike is over. Billy says to Tony, “It will be all right.”
In most shows I’ve seen, Tony says “In ten years time, there won’t be any pits left….” (Though Goodspeed has chosen to make that “When you are my age…”
Billy, the musical, opened in London on 11 May 2005.
The last deep pit mine, Kellingley Colliery, North Yorkshire (WP), closed on 18 December 2015.
When I visited Easington in 2016, seeing a train loaded with coal pass by, along the coast, between the town and the sea… I believe it was imported from the Ukraine… did nothing to raise my spirits.
Please turn off pagers, no photos, exits…
In London the standard announcement before the show was done with a recording, but at least they made it less boring by having the text read by one of the children from the cast.
For a long time, I thought it was being read by Small Boy, which would have been quite amusing, especially for is delivery of “filming, recording, or the thanking of photographs is NOT ALLOWED!” He was so fierce, that it would be hard to imagine anyone daring to do any of the proscribed activities!
It was, of course, delivered in Georgie, “filming” consisting of three syllables. The first recording was eventually replaced by a similar one, with a slightly less aggressive “not allowed”. Maybe the lawyers needed some other bit of the text tweaked, too. Who knows?
Eventually that the second recording was done by one of the Debbies, Demi Lee, if my memory serves.
I always wished that the announcement could have been done “live” by Small Boy, but maybe that would have taken him out of character, disrupted the start of the show.
At Goodspeed (Sept/Nov 2019) I have been delighted by how the kids are trusted in many, many ways. For instance, the director found a way to make the wretched announcement as part of the first moments of the show, and delivered by Small Boy, hurrah! SB says “turn off pagers, and anything else that might make a noise”. (There not yet being any cell phones in that earlier era.) One night he got the line slightly wrong, pressed on, got himself in a terrible tangle… and then got himself (quite) smoothly out the other end, and he had even, along the way, covered the “essential” notices. (Posted midnight, 26/27 Sept 2019)
Some older stories have been converted to blog posts, accessible via the “Search” tool at the top of this page, or by going to the Posts Index (Click, or use link in menu under photo at top of page.)
An attempt to move a page.
(I’m having trouble setting up “Like on Facebook” button… please, if you like, just do post on social media of your choice, recommending http://bit.ly/BEStories ?)
(thank you to the person who alerted me to button problems!)
I hope the content of this site will amuse or at least interest you.
This site isn’t “clever”. But I hope that the content is good. I’ve been around the internet a while, but this is my first serious attempt at WordPress. For now, I will be concentrating on getting some Billy Elliot stories onto the site.
Without (much) further ado, or for now any frills, “here we go”… (a “line” from the show, of course, but at only 3 words that’s a bit lame? Amazing, though, how many times when I need some words to express something, there is relevant material in the script.)
The stories here are from the days of the original production, except as noted. Until I get more proficient, new stories will be added at the top. Some early posts have been converted to simple blog entries accessible via the “Search” tool at the top of this page, or by going to the Posts Index.
Accuracy: You are reading this on the internet. I am in no way an “official” voice for Billy. ‘Nuff said? I do my best. // I’ve explained the start of my “Billy Journey” on a dedicated page.
Repetition: If I accidentally repeat a story… please “complain”? (Extra apologies if you don’t have a channel to reach me… many do. As I said, the site is new, and I’m treading warily for now.) (Story added 29 Oct 19)
=======================
Two burnt slices of fried bread… an egg, actually….
Early in the show, reference is made to “fried bread”. Ever had it? With marmalade? (Or marmite, another great “love it or hate it” delicacy.) Try everything once! It is exactly what it sounds like… a piece of bread, fried. For a few details an tips on the preparation of which wonderfully politically-incorrect delicacy, see http://bit.ly/DadsFriedBread (Item added 17 Nov 19)
Bloody shoe!
One day someone had thought it would be fun for the “Expressing Yourself” scene if the boys had funny think fuzzy high socks on.
Just one small snag… it made it difficult to get their tap shoes on for the tap number that the “race to don shoes” leads into.
By the time I’d notice something was amiss, Michael had already somehow totally lost one of his shoes, and wasn’t making much progress with donning the other.
Before long, being a great character, even for “the average” actor in that splendid role, he exploded “Bloody shoe!”, flung it into the wings, and did, very convincingly, a tap number in his stocking feet!… with a huge grin on his face! (Zak Atkinson, as I recall… or maybe Todd Bell.)
Twelve Minutes
It varies from production to production, of course, but I doubt it changes by much. In London, around 2007, someone (not me!) took a stopwatch to the show. In those days it ran for about 2- 1/2 hours, not counting the interval.
In that time, the longest Billy was off the stage in one continuous break was six minutes.
All of the other moments he was off stage, added together came to another six minutes. (Story added 13 Oct 2019, 9:18 (UK time))
Quick thinking
In London, when the stage was the hall where boxing and ballet taught, there were chairs around the sides of the room.
In Billy’s first (chaotic!) full lesson, at one point he shoots across the stage, leaps up onto a chair. At least that’s what’s meant to happen.
“Miss! I don’t know what to do!”, he cries pathetically.
She, normally, replied, “You can get down, for starters”
But then there was the night when Billy slipped slightly in his leap. “Landed” on his shin, on the edge of a chair already pushed back against the wall. Covered his pain magnificently.
Remember, of course, all of this happening a frenetic pace. “Get down” isn’t going to make a lot of sense! In a heartbeat, Mrs Wilkinson came up with “Pick yourself up, for starters”.
Speaking of chairs, as I was in previous story…
In the original production, the chairs that line the walls in the opening number, and play many roles in their time, came in three sizes. The baby chairs were at the back of the stage, the momma chairs in the middle distance, and the poppa chairs at the front of the stage. This little trick helped make the stage look deep.
Which is fine, and probably a good idea. But those chairs had to be moved around the stage a lot during the show, usually by the kids. And it wouldn’t do to put a chair just anywhere. Care had to be taken to move each chair, each time, to the right place, so that the different sizes wouldn’t show out, and so that the desired effect was achieved when they were along the walls.
Blood x 2
Not, of course, funny in every way. But…
One night in Billy’s brief career as a student of the boxing, either he or Michael received a blow that actually landed… and a gushing bloody nose ensued.
Another night, and I half remember that a mild concussion resulted, so even less “funny”, but…
In several versions I’ve seen, when Billy is in the toilet stall… “But I’ve only just learned to pirouette”… once or twice he flings the door open, says something, pulls it violently shut again, with the satisfying big bang that resulted. Sadly, one night, he was leaning forward a bit too far, hit his forehead with the closing door… more blood!
Who would be an actor?
Blood, sweat, tears…
One of the reasons I love the show is that it creates a chance for a few specially talented, specially lucky kids to really get stuck in to something.
Of course, that calls for some real blood, sweat and tears. But they can do it! Our society today is over “protective” of young people. It denies them healthy challenges, which will help the kids grow strong.
Once, early in the days of preparing the original London production, Liam Mower was “missing”, when it was time for him to rehearse something. He didn’t get the job without having proved elsewhere that he was a professional, could be relied upon to be in the right place at the right time.
He was found eventually, “hiding” in a dark corner, being sick into a bucket. The pace of the physical training was just a bit too high. It was modified.
This is how hard these kids work to deliver a performance of this standard.
But recently, the “blood” part of the equation has been taken to a new level…
In productions after the original, Billy rushes into the fight between Dad and Tony. I will never fully get over my reaction to him (acting) being hurt the first time I saw that varient.
In the Goodspeed production, Billy catches an elbow to his face. And “gets a split lip”, complete with stage blood. I’ve watched the scene several times… I am still baffled as to how, exactly, he pulls the illusion off. There is actual stage blood trickling from his mouth… but I can’t figure out where the capsule (?) is until the moment it is needed. (And I don’t want to be told, if anyone reading this can tell me… I’m hoping I’ll manage to figure it out by myself. But the actors are not making it easy!)
Once I was a young man
One night, London… c. 2014?… Dad sang “Once I was a young man…”, as usual.
Except it wasn’t “as usual”. When he finished, it was as if everyone in the theater was paralyzed. Dead silence. No one moved. And then the world somehow started to turn again.
“The power of art”? An alignment of the stars? I don’t know what it was. Yes, he’d sung it tenderly, at the end, after a suitably “drunken” start. Perhaps it was the pacing of the progression? I spend most of my time looking at things from a scientist’s point of view. There are mysteries, but we can figure them out, eventually. It is good, once in a while, to experience the artist’s world. There are some mysteries which will never be explained.
It was just one of those moments. I cannot imagine I will ever see a better performance of that song. I remember that performance every time I hear the song again.
How much Billy is on stage
A few years into the original London production, someone timed how often Billy was off the stage. The total time was 12 minutes. His longest continuous “break” was 6 minutes. At the time, the show ran for nearly three hours, including a 25 minute interval.
An awkward moment
One night, in the early part of “The Letter”, Billy forgot to say “You can read it, if you like.”
Ruthie Henshall didn’t want an awkward moment, didn’t want to have just started reading it when he remembered to say his line. She waited very slightly, and then said, “So… can I read it?” The twinkling smile that passed between her and Billy was amusing. Thomas Hazelby, as I recall. (01 Oct 2019, 21:30)
Angry Dance
In some of the big, long running productions, sometimes for a special occasion, the show will be changed somewhat. On at least one occasion, if memory serves, in each case when there were four boys sharing the title role, Angry Dance started as usual… but then the other boys joined in. Angry Dance… with four Billies. It was amazing.
We don’t have dirty money in here…
In the London production, when The Scab comes to the Hall to offer money to the collection for Billy, Billy is sitting with Dad’s helmet, and the money collected so far, in the middle of quite a large empty space. Tony and The Scab are just behind Billy on the stage. (As seen in Billy Live).
Tony snatches the money The Scab is offering, throws it back at his chest, and… normally… the money flutters to the ground more or less still in a wadge, near Billy.
Except for one night. For some reason, that night, the money went everywhere! Poor Billy had quite a scramble to retrieve it all.
And if my memory serves… I’m pretty sure I have this right… it was Brodie Donagher’s first night. (19 November, 2014) (He shared a first night with a Debbie that brought a whole lot of personality to the role- Connie Fisher. Both were part of the final show of the original production.) (29 Sep 19)
Deeply, bitterly ironic…
For me, one of the most important speeches in the show is what Tony says to Billy, late in the show. Billy has just got the letter from the Royal Ballet School… and then the family learns that the strike is over. Billy says to Tony, “It will be all right.”
In most shows I’ve seen, Tony says “In ten years time, there won’t be any pits left….” (Though Goodspeed has chosen to make that “When you are my age…”
Billy, the musical, opened in London on 11 May 2005.
The last deep pit mine, Kellingley Colliery, North Yorkshire (WP), closed on 18 December 2015.
When I visited Easington in 2016, seeing a train loaded with coal pass by, along the coast, between the town and the sea… I believe it was imported from the Ukraine… did nothing to raise my spirits.
Odds and ends 