Broadway Billy

Broadway Billy

Photo by Joan Marcus Billy Elliot started in 2000 as a small-budget film set during a miners’ strike in economically challenged 1984 England. The central character, a boy who wanted to dance ballet, caught Elton John’s eye, and he proposed turning it into a musical. A London hit in 2005, it eventually got to Broadway in 2008, just in time for America’s own economic doldrums. And here it is in Wisconsin four years later. We’re not sure if an 11-year-old boy’s pirouettes will help ease the economic pain of these troubled times, but the show’s dreamy optimism is guaranteed to…


Photo by Joan Marcus

Billy Elliot started in 2000 as a small-budget film set during a miners’ strike in economically challenged 1984 England. The central character, a boy who wanted to dance ballet, caught Elton John’s eye, and he proposed turning it into a musical. A London hit in 2005, it eventually got to Broadway in 2008, just in time for America’s own economic doldrums. And here it is in Wisconsin four years later. We’re not sure if an 11-year-old boy’s pirouettes will help ease the economic pain of these troubled times, but the show’s dreamy optimism is guaranteed to lift your spirit.

Billy Elliot the Musical July 17-22. Uihlein Hall. Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. 929 N. Water St., 414-273-7206.

Paul Kosidowski is a freelance writer and critic who contributes regularly to Milwaukee Magazine, WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio and national arts magazines. He writes weekly reviews and previews for the Culture Club column. He was literary director of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater from 1999-2006. In 2007, he was a fellow with the NEA Theater and Musical Theater Criticism Institute at the University of Southern California. His writing has also appeared in American Theatre magazine, Backstage, The Boston Globe, Theatre Topics, and Isthmus (Madison, Wis.). He has taught theater history, arts criticism and magazine writing at Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.