So, on Thursday, Grace and I finally saw Billy Elliot. We put it off for so long for several reasons.
1. For awhile, it was sort of expensive and sold out.
2. I really hated the movie, so I wasn't about to pay a lot of money to see something that I didn't think I'd like. I thought the story was lame.
3. I didn't think it deserved several of the Tony's it won. And I still do. I justify my thoughts, just read on.
Anyway.
We almost missed our train going in because we were trying to look up subway times to go down to the York Theatre Co. (I needed to get tickets to see Yank with a friend)
Anyway, so we get into the city and the subway we need is pulling in as we're swiping, so that was very convenient. Once we got off, we had trouble finding the actual theatre. It was like below a church or something, but we found it and I got the tickets for Yank and was a very happy girl.
So, we thought about getting dinner at Ray's Pizza since we're trying to expand our eating, but the pizza wasn't very appealing and I kind of wanted chicken fingers, so we decided to just go to.... Junior's! Haha. So, we walked all the way back down there, which involved walking past the Mamma Mia stagedoor. Carolee Carmello was standing at the stagedoor talking to someone! She had her back to the way we were walking but both of us turned around as we walked by to see if it was her, so it was fun to have an actress sighting.
We arrived at Junior’s and had a really cute waiter! We’d seen him there before, but never had him (actually, I did when I saw Rock of Ages, but never with Grace. Um, clearly I go there too often). I saw Alice Ripley go into the Next to Normal stagedoor. I ended up getting a grilled cheese instead of chicken fingers though and then we split the chocolate cake, which is the best thing ever.
After dinner, we didn't have too much time to kill, so we headed straight to get tickets for our next show. The Addams Family on March 9!!! Second day of previews. I'm super excited. Oh, and it was also funny to walk by Carolee Carmello since we knew we were getting Addams Family tickets.
THE SHOW
Billy: Liam Redhead
Michael: Jake Evan Schewenke
So, I sort of loved the beginning because the little boy was SO EFFING CUTE. Grace and I want to adopt him and little Coalhouse from Ragtime. And get them bunk beds. Adorable.
Liam was really good. His singing was just okay, but he was a great dancer and actor, which worked well enough with what the show was.
Michael was my favorite character. He was really funny, and very talented.
Will Chase was phenomenal and I was like so super excited to see him in something. I really wanted to see him in High Fidelity because that's one of my favorite books, but that closed in two seconds, so that didn't happen. But he's awesome.
Carole Shelley was great! Her Tony nomination was well-deserved and I thought she was so funny and she’s truly an asset to the show.
My favorite parts were "Angry Dance" and "Electricity."
The score was okay, and I probably would have been seriously annoyed if this had beat Next to Normal for best score.
The dancing was amazing, which drove the whole show, so that's why it sort of works that the score isn't that great. It doesn't need to be as awesome because it's not really about the singing, which is why it sort of worked that Liam didn't have the best voice.
I wasn't crazy about the book either. [Hunter Bell all the way.]
However, the most undeserved Tony of all was lighting. I mean, really? It was good during Angry Dance, but otherwise, Hair and Next to Normal were definitely better throughout those shows as wholes, whereas with Billy it was just one song. But whatever.
And I can't comment on the best actor thing since I didn't see any of the nominated Billys. But I still support Mr. Creel. But Liam was wonderful and totally deserves positive recognition for his performance (as I’m sure the nominated Billys do as well)
I still consider Next to Normal to be a better overall musical than Billy Elliot, but I have a lot of personal history with that show.
Anyway. Nothing we can do about it now.
But I really liked the show. A lot more than I thought I would. And I didn't think I'd like it because I didn't like the movie -- not because of the Tony's. I'm not that awful. I wouldn't see it again, but I'm glad I finally did see it.
Oh, and now Grace and I have seen all the best musical nominations (and revivals) from last year's Tony's. Yay!!!
We tried to stagedoor, but no one was really coming out. Will Chase walked right by us though. I would have liked his autograph, but oh well. I'm just happy to have seen him.
I’m sorry this review is rather short (and more or less an edited version of what I posted in my livejournal), but things have been crazy. Check back in a few minutes for the write up of The Addams Family!
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