May 2015 reviews - London

Reviews of the show
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jmh2014
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May 2015 reviews - London

Post by jmh2014 »

Saturday 2nd May

Ollie was the first Billy I saw back in December. His improvement since then is remarkable. His dancing was not his strongest skill, but this is the aspect of his performance that has improved out of sight. His performance on Saturday was, by far, the best that I’ve seen him give. Real emotion during The Letter and an Electricity which now rivals his Angry Dance as the standout moment.

Nathan and Todd were on as Michael and both delivered wonderful performances in their own unique styles.

Kyria and Connie as Debbie delivered stellar performances.

David Muscat was back as Mr B and continues to steal the show during Boogie. Chris Jenkins gave us a slight different but no less powerful Tony. The whole ensemble led by Deka, Ruthie and Gillian are right at the top of their game.

Bradley was on for the evening and was yet again phenomenal. It is a true testament to his professionalism that he provides outstanding performances every time he sets foot on stage, after so long in the show.
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Re: May 2015 reviews - London

Post by kport »

This blogger enjoyed her recent visit to see Billy Elliot the Musical:

http://www.pagetostagereviews.com/2015/ ... sical.html
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Re: May 2015 reviews - London

Post by kport »

Here is a blogger's review, from The Theatre Tourist:

http://www.thetheatretourist.co.uk/2015 ... eatre.html
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angelenroute
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Re: May 2015 reviews - London

Post by angelenroute »

Looking forward to the reviews that will soon be pouring in from my American comrades, who are already en route or on the ground in England! :D

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CJ-Rochester
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Re: May 2015 reviews - London

Post by CJ-Rochester »

angelenroute wrote:Looking forward to the reviews that will soon be pouring in from my American comrades, who are already en route or on the ground in England! :D
All safely arrived, met for dinner tonight, and looking forward to a fantastic Billy-thon this weekend into next week. :D
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patc
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Re: May 2015 reviews - London

Post by patc »

Thursday matinee 7th May

Firstly, apologies to the others for not turning up for the after-show meal due to the train chaos on the London-Brighton network that serves Gatwick. This was the third time in five Thursdays that the line was shut down either all day or for many hours. Having rushed over from the theatre at 5.30pm I saw that the Departure Boards were not showing any platforms – only trains delayed or cancelled. Eventually, a Gatwick Express train was announced only to be cancelled before people could even get through the barrier. After this, an ordinary train (stopping at Gatwick) was called and, in the mad rush to Platform 18, I nearly got knocked over in the scramble by hundreds of commuters and case-laden air travellers alike. It could have been another Hillsborough. To cap it all, when we got to the train all the doors were closed for another ten minutes by which time the numbers on the platform had trebled so you can imagine the pushing and shoving to get on board. Eventually it pulled away with people stacked together like sardines in a tin. The only difference between this train network and Third World railways is that we’re not allowed to sit on the roofs of the coaches.

At the end of the day, though, it was all made up for by another stunning, stunning show led majestically from the front by the magnificent Bradley Perret who is at the very top of his game. Every scene he has meticulously and minutely thought out so brilliantly. It is an astonishing piece of work with so many individual touches added. The Letter completely destroyed me as his whole body visibly shook with deep emotion before he broke down, only to be calmed by Dead Mum’s (Claudia) gentle response and then Ruthie’s understanding words and facial expressions echoing her inner feelings for this talented boy. The Riot Squad in Angry Dance must have been petrified. The powerful rhythmic dance was defiant and deadly with the flying floor tiles looking like Exocets as they almost penetrated the shields. At no point in the show does Bradley leave the role – he is completely and utterly wrapped up in it from start to finish. Yes, he does humbly smile as the applause rings out for his magical street and wall-flip Electricity but that smile is aimed at outer space. Miss him at your peril.

Tomi and and Demi were superb support. In the slightly altered version of the Boxing scene Tomi showed all his natural comedy talent before joyously landing a beauty on Howard. He continued on in the same vein in Expressing with an all-smiling and mischievous “conversion” of Billy and bringing much delightful indoor sunshine to all present. The mood switching in the Winter Scene was an example of his wonderful acting skills and the final scene was cooked to perfection – what a final scene this is to savour as that curtain slowly descends. Heartbreaking and all as it is, I love it. Another one demonstrating her acting ability was Demi. A master of timing and when to pause before speaking she has a great stage presence to begin with plus a dazzling pair of dancing feet exaggerated to great effect in her “big moment” in Shine.

Add to all of this the dazzling, brilliantly marshalled and exhaustingly energetic Ballet Girls weaving their across-the-stage idiosyncratic magic patterns plus a hand-picked and major talented adult cast and Ensemble of wonderful and much-loved characters, music and arrangements to die for and a perfect theatre setting and it’s no wonder we’re at ten years and counting. Shame that the trains which have been around for 200 or so years longer are a million miles away from this level of achievement.

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Re: May 2015 reviews - London

Post by CJ-Rochester »

Friday May 8, 2015

Billy - Brodie
Michael - Tomi
Debbie - Demi
Dad - David Bardsley
Tony - Chris Jenkins

This was my first of a series of shows this weekend, and the first time I've seen the London show in person since last year's 9th anniversary. I noticed a couple of minor changes.

In the opening number, Michael (Tomi) and Tall Boy (Ryan) are standing on the chairs on stage left. I noticed them interacting, just before Scab barges in and drags Tall Boy away. Usually Michael and TB were quite a bit apart and never acknowledged one another. Since there are so few boys in the scene I think it's more fitting to see the two of them standing together.

The kitchen was completely filled with smoke as soon as it rose up out of the floor. We're talking a lot of smoke here. ;)

SHINE - Ruthie seemed much more animated than I had seen before.

Grandma's Song - I loved the way Gillian did this. She uses different inflections for every word and phrase, giving so much more meaning to the number.

SOLIDARITY - Ruthie does a very LOUD whistle using just her fingers. Most other Mrs. Ws have a coach's whistle hanging around their necks. I remember being at Ruthie's first show one year ago and thought she was great at the time. Her performance a year later is quite solid. To me she has now become the definitive Mrs. Wilkinson, upon whose performance all others should be based. Well done!

At the end Brodie spins counter-clockwise, one of only a few Billys I've seen do that. He must be a leftie.

EXPRESS - The flower that Tomi puts on his head ("People will think you're mental") eventually slid down and covered part of his face. It looked pretty funny. Tomi must have had a bit of trouble changing his shoes. Brodie won by a landslide and had to push the set off by himself. This was a fun number. I loved how these two worked together.

After Born to Boogie - I loved the look of shock on Brodie's face as he considers Debbie's offer. :lol:
Ruthie flubbed a line and said they had to be at Newcastle by 8 PM on the dot, then added "actually it's 8 AM". It looked like Brodie grinned at her mistake, then some of the audience snickered. Ruthie had this "oh well, you caught me" look, there was a bit of applause, then everything proceeded normally.

ANGRY DANCE - Wow this was great! Brodie is a pretty small sized Billy. I always love when the smaller Billys show so much energy and passion in this number.

David Bardsley as Dad - A year ago I saw David play the role once and didn't care much for him. Tonight I thought he made an excellent dad. In particular I loved how he did the "Deep Into the Ground" number, and also the scene at the Royal Ballet auditions.

Chris Jenkins as Tony - This was my first time seeing Chris play this role. He is fantastic! He looks to be the perfect age for a Tony, and he is young and passionate.

ELECTRICITY - Brodie did a great job. I had heard some of the Billys now do this 'board flip' thing but wasn't sure exactly what they do or when. I noticed a board on the stage left side as the number began, but Brodie didn't go anywhere near it. He was doing a normal, fine Electricity. As he got to the final pirouettes at the end I thought it all looked pretty standard. Then instead of the last pirouette he runs over the the board, flips off of it, and lands with the same kind of pose one would normally have to finish the number. The flip gives an extra bit of pizzazz at the end, similar to how some Billys do an aerial near the end.

POST - Normally Grandma keeps calling out 'post' louder and louder until Dad and Tony enter. Gillian added a very loud whistle that immediately got the two of them to come in.

My overall impression of Brodie - he is rather small, a bit bratty, somewhat naive, has a very high pitched voice, and is pretty much just a little kid who stumbles upon this talent he has. This is basically everything you want a Billy to be, and Brodie embodies it very well. Great work Brodie and a great overall show to start my next Billy-thon!

--Chris
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Re: May 2015 reviews - London

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Friday, May 8th - This is my first visit to the VP on this trip. I was pleased to see Brodie’s name on the board as I had not seen him before. Brodie is the 51st boy I have seen perform as Billy and I could not have asked for a better person to start my second half century. He is excellent and a definite triple threat. His singing, acting and dancing are all top notch. I am not going to go into great detail as others with better writing skills than me will do that but I must mention two parts that stood out for me.

Angry Dance. Wow! Brodie certainly was angry and the audience obviously agreed as he received rapturous applause at the end.

Electricity. When I saw the wall flip board I assumed that Brodie was a street Billy but boy was I wrong. His dancing was sublime and very balletic with some incredible acro thrown in. Then to finish with the wall flip was the icing on the cake.

I can’t wait to see him perform again so that I can take in more of the subtleties of his interpretation of the character.

The rest of the cast were, as usual, brilliant. I love Deka as Dad but David Bardsley is an amazing alternate. I have seen David play Dad, as well as George, since I started coming to the show in 2008 and he has never put in a bad performance. He is such a talented man.

So that I can say I have seen all the present cast I need to see Thomas, Nathan and Connie. I know Connie has been in the show since last November but for some reason she always seemed to slip through the net whenever I was in London. Hopefully that will be rectified on this trip.
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Re: May 2015 reviews - London

Post by patc »

Thanks for your reviews, CJ and BW. Looking forward to reading loads more of 'em as your 'thons progress.

In other words, keep 'em coming :D.

Pat
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Re: May 2015 reviews - London

Post by CJ-Rochester »

Saturday May 9 (matinee)

Billy - Ollie
Michael - Todd
Debbie - Connie
Tony - Chris Jenkins

After boxing class, Ollie catches the keys one handed (one gloved). I have seen a few other Billys do this, but it's not easy. He turns forward when saying the 'ripoff' line, so that we can see he is saying it. Good move there.

EXPRESS - I really loved Todd in this scene, and Ollie+Todd together. Can't recall the specifics but it was a great deal of fun.

Ollie's screams, both after the crowbar scene and in Angry Dance, are very loud and real. I'm always amazed when such little boys can muster up such loud screams!

In Born to Boogie I took note of the nice ballet form Ollie shows during the exercises. It heightens the anticipation for the big numbers in Act II.

Connie is a rare blonde Debbie, looking younger and a bit smaller than most. Still she does a fine job.

In the scene before Angry Dance, Chris J (Tony) had so much blood on the side of his face I thought he might be auditioning for "Phantom of the Opera". :shock:

ANGRY DANCE - Ollie gave one of the absolute best performances of this number I have ever seen! I've already mentioned his screams. His head was bobbing around so much that I feared he might whack it against the floor.

In the tutu scene, again Todd was so much fun to watch!

Dream Ballet - So beautiful and so perfect!

ELECTRICITY - He is so expressive in the song portion. The dance part is the standard ballet style (if you can call anyone's Electricity 'standard'). There were no aerials or board flips, but everything was quite well done. A few people stood during the applause.

POST - The 'Esquire' joke got an especially large amount of laughter and applause today.

My overall impression of Ollie - a very confident Billy. He has great diction (you can hear and understand every word) and is a fantastic actor with great facial expressions. He is one of those Billys who I definitely would not mind seeing again.
--Chris
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