Billy Elliot The Musical

One of the highlights of my trip was to finally watch the musical that won an amazing 10 Tony's at the most recent Tony awards in June. If any of you watched the broadcast you would have caught a glimpse of how good the performances are during the opening montage as well as the explosive 'Angry Dance' introduced by Elton John. They took the Best Musical, Best performance by Leading Actor in a Musical, Best Direction, Best Choreography among others but I was hugely disappointed that they lost out on Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics).

The wonderfully moving music by Elton John and meaningful lyrics by Lee Hall really stuck in my head. I found myself humming it after leaving the theatre, still hearing the notes while queueing at the Starbucks in Times Square for my close to midnight hot chocolate fix, listening to it on my laptop during a flight stopover in Frankfurt (I bought the CD) and finally playing the lovely music on my piano when I got home (yes, I had to buy the musical score too!).

Its no secret that I love musicals. I think there are few I haven't watched and most I've watched twice. Its my 'thing' - I haven't truly seen it until I've seen it on both sides of the pond!
Anyway, amidst the convoluted chatter, what I'm trying to say is that this ranks High.

Tickets sell out fast and sadly only 2 of the 3 original Billy's remain. Kiril, [the one with a brother and sister] sadly took his final bow as Billy Elliot two nights ago on October 3. He grew too tall for the part but I'm sure he's going to become a great ballet dancer with the amount of talent he has already displayed! You can still see David [two sisters] and Trent [three sisters] in the title role.

If you're planning a trip to NY around Christmas this would be a fantastic thing to do with the family, pretty perfect as well since there's Christmas celebrations and fake snowfall in the musical itself!





All images by Rachel Papo for an article in NYmag.