I can get us— you, me, and everybody in our travel group— into second row seats at one of the hottest musicals in London. The price per ticket at current pound-to-dollar conversion, including transaction fee, is $32.26. That’s a good price. Hell, that’s a smack-your-mama good price. And it HAS to be this trip. It HAS to be on our March agenda. Because this long-running crowd-pleaser is closing. Its final London performance is a month after our visit.
BILLY ELLIOT was on the short list of musicals I wanted to see during my very first visit to London. It was January 2006, and the show had just opened the previous May. Bolstered by fantastic reviews and intense dancing to rival any numbers ever choreographed for any production, on top of built-in interest from movie fans who’d loved the 2000 film of the same name, BILLY ELLIOT was a smash from day one. My friends and I certainly weren’t going to land any seats for $32.26. I doubt we could’ve gotten in for $232.26— that sucker was sold out.
When I came back to London that November, BILLY ELLIOT was still selling out consistently. My travel buddies and I saw WICKED instead, and that’s not a complaint. WICKED blew my mind. Amazing in every way. But though I wouldn’t have traded WICKED for BILLY ELLIOT, I flew home sorry I didn’t see them both.
Over these intervening years I’ve seen THE SOUND OF MUSIC on the London stage, and also MARY POPPINS, and WICKED a second time. Still, I’ve never made it to BILLY ELLIOT. Seats have been available; I just haven’t made it a priority.
It’s priority time, ladies and gentlemen. After its 4,600th performance, BILLY ELLIOT will leave the Victoria Palace Theatre on April 9.
The Broadway version shut down a few years ago (after 15 Tony nominations, the most for any show EVER). Oh, sure, there are touring productions, but come on. You wanna see the real thing.
And the timing is perfect. My target dates for London are March 8 through March 14. The Stranglers concert in London is March 11. Pulling up the BILLY ELLIOT theatre’s seating chart, I see abundant second and third row seats for performances on March 8, 9, and 10.
Does your musical and cultural life get any better and more varied than that? I’ll take you to a musical about coal mining and ballet dancing— with the music written by Sir Elton John— and the next day I’ll take you to a rock concert featuring the UK’s most enduring punk/new wavers. The day after that? Hey, we’re in London! Could be anything! Though as Donna Reed exclaims in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, “After that, who cares?”