Act Two opens with a scene in which the miners and their families are trying desperately to bring some normalcy to their lives in the midst of the bitter and debilitating strike by holding a community Christmas celebration.  What starts innocently as a children’s puppet show erupts into an hysterical parody on Thatcher’s regime through larger than life puppeteering reminiscent of Julie Taymore’s work in The Lion King and Across the Universe. 

 

The creative and complex set design (Ian McNeill) seamlessly changes the scenes before our eyes by raising, lowering, sliding, gliding, rotating, mixing and matching basic set components.  Certainly impressive to watch, the Disneyesque approach competes with rather than complements the actors.  The cast, especially Leah Hocking (subbing for Haydn Gwynne) as Billy’s first dance teacher and Gregory Jbara, playing his dad worked hard to provide some depth.  Child actor Frank Dolce was the best of the lot playing Billy’s cross-dressing best friend Michael. 

 

While direct comparison with the screenplay is perhaps unfair, it is inevitable.  With all the things that worked well in the stage version of Billy Elliot, the weak score and overly glitzy staging could perhaps be forgiven.  But something much more critical to the core was conspicuously missing from this Billy Elliot: the compelling emotional connections that were so brilliantly woven into the movie.  On screen, it was hard not to be moved watching the coal miners year long struggle and ultimately failed strike, its impact on his father, brother and Billy himself, Billy’s relationship with his one true friend, and the way that Billy overcame abuse and ridicule to find peace in search of what he understood early on was his calling.  Unfortunately on stage these emotions were portrayed but never truly captured.