Billy Elliot

Yesterday I went to see Billy Elliot.  I got up earlier than I'd wanted on a weekend to get to the theatre's box office early to see about day tickets before they were all gone, and the cheapest were actually in the front row.  I was a bit dubious about that, since I wouldn't be able to see everything, but the next cheapest tickets were a full twenty pounds more, so I got the front row seat.

Then I went to King's Cross to get a Youth Railcard, which gets me a 30% discount on all my rail tickets in Britain.  I'd been putting off getting that, but that was all right since I hadn't been going anywhere and the trains for Scotland and Birmingham (and Bath and Stonehenge next Friday) were paid for by AHA.  But I do need it before I go to Ireland, and there will be more trains I book myself in the future, so it'll be worth it.

For lunch I picked up something quick off a street vendor in Chinatown, and then I walked to Covent Garden Market, where I spent most of the rest of the afternoon.  My favorite parts were the crafts stalls and the street performers.  There were a lot of places to eat and some regular shops, and then just past the Covent Garden Market was another street market selling mostly souvenir-type stuff.  I definitely like the craft stalls and the street performers, though.  The performers alone I spent over an hour watching/listening to.

Just after five I went to find dinner at Pizza Express, because it's been a month since I had any pizza and I've been seeing Pizza Express all over and wondering how it was.  From the name you'd think it'd just be another fast food type pizza chain, but it's actually a sit-down restaurant.  I was amused that a plain pepperoni pizza was called an "American", but I still got it.  It was pretty good.  Not the best pizza I've had, but still pretty good.

I went not long after five because I wanted to be sure I had enough time to get to the theatre, but dinner was quicker than I expected, and I still had about an hour to kill before I could go pick up my ticket.  I ended up walking to Leicester Square, which is a big pedestrian zone filled with places selling discount theatre tickets.  From there I walked to Piccadilly Circus and ducked into the big Waterstone's on Piccadilly, but they didn't have anything new I wanted.  I decided to just walk to Green Park from there, since Green Park had the tube line I needed, and all of this did not take very long, because I was still about fifteen minutes early to even pick up my ticket.  Martin told us when we got here that however big and spread out London is, central London is actually a fairly small, compact space.  This is perfectly evidenced by the fact that I could walk down four tube stops on the same line (Covent Garden to Leicester Square to Piccadilly Circus to Green Park) in less than an hour, even with stops, detours, and just going slowly to see more.

When it was seven I picked up my ticket and found my seat, then read Great Expectations until the show started.  And now Billy Elliot is definitely by far my favorite thing I've seen in London (at least for this trip -- I still have fond memories of The Reduced Shakespeare Company last time).

Just -- oh my God it was wonderful.  Marvelous.  Whatever superlatives you care to name.  There is not a single thing I didn't like about it.  And my front row seat was awesome.  I often couldn't see their feet, but that really didn't matter.  What I could really see was their expressions, and I could hear everything, and just wow, that ended up being a great seat.  I was even pretty close to the center.

The kid who played Billy was amazing.  He's like half my age, but he could sing, he could act, and he was proficient in three separate styles of dance (ballet, tap, and hip hop).  All the other actors were great too, but that kid really shone.

The story was really tight and integrated.  Billy's family were coal miners going on strike in their village near Durham, and the strike was perfectly paralleled and integrated with Billy's quest to be a dancer.  Just before intermission Billy had an angry dance (tap), and during it police showed up rhythmically banging on riot shields, which Billy would also sometimes use as a dance floor -- Billy's quest wasn't going well, and the strike wasn't going well, but the dance was so well choreographed that it just threw all these things together and they really worked.

Billy's brother also had this line in the second half about the striking miners just wanting more equality (though of course the line was more eloquent than that) and I think that really tied the two storylines together for me.  The miners want more equality, and so does Billy, with his desire to pursue something considered to be just for girls.

The storytelling was tight, and the actors were amazing, and I loved the musical numbers, and I could see everything, and at the end, the bow ended up being another dance.  The entire cast came out and did this tap number that had nothing to do with the story but had the bows in it, and it was awesome.  Creative and skillful and fun all at the same time.

I loved it.  Adored it.  Spent the entire time grinning.  I stood up to applaud, and when I looked around it seemed like they were getting a real standing ovation, which I haven't seen in any of the other half-dozen shows I've been to so far.  But they deserved it.  That was such a wonderful show.  I would totally see it again.

I'm still high on the good mood from that, which is good, because I'm sick.  Again.  I felt myself start to come down with something on Monday, but I had school and a busy week, so I ignored it, and then yesterday I wanted to see Billy Elliot.  (And it was worth it, even if I am sicker today.)  But then today I woke up at almost 11:30, after ten and a half hours of sleep (normally I have difficulty sleeping more than eight), and my head feels stuffed, I'm sneezing all the time, and I have no voice.

So, today is definitely a day to recuperate.  I hope I'm better by tomorrow, because it's the St. Patrick's Day celebrations, and there's a parade starting in Piccadilly Circus and performaces in Trafalgar Square and I want to go.  So I will do nothing today, and hope I feel better tomorrow.