Writing Style 3

So far we have seen twenty one different boys play the role of Billy, Liam Mower, James Lomas and George Maguire being the original three who in the first anniversary of ‘Billy Elliot - The Musical’ performed the role together each going on for various slices of the action, they were later joined by Sir Elton John, as a person who has seen the musical twice do I feel that have so many different boys play the same role take away from the magic? Not at all.

I feel the success of Billy Elliot has a lot to do with the fact that it is realistic. It is quite easy to fit any situation into the story of Billy weather it be something as simple as admitting that you secretly sing along to Barbie Girl or a more serious issue such as divorce, as a human being you must learn when you need to push yourself to achieve your dreams - this being an issue that Billy Elliot brings to light in a fabulous way.

As Billy Elliot’s writer Lee Hall had first hand experience of many of the issues bought up in the story it is only right that he can portray the feelings and emotions of the people and the general area in the correct way, a lot of films/plays find realistic issues a thing of the past allowing us to only imagine vampires and talking dogs, Billy Elliot is that of a traditional story and one of few that has successfully made the transition from screen to stage and still had a strong following many years on. “Billy Elliot - The Musical” a perfect example of a successful transition from screenplay to stage, as many would agree, The Daily Mail newspaper describes the show as ‘A Theatrical Masterpiece’ and Natasha Tripney of the Music OMH website suggests that “Billy Elliot - The Musical” - ‘touched a national nerve’. Both of these statements I feel people would agree with on seeing the film or the West End Show.

“Billy Elliot - The Musical” will be celebrating it’s 5th year anniversary in May 2010, although this may not sound like a long time for Musical’s these days it is a very promising figure, it can not yet compete with the likes of “The Phantom of the Opera” however does it ooze the magic that Billy Elliot does - I’m sure people will be cursing at the screen by now but are we not tired of a scary man in a theatre by now? Maybe not this is purely down to personal opinion.

Has Lee Hall done the story of Billy Elliot justice, he took his inspiration from a novel called ‘The Stars Look Down‘ however the book is aimed more at the serious side of life dealing with the political issues of mining, yet the moral still being ‘follow your dreams‘. Lee Hall created Billy Elliot and was in charge of his initial journey bringing his story from paper to the big screen, now he has taken on the job of transferring him from film to The West End and many other famous theatres around the world. The story of Billy Elliot is that of an individual one and one that I feel will be around for the long run.