Matilda - Billy Elliot for Girls?

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 2:01pm

I was telling my Dad how excited I am to see Matilda on Broadway, and he asked if it was basically Billy Elliot for girls. I thought that was an interesting way to put it. So. Fair comparison? Discuss.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 2:07pm

Did Billy Elliot have an extrordinarily big boy fan base? I didn't think so. While I think it would be MORE appealing to boys than will be Matilda, it spoke to girls just fine.


I do think you will be hard spent to find many boys in the audience of Matilda.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 2:48pm

No, I don't think that's a fair comparison. I'd hoped we were beyond this sort of gender bias in this decade, but if you must ask, all the times I saw Matilda on the West End, there were plenty of young boys in the audience. Must add also I saw plenty of dads enjoying themselves with the show.

Quality supersedes gender preferences if it's notable enough (you don't hear people calling BoM a 'boys show' do you?), and Matilda is good enough to speak to everyone, boy, girl, all ages. It's phenomenal in a way that Billy Elliot never quite was, so the comparison is also invalidated in terms of artistic merit.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 2:52pm

Well, that's really going to be a matter of opinion, isn't it? (I'm not disagreeing, as I haven't seen it.)

I've heard just as many "meh" comments as I have heard glowing comments.

[PastorErnst]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 2:53pm

I thought the OP was talking more along the lines that Matilda was a show primarily being led by girls (a la Annie) rather than its fanbase being girl-dominated. Maybe I read it the wrong way though.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 2:55pm

^Yes, that's what I meant. Maybe a better way to put it would have been "a girl's Billy Elliot."

[willep]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 2:55pm

^That's how I read it too, PastorErnst.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 2:59pm

Except for the fact that there were more girls than boys in the cast of children in Billy Elliot...

[bjh2114]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 3:00pm

And for that matter, there are roughly the same number of boys and girls in the ensemble of Matilda. The only difference really is the gender of the leading character.

[PastorErnst]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 3:12pm

@bjh2114 I think you're looking at it too literally. While there are more girls in the cast, Billy Elliot focuses on Billy. Matilda focuses on Matilda. To that, I should also add that I don't quite agree with the OP's notion that Matilda is the girl's Billy Elliot. They are only similar in that the leading players are children.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 3:13pm

Well, if that was the intent, I don't think either show was gender saturated in its casting. Matilda may have a female lead, but Miss Trunchbull, the other leading role, is played by the very male Bertie Carvel.

And to add, I haven't heard any 'meh' from Matilda thus far. And on my end, I'd put it on a quality level with Book of Mormon, ahead of any new musical on Bway this season.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 3:30pm

I still don't understand the distinction...

That's like saying that Chicago is a female Dirty Rotten Scoundrels because the leads in Chicago are 2 women while the leads in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels are 2 men. That comparison makes no sense. Matilda has a girl lead, Billy Elliot has a boy lead. They don't have anything else in common that would even warrant a comparison.

I think you're looking at it too literally.

How does one answer a non-literal question? Why ask a non-literal question on a forum where one expects responses?

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 6/3/12 at 4:41pm

'They don't have anything else in common that would even warrant a comparison.'

I guess you could compare them on the grounds that they're both British imports with popular film adaptations fueling ticket sales, lots of kids in both casts. While Matilda is most certainly a 'family' show, it's more difficult to assign that label to Billy, although ultimately it did do well will tourists and families. I wouldn't rush to compare them in that light.

On the "girl's show/boy's show" note, I wasn't thinking exactly about the quantities of boys and girls in the casts. Yes, the ballet girls far outnumbered the boys in Billy, but it is fundamentally the story of a boy. Same can be said for Matilda, though I'm not familiar with the cast.

For the record, I'm not really sure if it's fair to call Matilda Billy Elliot for girls. I just thought it was a curious way of putting it.