There are moments in theater that make a show go from good to extraordinary. For me, those moments happen when nothing is said, when a character is alone on stage and for that moment you are there with him or her in that world. Those moments rarely happen.
People applauded Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon for his drunken Nixon monologue (rightfully so), but for me the moment is when Nixon knows he is stuck in a corner and realizes that he has to admit his wrongdoing. There are no words, just Nixon and Frost on stage in silence, with Nixon’s face on the TV screens with the look of horror. That sent chills up my spine. A brilliant theatrical moment.
I had the opportunity to see Billy Elliot on Sunday afternoon. To be perfectly honest, I was never excited about this show coming to Broadway and I thought it would be just another tourist trap. I had seats in center rear mezzanine and to me seats far back can ruin a show. To my pleasant surprise, I loved it, I thought it was wonderful and although it’s very large (the cast is the biggest I have seen in a long time for a commercial production), it feels surprising intimate in the very large Imperial Theater.
To me what made Billy Elliot good was not the music (it was fine, but nothing to write home about), but the story, dance and lighting design. I haven’t seen the movie, but I just loved the story of Billy’s struggle to find himself in a narrow-minded community. The dancing was fantastic and the lighting design was amazing. Billy Elliot had two moments that, for me, made the show go from good to extraordinary.
Both scenes occur act the end of the acts (spoiler alert!). The Act One finale is a long sequence with Billy dancing alone while riots occur behind him. It’s a chilling moment that beats out any flying witches or crashing chandeliers. There’s no song, just Billy expressing his frustration through dance. The other moment occurs at the end of Act Two when Billy says goodbye to his best friend, Michael, who rides a bike to the spotlit center of the darkened stage. You do not see Michael’s face, he is alone, watching his friend achieve his dream while he is left behind in a community that is crumbling. In the silence it is just Michael and in a moment Billy runs up to embrace his friend, probably for the last time.