“Billy Elliot The Musical”

***** Since its inception, the Paramount Theatre in Aurora has delivered amazing theatrical productions. They are constantly Jeff nominated ( and have won quite a few). Tonight, they opened “Billy Eliot The Musical” based on the film with a book and lyrics by Lee Hall and music by Elton John. The story is one that appears simple on the outside. It is about miners that are underpaid and the lives they lead. One of these miners, Dad ( Ron E. Rains is sheer perfection in this role) who has two sons, one that is following in his footsteps, Tony (deftly handled by Spencer Davis Milford) and a younger one, Billy (played tonight with great style and grace by Neo Del Corral/ and on alternate dates by Sam Duncan), who it turns out has a special talent, dancing.

Billy’s mother is deceased, but he does have scenes with her spirit (Jennie Sophia is perfect) that allow him to break away from the family business. His grandma (Chicago favorite Barbara E.Robertson is a delight to watch) is the female part of the family to watch over him. This is a family that is broken, but unaware of its own situation. Billy is sent to learn boxing at the local gym. George ( Joe Foust is a riot in this role) is his coach, but one day, instead of boxing, he wanders into a ballet class led by Mrs. Wilkinson ( played to perfection by Michelle Aravena) who sees the spark that Billy has, and with her backing, changes his life ( and the rest of the town, as well).

This is a long story with a run time of 2 hours and 50 minutes, including some very funny moments, especially a scene  with Billy and his best friend Michael ( played by Gabriel Lafazan), where the do a song and dance “Expressing Yourself”. This number is a hoot and the amazing choreography in this production by Isaiah Silvia-Chandley will take your breath away.

Trent Stork’s direction is masterful and the set by Michelle Lilly will blow your mind! The set is three stories high and in the finale you will see about a dozen miners climb the stairs to the elevator as they return to the mines and watch the elevator slowly travel down to the mine, hearing their voices enter the earth below. WOW! The sound (Adam Rosenthal) and lighting (Greg Hoffman) are also perfect and the costumes (Izumi Inabi) and projections (Mike Tutaj) are also just right. The props are handled by Jesse Gaffney and the fight director was John Tovar.

Kory Danielson and the orchestra made the music come alive and while these are not hummable tunes, the music and lyrics are designed to move the story along, and they do this as well as any musical out there.

A production as huge as this one cannot work without an ensemble that is into the story and understands where they are headed. This ensemble is top-notch with  lots of familiar names as well as many newbies ( Paramount is great at discovering new talent). Neil Friedman, Matt Miles, Arcer Geye, Charlie Long, Brian Hupp, Levi Merlo, Eli Vander Griend, Omni Lichtenstein, Elin Joy Seile, Jordyn Helvie, Piper Sbel, Nina Poulimas, Ava Barabasz, Avelyn Choi, Asha Dale Hopman, Jojo Nabwangu, Willa Zatzenbloom, Maya Keane, Meen Sood, Alexandri Rose Bell, Kavia Suri Kakodkar, Anabel Finch, Katie Romanski, Dakota Hughes, Michael Earvin Martin, Liz Pazik, Chris Khoshaba, Conor Jordan, Nathan Gallop, Jared David Michael Grant and a very special note about Christopher Kelley who portrays “Older Billy” for the amazing dream scene of “Swan Lake”- exciting and stimulating, for sure!

For thos of you who are sentimental and know they will shed a tear or two, I suggest at least 5 tissues to make it through the play. Aslo- do not leave when the curtain call begins. You

will miss a special little show of its own- a delightful end to a perfect evening!

” Billy Elliott the Musical” will continue Thru – Mar 24th with performances as follows: