Billy Elliot

When “Billy Elliot,” the musical based on the 2000 movie, with music by Elton John, opened on Broadway, it won just about every award possible, including 10 Tonys, 10 Drama Desk awards, and 8 Outer Circle Critics Circle awards.  America took the story of a young northern England boy who just wants dance to its heart.

The show is now running at the Sacramento Community Theater and judging by the sustained cheers throughout the musical, and the standing ovation at its conclusion, Sacramento has taken the show to its heart as well.

The story is set during the 1984-85 miners’ strike and the story of the dancers intermingles with the story of the striking miners an often ingenious ways.

Billy’s father wants him to be a boxer, but after an unpleasant beginning, Billy stumbles on a dance class being held in the same building.  Intrigued, he begins to mimic the girls in the ballet class and soon is one of the students himself.  His teacher realizes that he has talent and takes him under her wing with private lessons when his father forbids him to attend the class again.

The dancing in this show is amazing.  Billy was played on opening night by Mitchell Tobin, a 12 year old from Florida who has been dancing since he was 3 years old. He shares the role at other productions with Ben Cook, Drew Minard, and Noah Parets. 

Tobin had a few minor fluffs in his dancing on opening night, but is simply amazing.  The Act 1 “Angry Dance” will leave you breathless. And as good as his dancing is, the kid is also a convincing actor who will bring you to tears.

Janet Dickinson is Mrs. Wilkinson, Billy’s dance teacher who discovers the talent in the boy and becomes a sort of surrogate mother to him when she learns that his own mother (Molly Garner) is dead.  Though she obviously cares for the boy, she keeps him at arms length, keeping the teacher/student relationship very strong.

Billy’s father is played by Rich Herbert, a bear of a man who is torn between his desire to make a man of his son and his son’s passion for dancing.

The character of “Dad” has been written, in this show, somewhat confusing.  In the movie, the struggle to accept Billy’s love of dancing evolves over time, when in the musical it seems instantaneous and somewhat unbelievable.

There are some sweet moments between Billy and the ghost of his mother, especially when it comes time for her to finally leave him.

Billy’s cross-dressing friend Michael was played on opening night by Sam Poon, who alternates in the role with Jake Kitchin.  Billy keeps Michael’s secret and their relationship is very sweet.

It was a little unsettling to see this show immediately following the death of Margaret Thatcher. The show goes out of its way to vilify the former Prime Minister for her attempts (ultimately successful) at breaking the miners’ union.  The opening of Act 2 is particularly mean-spirited, being held at a Christmas pageant where people wear Thatcher masks and wigs, a chorus of puppets are dressed as Thatcher, and an enormous inflated Thatcher rises out of the building.  At one point the lyrics include

Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher
We all celebrate today
‘Cause it’s one day closer to your death.

while dancers carry around a grave marker with “Thatcher R.I.P.” on it.

In London, a vote was taken of the audience about whether this number should be left in the show for the night of her death and the vote was nearly unanimous that it should remain, with only one dissenting vote.

The show’s biggest problem is difficulty understanding lyrics and dialog, a combination of the difficult Northern England accent and terminology combined with the perennial acoustical problems of the Community Center theater.

However, that should not deter anyone from seeing this show.  I have been wanting to see “Billy Elliot” since it opened to rave reviews on Broadway...and it was well worth the wait!

Peter Pan

When Cathy Rigby and husband, producer Tom McCoy, brought their “Peter Pan” to the Community Center stage in 2004, it was billed as Rigby’s “farewell tour,” so it was somewhat of a surprise to see her returning in 2012 with another production of “Peter Pan.” But hey — if you can still do such an iconic role, why not?

In truth, the production, directed again by Glenn Casale, is spectacular, and Rigby is spectacular in it. Her flying through the air, across the stage and out over the audience, doing all sorts of twists and turns and flips high above the stage (choreographed by Paul Rubin) is perhaps not so unusual for an Olympic gold medalist, but have I mentioned that the actress is now 60 years old? (To compare, Mary Martin did her last “Peter Pan” at age 42)

But what I found even more impressive was her ability to step so effortlessly into the body and psyche of a young boy. She has the mannerisms, the constant motion, the endlessly curious hands which must pick up and examine everything, the swagger, the bravado, all the things parents of little boys will easily recognize (she herself is mother to four and grandmother to four). She literally inhabits the body of Peter Pan.

In fact, she seems almost younger than the three Darling children whom Peter takes with him to Neverland.

Krista Buccellato was almost more believable as the grown-up Wendy than the young girl Wendy (not surprising, as she has already earned her BFA), though she has a lovely voice and becomes “younger,” if possible as she attempts to mother the lost boys.

Oddly, Wendy’s two younger brothers are both played by girls, John by Lexy Baeza and Michael alternately by Sophie Sooter or Julia Massey. I saw 10-year-old Massey, who was fine, but not the cute little boy we are accustomed to seeing — certainly too old to be carrying a teddy bear. (Sooter is 8 and may be more size appropriate).

Kim Crosby is a nice, serene Mrs. Darling, fearful of leaving her children alone while she and her husband go to a party, because she thinks she has seen a boy at the window, and she is afraid he may harm her children.

The program lists Brent Barrett as Mr. Darling, though played by understudy Sam Zeller at the production I saw. The actor also plays Captain Hook and Zeller looked straight out of the Disney cartoon, visually perfect as the pirate trying to catch Peter Pan to make him pay for cutting off his hand, and tossing it to the crocodile, who has been chasing Hook ever since, trying to get the rest of him.

Nursemaid Nana (the dog) and the crocodile are both played by Clark Roberts who must have spent a long time studying both dogs and crocodiles to be able to bring both species to life so believably (thanks, of course, to costumes by Shigeru Yaji).

Choreographer Patti Colombo keeps the pace sprightly with a number of dance numbers, including a pirate tarantella and a pirate tango. It is interesting to note that the Indian dance, “Ugg-a-Wugg,” originally choreographed by Jerome Robbins, was felt to be insensitive to Native Americans and in need of revision. Colombo left the music unchanged, but completely redid the choreography to become a spirited dance sequence for the Lost Boys and the Indians, as they prepare to battle the pirates.

John Iacovelli, head of UC Davis’ MFA design program, designed the sets for this production, creating a luxurious nursery with its tall windows for the Darling nursery, Neverland’s island setting, mermaid lagoon and the cartoonesque Pirate ship.

The lighting design of Michael Gilliam included the all-important Tinker Bell effect, a ball-shaped light that bounced around the stage and hid out in the children’s doll house. Such personality did the light have that as it began to fade and Peter makes a plea to the children in the theater to believe in fairies, the applause was strong, and Tinker Bell was saved once again.

At the end of the evening, as Peter Pan flies overhead sprinkling the audience with fairy dust, you will believe that thinking good thoughts will help you fly, and you will believe in fairies and in a little boy who still, 100 years after his creation, has steadfastly refused to grow up.