PicksInSix Review: Billy Elliot The Musical - Paramount Theatre
Billy Elliot: “It’s Showtime Baby!”
PicksInSix® Gold Review | Ed Tracy
What’s happening right now at Paramount Theatre in Aurora will not soon come this way again. “It’s showtime, baby!” Bring it on!
“Billy Elliot The Musical,” the Elton John/Lee Hall ten-time Tony Award winner with a long, rich love affair with Chicago, opened Friday in what can only be described as a phenomenal, electrifying production. As directed by Trent Stork and choreographed by Isaiah Silva-Chandley, this quintessential “Billy Elliot” features an enormously talented cast led by Ron E. Rains as Dad, Michelle Aravena as Mrs. Wilkinson and, on opening night, the arresting performance of Neo Del Corral as Billy Elliot, the young boy discovering his life’s passion in the midst of a tumultuous period of unrest as his small hometown north of London is embroiled in the 1984 coal miner’s strike.
The story unfolds amid a visual feast—adorned with Izumi Inaba’s costumes on scenic designer Michelle Lilly’s colossal sixty-foot-high steel-themed coal mine set with two-story moving stairway systems that are reconfigured to frame the evolving scenes moving effortlessly in sync with Greg Hoffman’s dynamic lighting design, Mike Tutaj projections and a crisp sound design by Adam Rosenthal.
The lovely and talented Aravena commands the stage in a fierce performance as the dance instructor who first discovers Billy’s true potential in ballet and fights for his opportunity to pursue a dream. Del Corral—who alternates the role of Billy with Sam Duncan—plays the 1,900 seat Paramount Theatre with extraordinary poise, presence and a strength of character that belies his years. And when Billy and his gay friend Michael (Gabriel Lafazan) get together, it’s showtime, baby! — a dynamic duo of pint-sized firebrands tap dancing and singing up a storm with a streak of sassy larceny a mile long in the show-stopping hit “Expressing Yourself.”
One of the most impressive ensembles ever assembled at Paramount includes many of Chicago’s most accomplished actors who cover the citizenry of life-worn miners opposed by an army of police along with a bevy of early career prima ballerinas all under the brilliant musical direction of Kory Danielson who conducts the Paramount Orchestra. Rains returns to a role he has played previously with a seasoned, passionate and superb multi-layered performance as Billy’s Dad. Barbara Robertson is exquisite as Billy’s endearing Grandma and Jennie Sophia is a beacon of purity as Billy’s Mum in the tender, emotionally charged ballad “The Letter” with Aravena and Del Corral. Dakota Hughes (Mr. Braithwaite), Joe Foust (George), and Spencer Davis Milford (Tony) are all stellar, as is the stunning Swan Lake ballet with Billy and Older Billy (Christopher Kelley)— a work of art that utilizes the full range of the Paramount’s expansive stage.
The sheer grandeur of the closing moments of this production left me in awe and ranks as the most beautiful visual tapestry I have ever—repeat, ever—seen in a theatre. I am still thinking about it and how Paramount's stunning production of "Billy Elliot" will now occupy a permanent place in my memory box of this show.
PHOTO|Liz Lauren
PARAMOUNT THEATRE
presents
Billy Elliot The Musical
through March 24, 2024
23 East Galena Boulevard
Aurora, IL 60506
(630) 896–6666
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