A couple months back, a friend of mine invited me to go see Billy Elliot: The Musical when it was playing at Gammage.  I completely forgot to blog about it even though it did help me check #89 off of my 101 in 1001 list.  No pictures allowed inside the theatre though so you will all just have to use your imagination a little big.

Overall, it was a great show with super fun music by the always awesome Elton John (“hold me closer tiny dancer!”).  My only negative comment was because of a little “technical difficulty” that happened on stage during the show.  There’s a point in the show where Billy is dancing in a dream sequence and he’s supposed to be suspended in the air over the stage doing (what I imagine) was some awesome “circ de soleil” style choreography.  Well, apparently something went wrong because what the audience actually got was an awkwardly long sequence of another cast member trying to hook the Billy character onto a wire followed by an equally awkward sequence of Billy standing motionless in the center of the stage with the other dancer doing random choreography around him.  That’s the beauty of live theater I guess – you never know what you’re going to get.   (Just a thought for the cast though – you may want to have a backup plan with choreography for Billy that’s suited for the stage just in case the harness doesn’t work.  You know, so the audience doesn’t have to stare at his motionless back as the emotional music swells.  LOL.)

Either way, I had a blast and was reminded how much I love musicals.  My weekly episodes of Glee typically keep this side of my soul delightfully filled, but when it all comes down to it there’s just nothing quite like a night at the theater :-)  If anybody is planning to attend West Side Story in September or Wicked in February, feel free to invite me along. LOL!