June 2013 Reviews - London

[dancingboy]

Saturday June 29

This is not so much a review as a few wandering thoughts about the show we love so much. I am in the fortunate position of living less than twelve miles away from Victoria, with a train service at hand to get me directly to Victoria within forty minutes, door-to-door. It sometimes happens, as it did on Saturday, that I had no tickets booked until midday, when a decent ticket, for me, for each show became available on line. Both shows were excellent to watch and by 10.30 in the evening I was both exhilirated and emotionally exhausted.
The matinee had Redmand ( Rance) in the role of Billy and if this twelve year old doesn't become a first class actor in a few years time, then I will eat my hat. I may have said this before, but will say it again, Redmand is calmness personified throughout the show,with no histrionics, just a desire to use his hands, his facial expressions and his voice to portray Billy in a very effective way. Study him and you can just see him thinking about what is going on, in the Ballet class, during angry scene with Tony and Mrs Wilkinson, and also in the final scenes where the miners are getting ready to go back to work. Redmand, with his suitcase beside him, looks around at the miners, on each side. He appears to be nodding a 'Thank You for supporting me', or is it a 'Glad to see you going back to work' look. Either way, I liked what I saw.
Besides his acting prowess Redmand is also a very fine dancer, who has come on in leaps and bounds, literally, with his ballet over the last few months. With a couple of new moves added his Electricity is now very powerful, with strong movements and pirouettes, which never fails to impress me and as usual on Saturday received a tremendous ovation from the audience.
Following on from Redmand's cool, calm and collected performance at the matinee, the evening show had Harrison ( Dowzell) playing Billy. To me, Harrison is 'Action Man'. He is athletic, he seems to run rather than walk, he never seems to be still, Angry Dance is fiery in the extreme and his hip-hop, street style, Electricity, which is carried out at speed, once again 'brought the house down'.
Together with the cast changes in May there are also one or two dialogue changes, which, again, seem quite unnecessary, but obviously we get used to them, as I am getting used to Anna-Jane Casey, the new 'Hot Pants' Mrs Wilkinson. She is a fine acquisition to the cast. In my view, a couple of things need to be looked at in order to get the audience laughing more. One, the antics ( or not) when the Sound Man at the Audition takes the casette tape, and two, the Scottish ballet dancer ( Front of Curtain scene with Dad), ought to have a semblance of a Scottish accent. It isn't always there.
Finally, a few words about the Ballet girls, who I admire greatly. As far as I recall it was the same team at both shows on Saturday and they were superb. Again, when you are next there, watch the faces they pull, sometimes at each other, but more particularly at Billy, during the Ballet class and during Shine and Solidarity. They are a picture.
Was this money well spent? You bet. Will I be going again? I am pretty sure I will.

[Billy Whiz]

I will be there in May, but I don't know if Rance will still be with the cast by then.

If Redmand is there next May then I can guarantee you a wonderful show. If Redmand has left by then, then I can still guarantee you a wonderful show.

Whoever you get, you will not be disappointed - but you already knew that