Billy Elliot!

Gil here. Marin's uncle Tod came to town and treated us to a show. "Billy Elliot" is one of the most popular shows in town right now, and a Thursday night in February during a recession creates a perfect storm for ticket availability. We totally lucked out, getting the tickets the same day.

The musical "Billy Elliot" is set in England during the coal miner's strike--the longest (and unsuccessful) labor strike in England's history. One of the striking miner's sons decides to become a ballet dancer and it turns out he is awesome. He goes on to gain admission to the Royal Ballet School in London. It turns out the show calls for a 10-13 year-old triple threat (singer, dancer, and actor rolled into one). The dancing is especially important because the storyline revolves around the kid being a ballet virtuoso.

Because Broadway has somewhat strict labor laws for child actor's, there are three "Billy Elliot" characters who rotate through the cast. Because Billy Elliot has already sold more than $10 million in advance sales, the show is going to run for a long time. Combined with the fact that any of the boys could get injured, braces, sick, or worse, hit puberty, there are a host of backup "Billy Elliot" characters ready to go. Here are the current three leads. We saw the one on the far left--who has aged more than Obama since November (catch the New York Times reference? See here).

In January, we saw the closing night of "Gypsy," with Patti LuPone, which was a total showcase of arguably the best broadway actress ever. It lived up to our expectations, possibly exceeded them (although "In The Heights "still takes the cake). However, the child actor in "Billy Elliot" was showcased and paraded much more than Patti LuPone in "Gypsy," more than John Lloyd Young in "Jersey Boys" and more than Lin-Manuel Miranda in "In The Heights." He will never be featured like that again in his entire career. Shows aren't written to showcase an actor like that.

I'm sure the three boys careers are going to be fine, but they are never going to be so central to a show again. Ever. I'm glad I could see it.

Disclaimer: for my Utah friends, the language might be somewhat overwhelming. Not nearly as bad as "Jersey Boys," but not nearly as family friendly as "In The Heights."