I will preface this by saying that quite honestly, I was pissed when Billy Elliott won the Tony. Next to Normal owns my soul forever, and I’m still of the mind that it ultimately means more than Billy Elliott did. But Billy was more of a classic Singing Show Tunes musical, it was more traditional, less weird, and, well, the dancing was incredible. Those little kids, holy wow, man. I could have taken or left the score (it was just a tiny bit derivative, not to mention… not that exciting, and occasionally a little WTF) but hey, the show overall surprised me.
That said, I present my review of it in the form of a drinking game, largely invented through whispers during the applause by a friend and I. I don’t know if it applies to the movie, but it definitely does to the musical. BECAUSE IT IS DRINKING GAME WEEK.
Shots every time:
- A child makes a non-verbal voiced exclamation. (Yes, like “aah!”)
- Someone around Billy or Billy mentions the concept of being queer.
- They lift chairs up. (This one would get you smashed by itself.)
- There is an awkward pause. (The show would have been like 45 minutes total without awkward pauses.)
- The older brother acts like a d-bag.
- Someone sounds like they’re espousing Communism. (Maybe literally.)
- You wonder where a character went. (True story. After the grandmother’s song in Act I, she disappeared. By her reappearance I went “oh yeah! That’s where she is!”)
- You wonder exactly what a character or song’s purpose is. (Like the grandmother’s song, or the song where the tiny little boy and Billy around with giant hallucinated dresses and a pair of pants.)
–your fangirl heroine.
