Broadway legend and Tony Award winner Faith Prince has put on her dancing shoes for the second national tour of Sir Elton John’s musical Billy Elliot. In the wildly popular and critically acclaimed show, Prince portrays Mrs. Wilkinson, a dance teacher in a small northern English town in the middle of the 1985 coal miners’ strike. Billy, the son of one of the striking workers, is a young teen with a gift for dance. Prince’s character secretly trains and encourages Billy, even though they both know his hardscrabble family will be violently unsupportive.
“It’s just a story that touches people’s hearts, especially the men in the audience who wouldn’t normally go and see a musical,” Prince says.
The charming leading lady called us to talk about her role, her life and her Billy Elliott shows at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts through Feb. 20.
Watermark: You’re a Southern girl, right?
Faith Prince: I am. I was born in Augusta and raised after the age of six in Lynchburg, Va. 
Have you always wanted to be a performer?
I was attracted to it before I knew what it was. I was in a talent show in first grade and read a poem about a Raggedy Ann doll. Later, I went with a friend to an audition of The King and I. I was just there for moral support, and she said, “Why don’t you audition?” I said I didn’t know any songs, so they had me sing “Happy Birthday.” I sang it with a lot of feeling, I got the part, and my friend didn’t speak to me for three weeks. I remember the smell of the theater, though, and I recognized it as something I loved.
With Guys and Dolls, A Man of No Importance, the concert version of Sweeney Todd [in Orlando], and now with Billy Elliott, you do a lot of accents. Is that something you consciously seek out?
Not really. I think it’s the people who draw me in. If the show happens to be in northern England or Dublin or even Russia, I go there. It depends on the story. For a Southern girl, some of these accents are very foreign. You definitely have to have dialect coaches. Still to this day, the coach helps us all with this show.
Have you met Billy Elliott composer Sir Elton John?
I haven’t yet. I hope he joins us later in the run in San Francisco.
In Billy Elliott, the theme of self-expression is vital. That really speaks to LGBT audiences.
Yes, definitely! I think it speaks to everyone! I was one of the lucky people, because my parents were always so supportive. But I’ve come across a lot of people who weren’t, and it’s an incredible shame, for whatever reason, whether you’re gay, or you always wanted to be a painter. I’m in the middle of writing a book to help people—especially for people who don’t have an encouraging voice in their lives—because I do believe there’s a route to it, no matter what your passion is.
Billy Elliott combines economic conflicts and gender and sexual roles in such a fascinating, heartfelt way.
Yes, there is a deep political vein, but it’s also very personal. If a show isn’t engaging, it’s like cough medicine [Laughs]. On the political side, I’ve done research, and I don’t understand how Margaret Thatcher didn’t find some other creative way to help these miners support themselves and their families.
I also really appreciate how Billy Elliott combines Billy’s passions with his father’s financial struggle and Billy’s friend’s sexual awareness. And the show has such a humanity that we all relate to. Many of us have fathers who work as miners or as plumbers or anything; they do such noble, hard work.
see+hear
WHO: Faith Prince
WHAT: Billy Elliot: The Musical
WHERE: Straz Center for the Performing Arts
WHEN: Through Feb. 20
TICKETS: StrazCenter.org
