The producers of ‘Billy Elliot: The Musical‘ have officially announced what theater goers have suspected for some time – that the show’s first national tour will exit Chicago in nine years and then continue on to Toronto. The announcement came in response to recent news reports claiming the musical will be closing in January of 2011.
“They got the month right, but the year horribly wrong,” said producer Jon Finn. “If Chicagoans thought the feel-good musical of the century was about to pass it by, they were sadly mistaken. We’re going to be around here for awhile. A long while. ”
The final Chicago performance will be Jan. 15, 2019; the last block of tickets go on sale tomorrow.
“While nine years may sound like a long time, it is but a nanosecond in the world of overhyped, sterile, derivative theater productions. Even with this announcement, ‘Billy Elliot’ has nothing on ‘Wicked’,” said Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris Jones, referring to the musical which ran at the Ford Oriental Theater for seventy-eight years before shuttering in 2008. “My grandmother still tells the story of how she attended that play’s premiere when she was a little girl.”
Business at ‘Billy Elliot’ has been very good – weekly grosses in the $1 million to $1.1 million range have been typical – but not at a level that would have persuaded producers to sacrifice the rest of their conscious adult lives towards flogging a musical based on what can be most charitably described as a mediocre motion picture. This hasn’t stopped them from plastering ads for the show atop every taxicab and on the side of every bus in the Chicagoland area.
“When your musical was written by Elton John, the same genius who wrote ‘Crocodile Rock’,” said director Stephen Daldry, “you naturally want to spread the word.”
As part of the Broadway in Chicago series, ‘Billy Elliot’ tells the heartwarming tale of one small boy’s journey from the boxing ring to the stage of professional ballet. While the story has obvious appeal for small girls and homosexual men (both closeted and open), the show has gained little traction with other demographics. This fact has not discouraged the show’s creative team.
“We are highly confident that we can continue to bring in audiences for the next thirty-five hundred performances,” said producer Eric Fellner. “Even if we have to drug them and ship them in from Beloit, Dubuque and every two-bit cow pasture in between.”
Mitchell Snyder is a fully-licensed and bonded International Man of Parody. He's also the alter-ego for a business professional who can't stop listening to the funny voices in his head. He became a card-carrying member of Chicago's comedy-industrial complex when he started performing stand-up early in 2009, and has since branched out into writing satire articles.
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