Billy Elliot On Canadian Tour

Billy Elliot On Canadian Tour

Theatre, dance and Elton John fans delight in the smash musical hit Billy Elliot, direct from London’s West End and currently touring across Canada. Based on the Academy Award nominated film of the same title, Billy Elliot is the story of its namesake star, a young boy in a depressed working-class mining town in the North of England.

Set during the history-making 1984 miner’s strike, the show follows Billy, the youngest child of a blue-collar family that has recently lost its Mum, as he discovers his unlikely and extraordinary gift for ballet. While Billy’s father and brother take to the picket lines of the violent and life-changing strike, Billy secretly begins to study the art of dance with the help of a hard-drinking, chain-smoking local dance teacher. But as Billy blossoms and thrives, the world and lives around him continues to wither—and his only escape may be the prestigious Royal Ballet School, a place no working-class boy has ever gone, or been allowed to go to, before.

“Its a story about a little boy who, its a Cinderella story in a sense, he follows his dream, he wants to dance, you know, in a masculine environment that doesn’t support that” said Billy Elliot Director, Stephen Daldry.

The show is decidedly dark, reflecting the bleakness of Billy’s declining hometown and the uncertain future of his struggling family from beginning to end. Don’t despair, however: the show is buoyed with plenty of humour, and the numbers performed by the show’s title stars exceed even the highest expectations. Billy Elliot has an undoubtedly uplifting and touching story to tell, but if you’re looking for a simpler dollop of Broadway fluff, this might not be the best bet.

“Its a triumph of adversity. The human sprit being of a generous kind – the human spirit thats been there for ever and ever. You talk about times of adversity and the holocaust and you always see triumph over great tragedy and awful things that have happened to people” said composer Elton John.

Billy Elliot lyricist Lee Hall agrees: “Its got loads of dance numbers, its got musical numbers. Its happy; sad. Its rude and sentimental. Its one of those shows that you could take a granny to see, or a kid to see.

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