Reviews from Fulton

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kport
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Reviews from Fulton

Post by kport »

This is glowing:

http://lancasteronline.com/features/ent ... 5c1da.html
Brian Padgett steals the show as Braithwaite, who is Mrs. Wilkinson’s accompanist during dance classes.

I won’t spoil the surprise of his performance. Suffice it to say, he’s amazing.
Those of us who saw Brian at North Shore Music Theatre last year know what the surprise is!
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CJ-Rochester
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Re: Reviews from Fulton

Post by CJ-Rochester »

Here's a rave review on BroadwayWorld. Having seen this production myself last week, I would pretty much agree with all of it. This is definitely one of the top regional productions of BETM I have seen.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/central-pa ... n-20161006
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Re: Reviews from Fulton

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Re: Reviews from Fulton

Post by Todd »

One of the fringe benefits of tour and regional productions - whether they be BETM or any other show - is that they give you a good excuse to visit a part of the country that you've perhaps always wanted to visit but never have. Such was the case for me this summer when BETM was performed in Seattle, a city I'd never been to before. When I saw that it was going to be in Lancaster, PA, that gave me the excuse I needed to visit there for the first time.

This past Saturday, after an interesting Amish countryside tour in the morning, I took in a matinee show at the intimate and ornate Fulton Theater, followed by a second show that evening. I would enthusiastically echo all the positive reviews and comments about this production ! A number of times during the two shows, I found myself thinking that the talent on stage, the high quality of music from the pit orchestra, and the over-all feel of the production was every bit as good as the version that was on Broadway. If the show was planning a re-opening in New York next week, both Jamie Mann and Brooks Landegger would get my vote to join that cast, as they are right on par with the Billys we saw at the Imperial Theater (Vincent Bennett from the Seattle production could also be part of the Broadway Billy rotation, in my opinion).

Johnny Marx as Michael appears to be a seasoned performer, and looked like he was loving every moment on stage. He has a very nice singing voice, and was very uninhibited with his antics and flamboyance (I would have probably voted for him to dial it down a little bit). He was, however, able to tone things down when he needed to, as he was very believable in the scene with Billy where he warms his hands, and at the very end when he bids Billy a solemn goodbye.

I really enjoyed the casting of Janet Dickinson as Mrs. Wilkinson - one of my very favorites that I've seen in this role. Another standout was Brian Padgett as Mr. Braithwait. While some actors play this part as somewhat irritated, his characterization is more someone who has the weary resignation of "I hate my life" while at the same time is a bit tipsy from his constant supply of beer. Timothy Gulan is a natural comic actor as Dad, as he particularly excelled in the Royal Ballet scene with the Scottish dancer. Alex Drost was excellent as Tony, as he had the right amount of anger without being too over the top, and was much more appropriate in age than many of the actors who have been cast as Tony (he looks to be in his 20's). Danny Rutigliano was very good as George, the boxing coach. I was glad to hear him use the line "Rudolph Near-enough" - which always gets a laugh - rather than "If he was my son, I'd break his bloody legs" - which never does.

One common denominator of several of my favorite regional productions has been the choreography of Adam Pelty. This show really gave Jamie Mann and Brooks Landegger the opportunity to show off their vast dancing talents, as the choreography was basically as challenging as Peter Darling's original blueprint. This hasn't always been the case in some of the regional productions, which understandably have to scale the dancing back a bit due to rehearsal time restrictions and the lack of experience of the actor playing Billy. But with two veteran Billys who train with some of the leading dance instructors in New York City, the show was able to be presented at the level that it deserves. A few tweaks that were done in "Expressing Yourself" involved Billy and Michael getting their shoes on while lounging across Michael's bed, and ending up with a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers top hat and tails down a staircase which drew a strong round of applause. This was a variation of what was done in the Raleigh, NC production with Sam Faulkner as Billy. They made the wise choice of adding railings for the boys to hold onto in this version, as I was nervous watching Billy and Michael negotiate their way down the no-railing staircase in North Carolina wearing slippery metal tap shoes.

The only change I didn't care for was in "Angry Dance," where Billy disappears during the middle third of the number and it turns into a fight scene between the miners and the police. Not sure why the American productions haven't gone back to the original version in London, where it's basically Billy's moment to shine and to reflect the anger and frustration of what's built up over the first half of the show. This version remains the gold standard, in my opinion, and would be easier to stage with short rehearsal time I would think, since there's not so many people to organize on stage. They also didn't have my favorite moment in the number, which is where the police turn the shields over and slam them down on the stage as the lighting changes to blue. Instead, the police had smaller, flimsier shields and built a wall around Billy as he danced in the middle of them - I guess to portray that he felt trapped by his situation. On the positive side, they restored the "Finale" which was mysteriously left out of the Seattle production.

For those of us who miss the show no longer being in either London or New York, productions like this one - and the current tour in the U.K. - restore hope that we can still occasionally see BETM performed at the high level that we got used to in those standing productions. Brooks and Jamie showed that there are indeed talented Billys out there, as they're both triple threats and have professional performing careers in their future should they decide to purse it. With this being the final week of this outstanding production, I would definitely encourage anyone to see it if possible.
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Re: Reviews from Fulton

Post by atreyu »

Kudos to Todd on an excellent write-up of the Lancaster production. I have been too lazy to detail these things myself.

October 15 and 16 had long been circled on my calendar in high expectation of some very special events: The climax of the Fulton run with a company that would be running like a well-oiled machine, a litany of BETM veterans including Billys and a director/choreographer whose hallmark has been a high level of complexity as was done on Tour. That is quite the recipe for success.

And this weekend still managed to exceed expectations! There are so many things I could say about it and yet they all seem like too much understatement. Passion, intensity, emotion, vulnerability, triumph - all present in spades. Best I am able to offer in words is to share a couple impressions from the performances that I will fondly remember forever.

Saturday evening, with over 30 of Jamie's relatives plus Thommie Retter in attendance, one would expect a special Jamie performance. What we got was a legendary Jamie performance. Embellishments in gestures, expressions and mannerisms that we had not seen before and enhanced Jamie's already-impressive Billy persona. Multiple times the thought came to mind from Jill Mann's blog quoting a dance teacher of Jamie's: That kid's got it!! Applies not just to Jamie's dancing, but acting and singing as well. If it truly is the end of Jamie's Billy career, he goes out at the very top of his game.

One thing about Brooks' portrayal of Billy that I had noted from the North Shore Music Theatre production was how he smiles more than a lot of other Billys. Nowhere was that more evident than Sunday's Dream Ballet in the flying sequence. I'll have to admit this is normally part of the show that I pay less attention to than all occasions where Billy is dancing. But this performance was just so beautiful with pure joy radiating from Brooks. Truly spectacular. Set against what could be called a star field - multiple points of white light on a black background - it seemed like this is where the lyric was appropriate He Could Be a Star instead of the adapted He Could Go and He Could Shine. I wish there could have been a video recording of that section as the definitive example of just what Dream Ballet is about.

These few paragraphs are insufficient to capture the weekend performances, but I don't have the words to do it justice. Among seven superfans in attendance, there was unanimous opinion that the Lancaster production achieved the level of Ogunquit and even the Tour. I imagine there may be others that can fill in more of this special weekend.

In the meantime, Good Luck Jamie and Good Luck Brooks in whatever future endeavors you pursue, I'm sure it will not be rubbish!

P.S. Yes, they followed the tradition of See ya, Johnny/Jamie/Brooks in their respective final shows.
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Re: Reviews from Fulton

Post by Todd »

Enjoyed reading the write-up of this past weekend ! Wish it was closer to where I live so I could have been there for it, after how much I enjoyed it from the weekend before. Glad Jamie had so many well-wishers in attendance for his final performance, and I'm sure Brooks had a number of them there as well. They deserve all the appreciation they got, as did everyone else involved with this production.
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