Monthly Feature:

billy elliott

 

Maggie and Billy

By David Rosenberg

 

“Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher,

May God’s love be with you,

We all sing together in one breath;

Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher,

We all celebrate today,

Cos it’s one day closer to your death.”

 

-- from “Billy Elliot”

That song from “Billy Elliot,” illustrated with an oversized puppet caricature, is meant to mock not shock. Yet, on April 8, the day the day Margaret Thatcher died, London producers of the hit musical worried about showing signs of disrespect. An audience poll was taken: Perform the number or cut it?

 

The verdict? Perform it.

 

The great musical is about coal miners thrown out of work by Thatcher’s conservative policies. Resisting, the miners strike for better wages and working conditions. Against this background is the story of the eponymous teenager who wants to be a ballet dancer.

 

With a score by Elton John and lyrics by Lee Hall, an American touring version of “Billy Elliot” is coming to Hartford’s Bushnell in June where, presumably, a similar poll will not be taken. Not that we don’t have politicians out to break the unions, as Thatcher did.

 

According to The Guardian, when she died, former Scottish miners “popped corks, swigged whisky from silver hip flasks and…cracked morbid jokes: ‘Maggie's in hell and she's shut down three furnaces already.’” It was a backward compliment to her strength.

 

Take another current West End production. In “The Audience,” Helen Mirren, as Queen Elizabeth II, holds conversations with various prime ministers, including a tenacious Thatcher. Appearing in front of theatergoers the night Thatcher died, playwright Peter Morgan made a respectful speech before the curtain went up. His script was not changed.

( Photo: scene from "Billy Elliott: The Musical)

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"Potted Potter" at the Bushnell

potted potter

 

 

By Bonnie Goldberg

 

Muggles beware! Hogwarts rebel! Wizards rejoice!  If you've long called Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger friends, then you are the perfect candidates to make up the audience when "Potted Potter-The Unauthorized Harry Experience-A Parody by Dan and Jeff" comes to town.

 

The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford is inviting you to take your cloak of invisibility and your magic wand the weekends of May 17-19 and May 24-26 to enjoy all things Harry Potter.

 

Hop aboard your Nimbus 2000 and polish your Golden Snitch and prepare for the ride of your life as a two man parody team, Gary Trainor of Ireland and Delme Thomas of Wales travel across the pond to bring you seventy minutes of non-stop fun and joy.

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Blogs of Interest

Blogs about Connecticut theater, movie reviews, and the arts.

Artes Magazine -- fine art, architecture, design and theater

Back Stage Buzz - current and archived interviews with CT artists

bonniegoldberg.blogspot.com

cttheater.blogspot.com

susangranger.com -- movie reviews

CT Arts Connection

WMNR Fine Arts Radio (Rosalind Friedman's Review)

www.courant.com/curtain (Frank Rizzo reviews)

www.reflectionsinthelight (Lauren Yarger reviews)

 

Commentary

Playhouse Applauds Tony and Drama Desk Nods

By Don Church and Tony Schillaci

When the theater’s finest performing and craft artists aren’t working on Broadway they can be found at work in other great professional theaters. One of the most acclaimed and beautiful is the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut.

 

In addition to celebrating the theater’s 83d consecutive year of mounting full-scale, professional shows, the playhouse team is applauding five talented colleagues who have been nominated for 2013 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for their work on Broadway.

 

Here are the names of the artists, the Broadway plays for which they have been nominated for an award, and their respective Westport Country Playhouse productions this season.



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