Billy the Musical – Union Theatre

Keith Ramsey in Billy at the Union Theatre. Picture: Sam Mackenzie-Armstrong

Playing at the Union Theatre, London until 29th June.

Originally staged in the West End back in 1974, Billy the Musical (adapted from Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall’s play Billy Liar by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais), with a score from John Barry and Don Black, has at its heart a hardly average musical hero. Billy is a fantasist, charming yet manipulative, and also slightly tragic. His home life is dreary and he yearns for adventure, but would he rather remain an eccentric fish in a small pond or head for the bright lights of London for a dazzling career as a scriptwriter?

It’s tricky to ensure Billy displays all the conflicting qualities that make up his complex personality – and still make him appealing – but Keith Ramsey does a great job of portraying his fragile confidence. His contempt for his salt-of-the-earth parents is palpable yet humorous and the scene in which he imagines them enjoying a rather more bourgeois breakfast is particularly amusing.

Part Clockwork Orange and part Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, just when Billy gets frighteningly sinister with ditties such as ‘The Witch’s Song’, in which he duets with his innocent, unsuspecting fiancée Barbara (Rosie Clarkson), he changes the tempo and his disposition with a Big Band-style number such as ‘Aren’t You Billy Fisher?’ to significantly lighten the mood.

The underlying stagnation of Billy’s existence, however, is illustrated by how he interacts with his trio of girlfriends over the course of the day – which the programme reveals takes place in the fictional town of Stradhoughton, Yorkshire, on Saturday, 7th May, 1960. Like many a teenage boy of that era, sometimes his lies are merely a way of getting intimate with a girl, as promises of married life in an idyllic cottage seem to melt their virtuous resolve somewhat, but trying to separate Billy’s fact from fiction is as dizzying for the audience as it is for those around him. Confrontation is inevitable, but Billy simply doesn’t care. Laura Bryars’ rough, bolshy Rita makes little headway with him, although her brassy approach is highly entertaining. Only the thoughtful, passionate Liz (Katerina Stearman) shows any degree of empathy with what truly makes Billy tick.

With an imagination as vivid as Billy’s, the ensemble has a lot of work to do and they demonstrate their talent and versatility by frequently bursting into song and dance. Michaela Cartmell is particularly accomplished, drawing the audience’s attention in her direction whenever the dance routine allows. Authenticity is added to proceedings by Elle-Rose Hughes’ impressive costumes, showcasing a time when women began looking at other options beyond simply dressing like their mothers.

The scenes in the undertakers – Billy’s place of work – are slower and consequently work less well, and the duet in which local councillor (Mark Turnbull) bestows well-meaning ‘when I were a lad…’ advice to Billy is a little tiresome, but ultimately this is an unusual, unpredictable tale that perhaps has a greater reach than more typical musicals.

With wit and weirdness at its core, its anti-hero may be frequently exasperating, but in Michael Strassen’s production the truth is there’s rarely a dull moment when Billy is around.

Catherine Usher