A country divided, tensions running high. That was Tuesday evening in America on midterm election night. It was also mid-1980s England in Signature Theatre’s production of Billy Elliot.
Worker dignity and solidarity. Artistic and gendered self-expression in a world of conformity. Resistance against bullying. An assertion of art’s significance within the gritty realities of everyday life. Billy Elliot’s success in its original 2000 film version, and in the 2005 Lee Hall and Elton John stage musical adaptation, rests on its serious consideration of those perennial themes within a primarily upbeat coming-of-age story. Signature’s rousing version captures that energy and spirit with an intimate production.
Billy is a lad in a County Durham mining town. His mother has died and he, his older brother, their dad, and the boys’ grandma are just barely scraping by when the miners go on strike. Handing off the community center’s keys from his laughable boxing lesson to an irresistibly bossy ballet teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson, Billy is pulled into the alien world of dance. There he discovers his rare talents, and she tries to prepare him for an audition with the Royal Ballet School in London, against the wishes of his father.
Director and choreographer Matthew Gardiner, musical director Tom Vendafreddo, and scenic designer Jason Sherwood capture with a spare but versatile three-quarter arena presentation the mining town, the community center, homes’ kitchens and bedrooms, an audition hall, and the gates of the mining pits. Wall portals, rolling fences and doorways, and props as simple as folding chairs are used, with Amanda Zieve’s lighting and Ryan Hickey’s sound, to great situational effect. The multi-use community hall, for instance, becomes a magical space for Billy’s ballet reverie with an “Older Billy” (an elegant Grant Richards) who performs a beautiful duet with younger Billy before launching him into the stratosphere of hope and imagination.
Signature’s production is most confident in its group scenes, with Gardiner’s innovative blocking semi-abstractly tying Billy’s strenuous dance education to the frictions between the miners and the police brought in to contain and intimidate them. Mark Orsborn’s additional choreography on an angry tap dance escalates those tensions at the end of Act I. A razzle-dazzle cross-dressing cabaret; Billy’s tunes with Mrs. Wilkinson, her piano accompanist Mr. Braithwaite, and the ballet girls; “Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher,” a finger flip at the prime minster; and similar group songs pack an irreverently cathartic joy.
The musical solos and duets feel more tentative, as do the transitions in and out of them.
The show is well paced, but in the process Gardiner unnecessarily amps up even what should be low-key expository moments in the first half. The acting is a little shouty, under-modulated, and sometimes over-miked for the size of the reverb-heavy venue, a problem I’ve had with other Signature productions.
The script, though generally winning, also has some awkward aspects, particularly Billy’s out-of-character Flash Dance unleashing at an audition.
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Liam Redford and Owen Tabaka alternate the role of Billy. Tuesday, Tabaka handled his mix of tap, jazz, and hoofy gymnastic ballet with aplomb. His scenes with Mrs. Wilkinson and Billy’s friend Michael were also affecting. (Lee Hall’s script is not above tear-jerking.)
Nancy Anderson is a standout as Mrs. Wilkinson—strong-willed, wily, unsentimental, but fundamentally nurturing. And Chris Genebach navigates well the transformation of Billy’s father from tough guy to dance dad, balancing the character’s menace and tenderness.
They and Billy constitute a solid core to this bittersweet tale, in which no one is left unscathed and unchallenged and, for all the fun, the future remains a frightening question mark.
Billy Elliot . Book and Lyrics by Lee Hall. Music by Elton John. Orchestrations by Martin Koch. Director and choreographer: Matthew Gardiner. Cast: Jacob Thomas Anderson, Nancy Anderson, Kurt Boehm, Franco Cabanas, Sofia Cruz, Annie Dodson, Jamie Eacker, Declan Fennell, Catherine Flye, Sean Fri, Malcolm Fuller, Chris Genebach, Daniel S. Hines, Anya Katherine Jones, Vincent Kempski, Harry MacInnis, Dan Manning, Olivia McMahon, Molly Rose Meredith, Crystal Mosser, Solomon Parker III, Dulcie Pham, Vivian Poe, Liam Redford, Grant Richards, Noelle Robinson, Sissy Sheridan, Harrison Smith, Kedren Spencer, Stephawn P. Stephens, Simone Straub-Clark, Maya Stumpf, Owen Tabaka, Simone Warren, Sean Watkinson,Music direction by Tom Vendafreddo. “Angry Dance” tap choreographer: Mark Orsborn. Associate Choreographer/Signature Casting Director: Kelly Crandall d’Amboise. Scenic design by Jason Sherwood. Costume Design by Kathleen Geldard. Lighting design by Amanda Zieve. Sound Design by Ryan Hickey. Wig design by Anne Nesmith. Assistant director/dialect coach: Rex Daugherty. Fight choreography by Casey Kaleba. Production stage manager: Kerry Epstein. Assistant stage manager: Madison Bahr. Production assistant: Joey Blakely. Produced by Signature Theatre. Reviewed by Alexander C. Kafka.
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