Review: Billy Elliot
Child stars are Billy Elliot’s most charming contribution
Billy Elliot, written by British director Lee Hall, is one of those theatre pieces where expectations are always exceptionally high. And the fear of disappointment is all the greater. It is one of those works that are a little too big to show anything in the expectations of the theatregoer, even a hint of indifference. In this respect, the Phantom of the Finnish National Opera, which is currently being performed on the other side of Töölönlahti Bay, could probably be considered a similar work with Billy Elliot of the Helsinki City Theatre. They are musicals that cannot afford to fail.
Billy Elliot, seen in Linnanmäki’s Peacock, is wonderful. It is entertaining and empowering musical theatre, and the child actors in the central roles are its most charming part. The musical, directed by Markku Nenonen, who has had a diverse career in dance and music theatre, premiered on 27 August. I saw the performance last Saturday, and after that I walked down the hill of the amusement park to the tram stop, quite impressed.
The musical tells the story of a boy named Billy Elliot, who lives in a 1980s English mining town, where Margaret Thatcher’s strict economic policies cause a miners’ strike, thus endangering the livelihoods of families. Billy, who has lost his mother, lives with his father, older brother and grandmother and, like the other boys, takes boxing lessons. By chance, Billy ends up watching a girls’ ballet class, and the dance immediately takes him away. He wants to develop into a top ballet dancer. However, the road to the top of dance is not without problems in an environment where boys do not dance.
Billy Elliot is basic honest musical theatre without any special specialties, but the child actors make it special. On Saturday, the musical, which is partly produced with a triple cast, featured Lassi Hirvonen in the role of Billy and Kasperi Virta as his friend, Michael. Hirvonen, who got his spurs from street dancing, is sensitive to his bright and mostly clean vocals, and in his solo dance numbers, he sometimes takes over the audience with the gesture of a proper showman. Virta as Michael, who likes to dress in girls’ clothes, is something so shockingly sweet and sympathetic to watch that it’s downright disarming.
Of the adult actors, Jonna Järnefelt as Mrs. Wilkinson, Billy’s dance teacher, is particularly convincing. Järnefelt fits her role like a nose to the head just because of her appearance, but in addition, she is able to make her teacher with her own personal style at the same time stern and cool, but also somewhere deep, under the surface, a mother figure with a warm heart. Especially charming is her motherly gentle advice to Billy for the upcoming entrance exams to dance school: “Billy, then keep your mouth shut.”
The decay and ugly everyday life of the working-class town is expressed not only by the shabby set design of Jani Uljas and Jari Ijäs, which consists mainly of brick walls, but also in the form of a moderate amount of swearing, which has apparently aroused disapproval among some viewers – especially since it is also a central part of the child actors’ speech. Admittedly, it is a little confusing at first, but it still convincingly embodies the problems caused by unemployment and the decaying way of life, the grotesqueness created by the collective spirit of surrender. George, a boxing teacher played by Panu Vauhkonen, also comically brings out the roughness of the human nature of the working community with his dude-like severity, even if his rampage goes a little overboard at times.
Billy Elliot encourages people to believe in their dreams and work hard for them, regardless of other people’s opinions. And of course, the musical is about a boy who dances. It created prejudice in Billy Elliot’s environment in the 80s, but it still does, although of course street dance, for example, has later contributed to the arrival of dance among boys as well, as well as some kind of “general acceptance”.
However, ballet has its own stamp, and it is still associated with femininity and, in the case of boys, homosexuality. Billy Elliot is also fully aware of this. It doesn’t deny anything, but it doesn’t preach much either. Billy now simply loves dancing and Michael, on the other hand, loves dressing up in girls’ clothes, as well as the warm touch of his best friend. In this way, the musical shows the futility of speculation about boys’ dance and sexuality, asking what human sexuality really matters in relation to anything. It brings out the message of tolerance without underlining it too much, eventually making difference commonplace. An ironic addition to this is the cabaret scene, which features a mixed congregation of colourful people, including drag queens.
The music composed by Elton John is interpreted by the orchestra led by Risto Kupiainen, sometimes pompously depicting strong emotional states, but also delicately moody. Electronic music has not been forgotten either. The songs have Elton John’s characteristic melodies here and there, and the music is great to listen to. One of the finest scenes is probably the miners’ song Underground, where they are lowered into a mine with red lights illuminating the stage. The pathos song of the male choir disappears into the depths of the earth, remaining eerily echoing in the ears of the viewer.
Among its many weighty themes, Billy Elliot is also a story of eternal friendship marked by difference. Billy and Michael, two boys interested in things that are atypical for boys, are kindred spirits, accepting each other as they are. The friendship lasts despite the distances. Still, their farewell as Billy moves far away from his hometown, to go to a top-notch dance school, hurts from somewhere deep.
In the same breath, one can ask whether there is anything more moving than a boy left alone in the ballroom, who reaches out to the dance of his dreams to the sweet tunes of Swan Lake. One of the musical’s most memorable, delicate and beautiful scenes is Swan Lake, danced together by Lassi Hirvonen and Antti Keinänen, a solo dancer of the Finnish National Ballet, where little Billy meets himself as an adult top dancer who has conquered large arenas. Sometimes art creates a powerful experience that cannot be explained, but where the feeling is so strong that everything else is forgotten, momentarily loses its meaning. That’s what this scene is and it lives on somewhere deep, reminding you that life is too short to waste thinking about what others think of you when you want to move towards your dreams.