Billy Elliot

Needing cawfee this morning. Exhausted from my schedule this week.

I saw Billy Elliot last night. The score is a little weak--some numbers are really bland, like the opening one (so bland I can't tell you the name or what it's really about) but I loved the final miners' song, the hymn-like number "Once We Were Kings." It's quite haunting, the way they stage it and how the number develops. I also liked the folk song the father sings at the top of the second act. I may even get this recording (not a huge fan of Elton John's scores, generally).

The kid who played Billy (David Alvarez last night) was really, really good. I find it incredible that a young kid can be that talented--he does ballet, taps, gymnastics, is a credible, touching actor, and even nails the accent. And somehow they've found three of these kids, and more including the London cast. The kid who plays Billy's friend Michael was also great--what a little scene-stealer! Absolutely infectious energy, and extremely believable in his scenes, especially his second act scene with Billy. I also loved the little ballet girls (and how sweet is it that Michael listed every one of the girls in his review! I bet they were thrilled to see their names mentioned).

Michael asked me last night what I thought about one of the staging bits, a number where Billy dances with his future self and at one point the younger Billy is hooked to a harness to fly around literally. Michael thought it was too gimmicky--I liked it but couldn't explain why, other than to say I liked the metaphor. Later I realized why--it makes me think of why I enjoy hacking on a horse--because that's the closest I can get to flying. When I'm on a horse by myself, cantering or galloping across a field, taking a fence--it feels like flying and that's why it's fun.

I also really enjoyed the very grounded, realistic backdrop (the miners' strike in Northern England in '84-'85) of Billy's story. There's an incredible number in the middle of the first act where Billy's progression as a dancer is juxtaposed with the increasingly brutal tactics the police are using to confront the striking miners. It's a dazzling number, very cleverly staged--a theatrically staged number.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

I've been watching (in what very little free time I have right now--rehearsal for Ore has turned into a full-time job) the '70s BBC series The Six Wives of Henry VIII. I remember watching this as a child with my Mom when they reran it on PBS--the only scene that sticks in my head was Catherine Howard saying "Me? The King wants to see me?" The idea of the series is that each episode focuses on a different wife--each episode is kind of a mini-play. In theory this is an interesting idea but the fact is some wives mattered a lot more than others. Anne of Cleves, for example, was not that important at all, and wasn't around (as a wife) for very long. Catherine Howard also was not around for long, although her story marks Henry's entrance into old age--Catherine really did run around on him, and his vanity was devastated.

So the format inevitably leads to the more important wives sort of getting the shaft. The first one, Catherine of Aragon, was married the longest, 24 years. This episode actually came off quite well, even though they had to skip over quite a few years. It begins with her meeting Prince Arthur and then goes through her difficulties during her widowhood, her marriage to the new King Henry and the early years of their marriage. Then it skips way ahead to King Henry mulling over how to dissolve the marriage and so forth until her death. It sounds a little rushed but it actually comes off quite well--in contrast to The Tudors, this is very well-researched, and every scene and character are pretty much true to what happened. I like spotting characters and then thinking ahead to how they are connected, or will be connected in the future. For example, at one point during Henry and Catherine's impasse, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk (a close personal friend of Henry's), is confronting Catherine in her bedroom, and Maria de Salinas is running interference. (Great actress, I'm loving her.) I'm looking at this, thinking "her daughter will marry him someday."

I've just started the second episode, which is of course Anne Boleyn. The actress, Dorothy Tutin, is good enough but WAY too old--she's at least 10 years older than Anne Boleyn was during the events depicted. I only bring this up because part of Anne's appeal was that she was young and energetic (and, Henry assumed, fertile, whereas Catherine had already gone through menopause by then). Unlike the first episode, Anne's story is much more truncated--almost no time is spent on Henry's courtship of her, which is one of the more fascinating elements of the King's Great Matter. Henry was OBSESSED with Anne--he wrote her constantly and kowtowed to her at every turn in the first years of their relationship. That's what made his complete reversal later so startling--Henry could've put Anne into a nunnery but he chose to obliterate her, even to the extent of allowing himself to be portrayed as a cuckold--even to the extent of sacrificing the lives of innocent men, including one of his best friends. Anne is also written a little thinly--she has the requisite sharp tongue, but no charm or piety (that I've seen yet, that is. Perhaps it will get better). The actress playing Catherine did a great job and even looked the part--NOT like the stereotypical brunette Spaniard but with reddish hair, as the real Catherine had. It's nice when they get the little things right.