Billy Elliot the Musical

Editorial Review

‘Billy Elliot’ lands at Kennedy Center in well-made dancing shoes

By Peter MarksFriday, Dec. 16, 2011

"Billy Elliot the Musical" moves - and MOVES. When one of the astonishing young dance machines who rotate in the role of Billy is pirouetting or tapping, executing kickboxing steps or literally soaring above the stage, you can't help but be swept up into Billy's life and the surefire story that propels this vibrant Tony-winning production, the tale of an 11-year-old boy who wants to excel, against all odds, in the corps de ballet.

The show, which formally opened Thursday night for a month-long stay in the Kennedy Center Opera House, knits dance into narrative as well as, if not better than, any musical has for a long time, perhaps since"Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk" in the mid-'90s and, before that, the 1975 "A Chorus Line." It's with its arms and legs that "Billy Elliot" is most assured and inventive, as demonstrated in a superb first-act number, "Solidarity," in which the burly miners of Billy's home town in north England partner with the dainty pupils of Mrs. Wilkinson's coal-town ballet class.

Choreographer Peter Darling, working closely with director Stephen Daldry, evinces a keen understanding for how the gestural virtuosity of a solo turn or unison dance number can intensify what the characters need to declare about themselves. This is especially true of the ethereal choreography of a duet between Billy (the marvelous J.P. Viernes, one of the touring production's five Billys, at the performance I attended)