May 2010 - Reviews - London

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burtond
Michael
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May 2010 - Reviews - London

Post by burtond »

Here is a thread for BETM Reviews for the month of May
An ex-Regular and someone who was Passionate about the show but who has now found the rest of the WEST END.
KeefyM
Michael
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Re: May 2010 - Reviews UK - London

Post by KeefyM »

Is it May already ? where is the year going ?


Saturday 1st May 2010 - Matinee :)


Billy – Ollie
Michael – Connor Kelly
Debbie – Francesca


Another excellent show & performances by all, especially Jo Riding, Phil Snowden, Connor Kelly & the one and only Master Ollie Gardner.

Unfortunately some of today’s matinee was spoiled by mobile phones going off at various points, some loud coughers & some prudes walking out offended at the swearing & making nasty remarks about the show when they left (which I’m still seething at). Good riddance, don’t come back!

Anyway it was another faultless show with an outstanding performance from Ollie & him continuing to do his unique things & subtle changes compared to the other Billys which I love him for. Ollie is a fantastic Billy who just seems so comfortable & relaxed in the role now (is it really coming up to a year already since he started!).

It was as another energetic & confident performance from Ollie especially his Angry Dance & Electricity, where today instead of just one, he done two of his infamous summersaults in the air with no hands & as usual about gave me a heart attack when he did in case they went wrong & he ends up landing on his head. I’m glad a few people (myself included) gave Ollie a standing ovation at the end of another brilliant street Electricity, as he deserved it for an outstanding performance.

Glad to see Ollie has also got the technique back of catching the keys in the boxing gloves when Billy uses his feet to pick them up, after Ollie lost the ‘knack’ for a week & had to pick them up with his mouth.

We had another great & funny breakfast scene by all involved with Big Davy (John Coates) really going for it in eating the mouldy bread with the beans & salt – he almost finished eating the whole lot before he got off stage.

We were in the scene where Billy picks up & tosses the 50p for Boxing & just as he crosses to the milk bottle before Dead Mum comes in, we had the first instance of someone’s mobile going off. So a nice quiet scene with Billy on his own & no dialogue before Mum comes in, just how much of a quieter scene can you get for a mobile to ring?.

Thanks a lot to another person who’s mobile went off later on, just after Mrs Wilkinson exits after saying, “well sod you then”, before we go into Expressing Yourself. Thanks for not rushing to turn it off quickly either.

Brilliant performances by Connor & Ollie during Express with Ollie getting more in touch with his feminine side than I have seen him do before.

Connor was again just so funny & so cute & got the hearts & minds of the audience immediately with his performance. Despite the amount of times I have heard it & seen it, I still cannot help myself laughing every time he does that deep/manly voice on the word “man” in ”Pretty soon you will start to feel a different man”. It is just brilliant & brings a unique touch to his Michael & seems to get funnier every time he does it.

Michaels shocked, almost deep voice reaction to Billy “You did Ballet?" is brilliant as is Connors delivery of “I think you’d look cush in a tutu” as it always seems to get more of a laugh from the audience than the other Michaels.

Connor was even more hilarious than usual & owned the stage during Express & during his brilliant routine with the Tutu/”Just A Little Bit” later on in The Miners Welfare. His exit while wearing the Tutu just keeps getting funnier & funnier with a well deserved round of applause as he exits.

Later on, I had to laugh at Connor though for not paying attention.
In the scene when Billy has returned to the Miners Welfare & everyone is asking him how did he get on & at the end George asks Billy, has he heard anything about his audition yet & at the same time Michael hides(buries his head in his coat) & walks to the red door Stage Right(House Left) to exit. As Connors head was down & buried in his coat, he didn’t stop in time before the door & walked into it head first - which caused him to have a little laugh at himself for not paying attention & a little look out to the audience to see if anyone noticed. (Yes we did Connor).

Still dripping with sweat from an excellent performance by him & Connor in Express, Ollie gave another emotional performance during The Letter & later on in the Letter Reprise. He reduced a lot of people to tears as he really gave a fantastic & very convincing performance in these scenes today.
Well done Ollie, Samantha Seager & Jo Riding for great interaction & performances during The Letter & also well done for showing your professionalism during these scenes despite a noisy audience & loud coughers.
I would like to say to the various people in Row D & E in the Stalls who coughed loudly & constantly during The Letter – thanks for ruining it.
If you come back & see the show again, make sure you buy some cough sweets or a bottle of water beforehand & be quiet.

Phil Snowden as Mr Braithwaite is just hilarious, although as I have said before the only thing I do not like is his “I was a little detained at the Rose and Crown” as it is said too matter of fact/dismissively for me, but he is brilliant in the role & really went for it as usual with his dancing & actions during Born To Boogie & with his version of the splits.
Love him hiding behind the music book from Billy’s Dad rather than running out & re-appearing in the Exit door as Sean Kingsleys Mr B does.

After the political events of this week & the Election next week, David Nellist has ditched the Iceland jokes & got even more topical, as the line this afternoon was “sitting there with a face like your Gordon Brown”.

We had another great performance of Deep Into The Ground by Joe Caffrey & indeed by Ollie at the end, although it goes to show the professionalism of Joe because god knows how he concentrated during the performance, thanks first of all, to yet another mobile going off & playing some god awful ringtone for about 40 seconds, just as he started the song & then the bloke along our row constantly rustling a plastic bag & banging about very loudly right up until the moment Dad cannot continue & Billy has to sing. It annoyed the hell out of me, my friend & the people in the row behind us & I’m sure Joe Caffrey was really pleased about it as well.
He did get a well deserved round of applause which I’m hoping was for the performance & not for putting up with the noise from the mobile & Mr Plastic Bag man.

Ollie & Barnaby’s ballet together is just a delight to watch & it is great to see how much Ollie has progressed with his Ballet over his time in the show. With both having blonde hair & the way it is shaped/cut similar, Barnaby does look like an older Ollie/Billy.

Tony (Tim Funnell) dropped the Royal Ballet School Letter during his speech in the scene where George & Big Davy come to tell Dad that the strike is over & therefore cut short the Elliots celebrations of Billy getting into the Royal Ballet School. He managed to recover it & give it to Billy as he walks off & therefore it didn’t look out of place at all. However when it was dropped you could see Ollie starting to bend down to pick it up, but stopped himself from doing so.

Great performance by Romy Baskerville during all her scenes as Grandma & some nice additional cheeky touches in the Breakfast scene & in Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher where it was the first time I have seen her wear a very 1970's brown & orange looking dress.

Another great Debbie performance from Francesca, with such passion, but again said a couple of lines, i.e. - “She’s sexually frustrated” too quickly & they were lost again, which I was slightly disappointed by, since she said them perfect during the week & her performances last week.

A fair few bits of snow decided to fall down today before the actual snow scene, including right on top of Ollie when he was downstage on a couple of occasions during the First Act (the focussing on the wall scene for example).

Ollie is definitely getting taller as Billys jeans (the ones Billy wears from opening the Royal Ballet School letter scene to The Finale) looked a bit too short for him – reminded me of the rather too short jeans Ollie wore during the BBC Breakfast interview with him & Ann Emery in March. Billy has new shorts, a new stripy top, new tracksuit tops, maybe he needs some new Jeans as well.

A great final scene between Billy & Michael (although Ollie tripped climbing back on to the stage to give Michael the kiss), but as Billy left, Connor showed great emotion with watery eyes & an expression on his face which said it all about how Michael is feeling.

It was another brilliant show in the history of BETM, with fantastic performances by all.

Well done Ollie, Connor & the rest of the cast, you were great, just a pity various members of the audience spoiled it for me & countless others.


Cheers
Keith
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burtond
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Re: May 2010 - Reviews UK - London

Post by burtond »

Great review Keith - Sod those idiots with mobiles - how many announcements do there need to be at the beginning of the show?
Oh and i'll remember to bring something to suck as I have a nasty cough myself - know what you mean though - it does often spoin those poignant moments.
An ex-Regular and someone who was Passionate about the show but who has now found the rest of the WEST END.
KeefyM
Michael
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Re: May 2010 - Reviews UK - London

Post by KeefyM »

Saturday 1st May 2010 - Evening :D


Billy – Tom
Michael – Jake
Debbie – Fleur


After having a couple hours break from a great matinee performance spoiled by mobiles, coughers & horrible comments, I came in forgetting about the events of earlier & was delighted to see that as I arrived back, Tom was Billy tonight as I knew were in for another brilliant Billy performance & for the first timers to witness the talent of this young man & his great contribution to the show.

Yet again, Tom provided another perfect performance in his acting, singing & dancing with great sensitivity & interpretation of the dialogue throughout & great understanding of the character of Billy.

Tom’s signature scenes of The Letter & Letter Reprise were phenomenal again – he just makes it so believable that Billy is a sad little boy desperately missing his mother with a face so emotional, sullen & empty it is heartwrenching to watch.
Brilliant performances by Tom, Sam Seager & Jo Riding during The Letter & plenty of tearful audience members by the end of it. Tom has also stopped doing the shoulder shrugging during the Letter Reprise, which could be interpreted as uncontrollable laughing during this sensitive scene.

Unfortunately during Solidarity, Tom did have a little trouble with his microphone (in his hair) & had to keep adjusting it & trying to fit it back into his hair a few times as it was coming loose, but the more he tried the worse it got.

A couple of times he even tried turning his back on the audience to try & fix it, but to no avail. During Billys ballet lessons with Mrs W, the amount of turns & spins he does here did not really help the mic stay in place either. Luckily it is slightly round the side of his head & not the front, as the slacker it became the more it stuck out of his head & was beginning to look like a Dalek eye stalk.
Poor Tom, but he coped well with it & had it fixed while he was off stage for the brief moment before he comes back on in Billys shorts for the next Ballet lesson (when Mrs Wilkinson says “You’re late”). His mic was fine for the rest of the show.

Tom’s talent & skills were executed to perfection during Dream Ballet, Angry Dance & Electricity. I could watch Tom perform his Angry Dance & Electricity countless times in a row & never get tired of it, just amazing. He gave another exquisite & perfect acro & street Electricity with well deserved loud applause at the end.
Not everyone stood up to give him a standing ovation for Electricity which he deserved, but I did & Tom took time to lap up the applause afterwards, which as usual resulted in a pleasing smile & a quick glance around the theatre.

Jake Pratt was absolutely brilliant as Michael, a great performance by him & he totally owned the stage tonight during his appearances. He was more mischievous & played up to the audience a lot more than usual, with more winks, nods & thumbs up to us lot in the Stalls.
He did some cheeky & funny dancing in Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher with the Ballet girls including doing some high kicks & looked like he deliberately stood in Tom’s line of sight to try & make him laugh at his dancing.

Tonight was the first time I have noticed Jake do his puking up at Michael been given “a bloody football kit” for Christmas. It works really well & just puts a little bit more emphasis on who Michael is & his disgust & non interest in the footie kit & how he would rather have “Sindy The Nurse”.

Love the way in which Jake uses his glasses throughout his performance & therefore brings a little bit more comedy & uniqueness to Michael with them.

There is definitely an interesting dynamic when Tom & Jake are paired together because Jakes voice is so much deeper than Tom's, but they worked well together with a great Expressing Yourself from both, although Jake looked knackered at the end of it.

Fleur gave another perfect performance with Debbie’s lines timed to perfection & the pauses & emphasis where they are meant to be, especially during the toilet scene with Billy. (Tom’s reaction to the infamous “I’ll show you me F***y” line was priceless & spot on again).

Dream Ballet was great, although as usual disappointed & being too fussy when Barnaby is on with Tom due to Barnabys blonde hair & looking like an older Ollie & Dean rather than an older brown hair Tom. Barnaby Meredith is outstanding but can’t Sergio be on as Older Billy when Tom’s on?.

Ann Emery as faultless & cheeky as ever. Again she brilliantly joined in with some of the miners chanting as they ‘invade’ the Elliots kitchen in the breakfast scene.

Phil Snowden gave an even better & funnier performance as Mr Braithwaite than he’d done during the matinee.
Just fantastic & really funny during Born To Boogie with Tom & Jo.

Earlier on, the Smoke Machine did not work during “Shine” as Mr B came downstage (“Smoke, Mr Braithwaite”) – no smoke came out of it, so Phil immediately turned round & walked upstage where it started to work, but put it down immediately rather than continuing to walk about with it.
This meant that Mr B did not walk over to Billy with the machine & blast the smoke right into Billys face as normal.

Another change from David Nellist again tonight, with the “sitting there with a face like” line.
Still related to Gordon Brown as earlier, but rather than saying his name, said,
“sitting there with a face like you’ve left your microphone on” - which unsurprisingly got a great laugh.

No doubt there will be a few changes & additions from David during Election week.

You could hear a pin drop during He Could Be A Star thanks to the brilliant performances of Joe Caffrey & Tim Funnell who really made the scene & the emotion of it all stand out tonight. Tim Funnell is a great alternative Tony with just the right amount of anger, emotion, love & sensitivity needed for Tony & his relationship with his father & younger brother.

Glad to say there wasn't any audience carry on tonight after what went on at the matinee, apart from a few latecomers & one bloke in the front row who had a bit too much of a loud laugh. Fair enough, laugh at the funny parts & glad you enjoyed it,
but at one point his laughing was that loud I was sure there was a Lion roaring in the front row & I was about to go & ask the VP staff since when have they started letting animals in to watch the show.

It must be distracting for the performers especially when over the top loud laughing is “roaring” out of the front row.

Anyway, nice to see there was almost a full house again tonight & it was another fantastic & perfect show, with a faultless
& phenomenal performance by Master Thomas Holland & superb performances by Jake, Fleur, Joe, Tim & Jo Riding
with another great Finale performance by all.

Well done Tom – I said it during the week about Rhys & I will say it again here about Tom tonight, Ollie this afternoon & Dean last week
– in the words of John Barrowman – “fantastic, fantastic, fantastic”.

As we were leaving it was great to hear again very positive comments about the show (especially after the earlier nasty comments in the matinee) & brilliant comments about Tom & Jakes performances & that Billy is the best show they have seen & are definitely coming back.

Apologies to the bloke who’s foot I stood on in the row behind me when I had to get up to let the people sitting next to us into the row & Ahem! apologies to the same bloke who’s bottle of water I ended up kicking down the middle stalls aisle by accident when I came back from the Interval & then stood on his foot again.

Sorry mate!


Ah the joys of Billy – roll on Wednesday.


Cheers
Keith
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burtond
Michael
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Re: May 2010 - Reviews UK - London

Post by burtond »

Keith,
I don't know how you remember all this particularly when seeing two shows in one day - you must be able to compartmentalise elements of the show in your head. Me - I've started taking a note book to help jog the memory - gets in the way though!!!
An ex-Regular and someone who was Passionate about the show but who has now found the rest of the WEST END.
KeefyM
Michael
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Re: May 2010 - Reviews UK - London

Post by KeefyM »

Cheers David for the comments, :D


To be honest I do not know how I remember what happened in each part of the show either (as I certainly do not have a photographic memory), but do make some notes on my iphone after the show & not always every show. - gives me something to do If I'm on my own on the 25 min train journey back home to South West London.

Although the notes are usually all over the shop & very brief compared to my reviews, so god knows how I manage to piece the reviews together.

I suppose after 5 years of going to Billy despite the changes, the overall structure of the show has remained the same so the scenes, songs & dialogue are embedded somewhere (compartmentalised, I suppose) in the old noggin & I know basically what should happen in each scene, what should be said etc so if there is a change or unique things the Billys/Michaels etc do I tend to notice it and for some reason remember it.


Cheers
Keith
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Re: May 2010 - Reviews UK - London

Post by Billy Whiz »

Thanks for the reviews Keith.

Sounds like you had two great and eventful shows.
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pinknick103
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Re: May 2010 - Reviews UK - London

Post by pinknick103 »

Mon 3rd May

Ollie, Jake and Fran
Phil S as Dad
Shaun as Mr B

Fantastic show – so pleased we made the relatively last min decision to go. Fantastic responsive audience. Think there were some ex ballet girls around. No probs with phones going off, however we did have someone sneezing which sounded like a dog barking !!! Also they lady next to me was constantly jiggling her leg which became very irritating!
Was great to see Ollie after so long. I havnt seen him since July. Have been desperate to catch him after such great reviews. I wasn’t disappointed. He add loads of unique little touches which brings a freshness to the show. He also has new sets of tracksuits which look very nice. Ollie was wearing light blue in the finale – last time I saw him he was wearing red. Amazing electricity – loads more flips/sommersaults that when I last saw him.Perfect dream ballet with Barnaby – Ollie smiled all the way through. Lovely to see him briefly at the end, and he seem really pleased when I told him he was brilliant.
I would like to mainly concentrate this review on Phil’s performance as Dad. Having never seen him in this role before, we were unsure what he would be like.
He was marvellous. I wish he played Dad more often. He too added loads of little extra touches which fitted in with the scenes perfectly. I don’t think anyone would have known he wasn’t the regular Dad. Here is a few points I can remember :

-His confrontation bit with Tony, after Express – fantastic acting. Great angry voice towards Billy and Tony. Very loud and believable punch
- I havn’t noticed other Dads do this, but pre angry dance, when Billy is standing on the table while Tony and Mrs W are shouting, Phil looks Billy up and down, as though he is disgusted with him
-Deep into the ground – not normally one of my favs, but it was tonight. Phil said something along the lines of “It were 3 year ago today that a lot of people here lost a great friend – our Sarah”. The emotion he put into this song was faultless. His face just hung low, with tears in his eyes. When he told Billy “lets go home” his voice was quivering. Best I’ve ever seen this done .
-Male ballet dancer scene – Phil played this fantastically. Did the thing where he kinda leans towards RBS dance to take the fag rather than going right up to him. As RBS dancer walked towards him, Phil ran away – was so funny. He took ages to give the cigarette to the clipboard lady – this generated loadsa extra high pitched screams.
-Post electricity – the look on his face as one of the panel wished him luck with the strike was heart wrenching.
-Packing the case scene – At the start, Phil is looking around the hall, sees Billy and says oh there you are. When he has put the coat on Billy, he tell him it looks great.

Phil got a tremendous applause in the finale. Was great to see him after, and well done Maggie for being brave enough to speak to him – we told him how fantastic we thought he had been and he kept saying thank you very much. Apparantly David B was at the theatre tonight, but Phil had a go (his words exactly). No one would ever had known – it was sheer perfection
Well done Phil, and of course the rest of the company who gave us such a great night.
Dean x1, Leon x1, Trent x1, Josh x12, Layton x10, Corey x5, Fox x10, Tom x15, Brad x5,Ollie x7,Tanner x2, Dean CC x 9, Aaron x 2, Rhys x3, Scott x5, Ryan x10, Adam x2, Kaine x5, Harris x3, Harrison x12, Redmond x3, Ali x1
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pinknick103
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Re: May 2010 - Reviews UK - London

Post by pinknick103 »

Cant believe I forgot to include He could be a star - cant seem to edit my earlier post, so here is an add on

-He could be a star - Again - the best I think I have ever seen this scene. Lots of power and high emotions from Phil and Craig. Real tears evident. Excellent fight/confrontation, with Phil literally running around the stage to get away from Tony. Excellent facial expressions from Phil who looked totally lost/gutted as he hung his head down and wept
Fantastic scene tonight xxx
Dean x1, Leon x1, Trent x1, Josh x12, Layton x10, Corey x5, Fox x10, Tom x15, Brad x5,Ollie x7,Tanner x2, Dean CC x 9, Aaron x 2, Rhys x3, Scott x5, Ryan x10, Adam x2, Kaine x5, Harris x3, Harrison x12, Redmond x3, Ali x1
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NoDayButToday
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Re: May 2010 - Reviews UK - London

Post by NoDayButToday »

thanks for that review Pinknick! I'm very jelous you saw Phil Snowden as Dad, I'd love to see him in that role!!!
Layton x1 Brad x1 Ollie x2 Fox x1 Tom x1(5th bday show) Dean CC x1



:)
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