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A Nice Asian Geordie
21/7/11 00:14Tonight Avocado and I went to the theatre. We saw Billy Elliott, and enjoyed it immensely. I am not the sort of person who dotes on Elton John; perhaps this explains why I did not immediately remember that he wrote the music. Anyway, the music was fine--in some places considerably more than fine--and the cast was terrific, particularly Faith Prince as Mrs. Wilkinson, and the boy who played Billy. And the guy who played Mrs. Wilkinson's accompanist, and Billy's father and brother, and the boy who played Michael (who has a riotous number about cross-dressing as self-expression). I cried several times, but the number that really got me was a dance between Billy and his future self, in which the boy Billy flies, slung around and exalted by the man he will become. And the "Angry Dance," which is a tour de force, and really doesn't elicit appreciation, but a grounded feeling of recognition: I've been that angry.
And Billy was played by a lovely, skinny kid with the last name of Ishimoto. Hismidlands northern accent slipped sometimes, but the heart of his performance never did. How amazing it must be to anchor a show like that at such an age! And at the end he looked like he enjoyed every minute of it.
And Billy was played by a lovely, skinny kid with the last name of Ishimoto. His