“Solidarity, solidarity, solidarity forever.”

“Maggie, Maggie, Maggie. Out, out, out!”

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

BRACEBRIDGE — Coal mining, we know today, causes global warming.

In 1984-85 when the fossil fuel still powered global industrial growth, Britain’s “Iron Lady” prime minister Maggie Thatcher took on northeast England miners in a bid to close collieries and strike down union powers.

In one of the bitterest labour disputes in British history, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) led a local strike against the National Coal Board (NCB) in County Durham. Without a national mandate it wasn’t supported countrywide for its violent tactics, which even pitted miners in Yorkshire where the workers’ walkout began.

Amidst the upheaval — as grieving families grappled with an uncertain future — emerged an engaging fictional-based story that captured the essence of the tumult and offered a nugget of hope.

Billy Elliot balked at boxing and began ballet lessons.

But in the hard scrabble Midlands, boys paid “50 pee” for boxing if not ballet.

“It’s not for puffs,” Billy tells his little friend Michael. “Look at that Rudolph Nureyev.”

Dad Jackie and brother Tony don’t see ballet the same way — at first.

Fortunately Mrs. Wilkinson, his dance teacher, doesn’t either.

“Billy is exceptionally talented … he’s got a chance,” she tells his father.

She sees the boy’s love of dance and potential to audition for the Royal Ballet School.

That’s the winsome storyline behind next week’s gala start to “Billy Elliot,” the Bracebridge Rotary Club’s annual winter musical at the Rene Caisse Theatre, opening Thursday March 22.

It’s co-presentation with HUB Productions and Theatre Muskoka.

Based on the fictional international smash-hit film — and featuring a great score by Englishman Elton John — “Billy Elliot” is another “electric” Muskoka theatrical performance.

Shannan Pratt, 12, soars as Billy, leaping across the stage in his first big starring role.

Singing, dancing and acting with ease, he plays a similar-aged lad destined to fulfill his dream of greatness despite immense odds.

The young actor, who played Burt in HUB’s “Mary Poppins” two years ago, says “it’s a really fun role. I’m glad I took it.”

A first-year Huntsville high schooler, he comes from a musical family where his mother Sarah Spring is a piano teacher and his uncle guitarist Tobin Spring is a well-known, singer and songwriter.

Pratt plays piano, violin and alto sax.

As Billy, his charming acting and simple, exploratory dance moves transcend his stage family’s working class roots and resistence to arts involving tutus.

“What does it feel like when you’re dancing?” a prissy audition judge queries.

“Like a fire deep inside. Something burning me wide open, impossible to hide. And suddenly I’m flying like a bird.

“Like electricity, electricity. Sparks inside me. And I’m free, free.”

Pratt shares his talents with a strong cast that’s a mix of Muskoka stage veterans and — like Billy — some promising new young and older performers on the boards.

All under the distinguished local direction of the HUB’s Emma Grimstead and Amy Bridle (who plays Mrs. Wilkinson) and her sister musical director Emily Bridle.

Amy Bridle says “Billy inspires his family and community and changes his life forever.”

“It’s an amazing story and we have a great cast.”

Shawn Gardinar is Billy’s boxing coach. New to the stage he, too, is having a good time playing the tough, but loveable ring master.

Kyle Buckley hasn’t acted in 22 years since he was in “Nerds” in high school.

He’s Billy’s older brother, Tony, and an ardent striker who can’t wrap his head around what’s happening on the picket line and at home.

He asks Mrs. Wilkinson: “Have you any idea what we’re going through in this village? Ballet! What you trying to do, make him a scab for the rest of his life? Look at him. He’s only 11 for Christ’s sake.”

Allen Hutchings is the gruff dad caught between his own past and his son’s future.

“It’s that juxtaposition,” he says at the end of three months of rehearsals.

Hutchings brings more of his characteristic intensity to the part, which in past plays and musicals like 2023’s “Sound of Music” he could be heard aloud igniting his role as the Gauleiter Herr Zeller.

Both father and son do come around, with the community rallying to send Billy to London for the audition. Even the scabs’ donations are reluctantly accepted to help him escape.

Spoiler alert: Billy gets in the school and his family sees him perform.

His dad and brother return to the pits briefly before the mine is closed for good along with hundreds since.

Aussa Penniall (Dead Mum), Paula McIsaac (Grandma) and Nicole Louise Moore (miner Betty) bring their amazing voices they’ve previously used in “Mary Poppins,” “Mama Mia” and “Bracebridge on Broadway” among other shows.

A couple of core ballet girls, Arlo Henderson and Lyla Stanton, are a solid chorus presence familiar from “Sound of Music.”

Another 2023 SOM member little Pearson Butler-Commins comes close to stealing the show as friend Michael — especially with his dance scene with Billy in the “Expressing Yourself” scene.

A couple of other notable actors are Keith Montgomergy, of Bracebridge, who was in professional theatre in Muskoka “decades ago,” and Mark Clairmont, of Gravenhurst, SOM last year.

“Once we were kings,” the ensemble of miners sings lamentably after losing their hard-faught strike and reluctantly abandoning picket lines on being forced back to work.

Billy goes on to star on the London and Bracebridge stages.

The much-reduced coal industry was privatised in December 1994. In 1983, Britain had 175 working pits, all of which had closed by the end of 2015. Poverty increased in former coal mining areas, and in 1994 South Yorkshire was the poorest village in the country.

The show runs:

1. Thursday Feb, 22, 7:30 p.m. (Rotary gala 6 p.m.)

2. Friday Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m.

3. Saturday Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m.

4. Sunday Feb. 25, 2 p.m.

5. Thursday Feb. 29, 7:30 p.m.

6. Friday March 1, 7:30 p.m.

7. Saturday March 2, 2 p.m.

Tickets are $30 and $25 balcony.

Call the Rene Caisse Theatre Muskoka box-office at 705-999-3391

or go to their website theatremuskoka.ca to buy online. 

EMAIL: [email protected]

30 years of TRUSTED ‘Local Online Journalism’

Twitter: @muskokatoday, Facebook: mclairmont1

Leave comments at end of story

SUBSCRIBE for $25 by e-transferring to [email protected]

Mail cheque to MuskokaTODAY.com Box 34 Gravenhurst, Ont. P1P 1T5

And include your email address to get stories sent to your inbox