The key to a successful production of Billy Elliott is to cast a boy who can convey Billy’s burning desire to pursue a life of dance at the beginning and then show off stellar ballet moves during the climax. The Billy Elliot now onstage at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora doesn’t quite clear the first hurdle, but wow can charismatic young Neo Del Corral dance. Couple that strong finish with a truly soulful and convincing performance throughout by Ron E. Rains as Billy’s coal-miner dad and you’ve got a show well worth seeing.
Director Trent Stork leans heavily into the the struggle of Northern England’s coal miners in the 1980s facing extinction at the hands of union-busting PM Margaret Thatcher. She is lampooned, excoriated and villainized via invective, song and rude puppeteering as the miners go on strike and fight for more than a year to save their way of life even as an increasing number of scabs cross the picket lines.
It’s a grim business, driven home further by a hulking set replete with industrial gears and elevator platforms. Who’d want to live in such a place? That question is asked with increasing urgency as 11-year-old Billy (the lead role is shared by Sam Duncan) smuggles himself into an all-girls dance class and gets a chance to audition for the Royal Ballet School thanks to the unwavering support of his teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson, played with humor and empathy by Michelle Aravena. The chain-smoking middle-class artist’s heart is with the cause, but she knows Billy has no future in their dying town.
The score, with music by Elton John and lyrics by Lee Hall (who also wrote the book), is excellent, delivering memorable numbers ranging from elegiac (“Once We Were Kings”) to exuberant (“Shine”) to defiant (“Solidarity,” “Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher”). There are laughs, too, many courtesy of Billy’s irrepressible pal Michael (a fabulously over-the-top Gabriel Lafazan). Their duet on “Expressing Yourself” is both memorable and enjoyable.
I do take issue with how the book uses Michael, though: It feels like this boy, whose gayness is signified in part by his love of dolls and dressing in female-coded clothing, is there in large part to underscore that Billy himself is straight as an arrow. If so, it’s a pretty hypocritical artistic choice by Hall given that the dramatic tension onstage revolves around the blatant homophobia of the miners, including, for a good while, Billy’s dad and older brother. Everyone rallies around Billy eventually, but if he was gay like Michael, it seems likely the ending wouldn’t be so warm and fuzzy for him.
Still, this is an enjoyable, big-hearted show that manages to pack a meaty story about a period of labor history that helped usher in the brutal era of late-stage capitalism into a lively musical. And that’s no small trick.
Billy Elliot runs through March 24 at the Paramount Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Liz Lauren
