Billy Elliot! - David Alvarez
I watched Billy Elliot again!
It took a while to figure out, but I was 90% certain that David Alvarez would be Billy for the matinee today. I had to go to some websites who were guessing a pattern for the Billy performances and I took a gamble by going to the theater. For those interested, it seems like it is Kowalik-Kulish-Alvarez unless one of them is on some sort of break and the pattern is thrown off. Unfortunately, the box office won't say who the Billy (or Michael) will be until an hour before curtain. But thankfully, I was right -- David Alvarez was on.
So now that I've seen all the Billys and Michaels -- what do I think? Well, I think they are all great and watching one over the other shouldn't affect your enjoyment of the show. But everyone has their nuances of course and here's my opinion:
Trent Kowalik is the best actor and singer. David Alvarez is the best dancer. And Kiril Kulish is in-between.
If you prefer more drama, you will like Trent. If you prefer an even spread of acting and dancing, you will like Kiril. But if you just want your Billy to be a lean mean dancing machine, David is your guy. LOL. Of the three, David did more turns during his solo which was very impressive. He had the longest applause after "Electricity". Unfortunately, he needs to work on whatever accent he is using on the show. LOL. At any rate, I wouldn't mind seeing any one of them again in the future. In fact if you were just watching this musical once, the Billy Elliot you will see will be the best child actor/dancer you have ever seen in your life.
As for the Michaels, I am a bit partial to another David, David Bologna. He's just better.
We had great seats today as well. I just walked to the box office and waited in the Cancellation Line for Orchestra seats. After waiting for an hour, I was able to buy Row 7 Orchestra Center. Yay!
After I got my picture with David, we walked to the subway and David and his family were right behind us. I told his parents that he was awesome, and told them to visit the blog. LOL. I really should make business cards.
