A Tale of Four Billys
Предназначение этого поста - сугубо утилитарное: сохранить в удобном для меня месте и виде несколько моих постов, размещенных на Billy Elliot The Musical - The Complete Forum (ныне закрытом) и на вновь открытом Billy Elliot the Forum - The New Forum for Fans (мой ник там - VaRus). Во френд-ленте он не появится: нужно быть очень погруженным в тему (
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Justin Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:39 am
Valery - that was lovely and corresponds in many respects to my own reactions to Brad's characterization of the role and it's a real delight for me that you wanted to see Brad again.
I wish I'd seen him earlier like you did to be able to compare and contrast his earlier interpretation with this gradual, as you put it, crystallisation. I think you're right when you speak of a contradictory sort of maturity present in his portrayal - there's an intuitive understanding and a maturity on the part of his Billy and yet this goes almost side by side with his fragility and vulnerability. I think I said in one of my earlier assessments that there is a very atypical element to his Billy - his outward maturity, even self-assuredness isn't a result of some facade where he seeks to hide his inward vulnerability, rather it's precisely because of his internal strength and self-assurance that he doesn't as you so aptly put it "learn to care less" and that he does care a great deal and that he's not afraid to show that he cares.
The protagonist isn't our conventional hero who overcomes the odds, triumphs and does good for himself. Rather, his heroism lies in his humanity - in his ability to remain compassionate and loving, even forgiving, despite circumstances. In that sense, the dance and the acceptance at the RBS are merely secondary elements to a rather more gripping tale of a boy who's working at maintaining his idealism and nobility. It's really cheesy to say, but his Billy is my hero. Were it that I could make the same choices and treat others with the same measure of understanding and compassion that he does.
I loved your quotation of Pushkin describing so aptly that almost paradoxical melancholy, and I think this is where Brad's and Olly's (another of my favourite Billys) portrayals diverge significantly. They both have that genteel melancholy, but whereas Olly's Billy was neurotic and weary - more weighty I would suggest, I find Brad's portrayal infused with this deft lightness, and agree with your assessment of his inherent elegance as the primary contributing factor to this. Even the Letter for all its tears has a quiet beauty about it, a restrained, dignified grief. Here's a question for you though, if one accepts that Brad's melancholy is light as a result of this inherent grace - how does one reconcile that with the fact that Olly too was infused with this spark of elegance on stage and his Billy was anything but light?
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The proposition you put forward about his intelligence and subtlety being a bridge between the harsh reality of the mining community and local circumstance versus the sublimity of dancing is interesting. I'm not necessarily sure how I feel about that and I still don't know exactly where to place the concept of dance into the integration of Brad's portrayal of Billy. So far as I see it, there are almost two divergent schools where a Billys characterisation on the meaning of dance fits. The first theme builds on the transformative power of dance - put very simply, lonely kid discovers dance and it transforms him and he grows and matures in the process. I think Matthew Koon's Billy typified this sort of portrayal. The flip side to the coin is Billy discovering dance as an escape from his own reality and using it thus, but never fully allowing it to heal him resulting in a transient joy - there's always the sorrow to fall back to when the music dies down. For me this was Olly's Billy. I don't think Brad's characterization with regards to dance necessarily fits into either of these conceptualisations. It seems more subtle somehow than either of those but I can't quite pinpoint exactly what it is about it. If pushed, I'd suggest that Brad's Billy discovers this love for dance and seeks to integrate it into his life in a systematic way taking into account the presumed needs of others around him as well - much the same I realise as your suggestion that he himself is the the mediator between the community and other aspects of his life and the dance. In that sense, the story isn't so much about an external factor exuding a power over Billy, but rather his own internal "compass" (for lack of a better word) trying to bring and rein in the dance into his life and fit it in with these other things that are as important to him. But I can't be certain that's all there is to that and that theory seems almost clinical, as if it wasn't taking into account the romanticism and magic even, that is apparent when you see him dance.
So yes, I agree that even despite all this analysis and conceptualisation, there's still something mildly elusive about his Billy.
The one thing I disagree with you about is that unlike yourself I'm definitely not looking forward to his last night! I know I will be a babbling, incoherent wreck!! :lol:
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