Generally, most Broadway shows are dark on Mondays. However, on holiday weeks, most theaters rearrange their schedules. New Year’s Eve in NYC is so crazy that most shows cancelled NYE shows and added them on the 27th, a Monday. Some shows even added a matinee. That’s how my friend Cliff and I ended up at a rare Monday matinee of Billy Elliot.
Thanks to the best blizzard ever, many people couldn’t make it into the city for shows, so we got amazing seats from TKTS in the 10th row of the Imperial Theatre. Snow rules!
I saw Billy Elliot twice before, on tour. My seats were in the balcony, in the very last row of a 2,500-seat theater. This experience was way better, and proved to me that my disdain for the balcony of large theaters is well-founded. Sure, I may have paid $60 less for that ticket, but I decided that I’ll always be willing to pay the extra money for an awesome seat.
Throughout the performance, I couldn’t help but notice the things that were different between the Broadway production and the national touring production. The most obvious thing was, of course, the size of the theater. The Imperial was so much more intimate than a tour setting (although, I must say, the Imperial Theatre has ridiculously small seats!), which made me feel so much more connected to the show. Additionally, since the set for the touring production has to be designed to move on a fairly frequent basis, a lot of it would slide it from the sides, whereas in the Broadway production, many of the set pieces rise and lower from below the stage. I absolutely loved it on a slightly smaller stage, in a more intimate setting.
The most important thing was that I could really see the characters – I could see their faces, I could tell who was talking, and I could see plenty of details which I missed from the balcony of the Durham Performing Arts Center. I had no idea that the ballet girls held little birds, I couldn’t tell what Tony gave Billy to put in his suitcase… all those nuances were lost on me in that huge theater. I’m so glad I got to see it in the type of venue for which it was created. Don’t get me wrong, I think national tours are so amazing, and it’s so important to bring Broadway-quality shows to all of America. I love seeing tours, and I love the Durham Performing Arts Center. There’s just something about Broadway that is magical.
The show was so wonderful, and I enjoyed it immensely, even knowing the show as well as I do, having seen it twice before. My friend Cliff is quite familiar with the film, so he was telling me what he wished made it into the show from the film. It’s been years since I’ve seen the movie, so I wasn’t as concerned about that, although I am always fascinated in how adaptations vary from their source material. Even knowing the film as well as he did, Cliff really enjoyed the musical – I knew he would. The music is so catchy (I was singing “Solidarity Forever” for hours!), and the acting was phenomenal. There were a few actors out, probably due to a combination of snow and the holiday. At first I was a little bummed that Emily Skinner wasn’t there for that performance, but her understudy (Liz Pearce) was amazing. I was glad I got to see Gregory Jbara and Will Chase, and Jacob Clemente was a great Billy. My favorite character, of course, is Michael, and I’m so glad I got to see his big number from row K, instead of from miles away. I'd still rather sit in the balcony than nowhere at all, but I've come to the conclusion that I'm an orchestra-seats kind of girl.
So, all in all, the tour is fantastic, but Broadway is magical!
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