A Billy Elliott Reevaluation- Page 2

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/22/17 at 2:12pm

I always thought the character of Grandma was pointless. Her number only helps the cast get ready for Solidarity.

Just before the song, Grandma asks Billy about her husband and his mother and Billy has to remind her that they're dead because her memory tends to get foggy due to her age.  Billy then asks her if she remember his grandfather at all.  In the song, she confesses she remembers him all too well and that he was a rather mean and violent drunk and their relationship was fraught with poverty and fighting, though she occasionally had the upper hand...except...when they would go dancing.  It was when they went out dancing that he would be the gentleman and they could express some semblance of love and tenderness.  They would have the lovely relationship "for an hour or three".  In looking back with some regret, she admits that if she could go back and do it all again, she would just simply be single and enjoy going out dancing, without having to endure the tumult of her married life after returning home.  At the end, Billy tenderly kisses her hand.  The point of the number is, Billy gains insight into the lives of his grandparents, bonds with his grandmother and learns of her strength and pain and how dance was her once source of solace through a long, difficult time.  Grandma is far from pointless.  She is his one living advocate in his household until his relationship with his transforms.  Virtually all of the male chorus participate for most of the number, so they are not getting ready for Solidarity until during the final verse of the song. 

Everything in the show is about the battle of gender roles and how the perception of strength and weakness (or vulnerability) in masculine and feminine roles were changing during a time when their country and their lives are turning upside-down.  The "feminine" characters (Mother, Grandmother, Mrs. Wilkinson and Michael) become the most influential to Billy during this essential point in his life and provide the strength that Billy's father and brother mistakenly believed could only belong to men. 

Born to Boogie & Express Yourself are terrible.

When I first heard them on CD, I didn't care for them, but in the show, I think they work beautifully.

[Comden Green]

Posted: 1/22/17 at 2:33pm

Bdn223

i agree with each of your points.  You described each example perfectly.  

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/22/17 at 2:58pm

To me, Electricity is Billy's attempt to try and understand it himself. 

I can't really explain it
I haven't got the words
It's a feeling that you can't control
I suppose its like forgetting,
Losing who you are,
And at the same time,
Something makes you whole,
Its like that there's a music,
Playing in your ear,
And I'm listening, and I'm listening
And then I disappear

And then I feel a change
Like a fire deep inside
Something bursting me wide open
Impossible to hide

And suddenly I'm flying
Flying like a bird
Like electricity
Electricity
Sparks inside of me
And I'm free, I'm free

It's a bit like being angry,
It's a bit like being scared,
Confused and all mixed up,
And mad as hell,
It's like when you've been crying,
And you're empty, and you're full,
I don't know what it is,
It's hard to tell,

Its like that there's some music,
Playing in your ear,
But the music,
Is impossible,
Impossible to hear,

But then I feel it move me,
Like a burning deep inside,
Something bursting me wide open
Impossible to hide

Then suddenly I'm flying
Flying like a bird
Like electricity
Electricity
Sparks inside of me
And I'm free, I'm free

Electricity
Sparks inside of me
And I'm free, I'm free
 

He tries to work it out in the moment, but the feelings are contradictory, yet somehow make sense when it happens.  The song itself is Billy is going through the process of sorting it all out and for the first time, when asked, searches to understand why it is so important to him.  I really never found the vernacular to be expressing a maturity greater than that of the character in his environment and circumstances at the time and I do believe as with most musicals, there is an allowance for some poetic liberties to be taken in songs of emotional introspection in characters of varying ages.  He does struggle to express it, not really knowing if it will really make sense to anyone else, but it's the only way he feels he can describe it. 

[hork]

Posted: 1/22/17 at 9:31pm

I was going to chime in with my defense of the show, but Mister Matt covered all of my points far better than I would have.