Wednesday 4th August 2010
Billy – Aaron
Michael – Joe
Debbie - Fleur
Another absolutely stunning performance from our favourite wee blonde laddie from Norfolk. Aaron was on top form, from the moment he came on stage to the moment he left. A fantastic performance with very appreciative applause throughout spurred on by Dad and those two “illustrious characters” in row B, who had a right carry on with seats at the beginning but I wont go into that.
Anyway, a great show with a confident, energetic and outstanding performance from Aaron who has settled into the role very well and it is great to see his Billy develop with additional little touches each time or changes he has made following any feedback he has had.
His Angry Dance, B2B and Electricity were great with a fantastic and rather emotional Dream Ballet with Sergio.
Wonderful performance from both throughout, and it was great to watch the beautiful & perfect ballet technique from Aaron with the usual great signs of Liam Mower’s & Olly Taylor’s ballet. I noticed one thing tonight about Aaron’s Dream Ballet - the speed he spins the chair at – bloody hell, he was going faster than Sergio and I was worried if he had let the chair go it was going to spin off the stage, but the whole scene was stunning to watch with a few shouts of “wow” from the people sitting next to me and in the row behind.
A fantastic Ballet Electricity, and like Dream Ballet, Aaron’s dancing and Ballet shows great skill and technique, although I couldn’t help thinking I had time-travelled back 5 years as he looks so like Liam Mower at times and his Ballet shows signs of Liam’s Ballet Electricity which if anything is great considering how brilliant Liam’s Electricity and Ballet were in his time in the show.
A wonderful Electricity performance which resulted in a well deserved and long standing ovation from Dad, those two illustrious characters in Row B and thankfully most of the audience. Shame on you if you were there and didn’t stand up for Aaron. His Electricity was so great I wanted to shout to Aaron to go and do it again as it was a pleasure to watch and I could have watched it again and again without ever getting bored of it.
His Ballet Electricity’s are definitely going to be become legendary.
A fantastic Angry Dance with plenty of aggression, swearing and frustrated screams throughout with the usual brilliant tapping from Aaron. He kicked the hell out of the hut with great flying kicks at the Riot shields as well. We missed a few swear words thanks to Aarons mic not been faded up. I think the work experience kid who was obviously operating the sound desk on Monday night (and missed quite a few of Rhys' lines) must have been back in.
In the scene before AD it is brilliant to watch the way Aaron builds up Billys anger resulting in a very angry “Me mam would have let us” from him before he jumps from the table and screams the place down at the start of Angry Dance.
At the end of Angry Dance Aaron gave the old two finger V sign to the audience as he walked off to great applause.
A really angry (as it should be) and great performance Aaron.
B2B, well I had to like tonight since we had the Billy who actually made me like it after my initial slating of it.
Great performances from Genevieve, Sean and Aaron with Sean getting great laughs as usual with the various things Mrs B gets up to in B2B. Absolutely stunning and perfect skipping from Aaron throughout and the fasted I have ever seen it done by any of the Billys, never mind the speed of his chair spins in Dream Ballet, the speed Aaron was skipping at was sensational.
This resulted in a few “Wows” from the audience including the lovely Canadian women and her son who we got talking too and who’s night was made when she got her picture taken with Aarons Dad (although the picture was almost ruined by a certain small Scottish person who writes long reviews standing in the way – I wonder who it was??).
It was the best B2B since this version of it started and Aaron reminded me why it was him that made me like this version of B2B with another brilliant performance. Well done Aaron, your skipping was stunning and I even got the opportunity to tell your Mum how fantastic it was courtesy of your Dad's phone at the interval.
We of course has the usual wonderful interaction with the cast throughout from Aaron and another display of great acting and dancing from this talented young man, and yes the singing is great but not perfect, but as I have said before, so what!.
Since it is a West End show we expect a certain standard of singing from the young and adult cast, but Aarons Billy is developing and his singing will develop, personally I think there is nothing wrong with it, as I have said before it suits the character of Billy and his background better.
Billy is not a friggin choirboy.
There have been quite a few Billys in the past who didn’t have perfect singing voices but their voice developed over time as will Aarons, so there is no problem there that his singing is not perfection at the moment. For christ sake, he has only been playing Billy for less than 2 months, if he had being playing Billy for 2 years then I would be worried about his singing.
It seems there are a few people who want absolute perfection from Billys straight away, (aka idiots) well in my view a perfect Billy is a boring Billy (which is why I initially found Colin Bates boring (sorry Muppet/sorry Colin) as he was too perfect from the start – although I grew to like him eventually but at the start it was Colin being Colin, not Colin being Billy). To me a non perfect Billy is much more interesting to watch how he develops in the role during his run.
People seem to forget that they are 12 years olds - not friggin Laurence Olivier.
In every performance we have had a brilliant Geordie accent from Aaron and clear delivery of Billys lines. Any wrong emphasis/inflection on lines that I have mentioned before has gone. As Dave has said, Aaron’s tone ranges from mildly to substantially aggressive which is fine in his interpretation of Billy as it does lead to a strong & unique Billy character who is not going to stand for any nonsense.
However at only one point I feel the tone is too aggressive and for me does not seem quite right. It is when he says the line “just don’t tell Dad I was late or anything” to Grandma, it comes across as a bit too aggressive towards Grandma, with a bit of a grumpy face, i.e. it comes across as too harsh and Billy is being a bit too forceful rather than polite about it to try and get Grandma onside.
For me the way Aaron says it gives the impression that if Grandma does tell Dad Billy was late then it seems his Billy will “sort Grandma out” and she will be “buried next to Grandad” sooner than she thinks. Personally for me if I was Grandma and he said it to me in the way he does then I would be thinking, “you cheeky little bugger I wont keep the secret unless you ask me a bit more nicely”
But apart from that, Aaron’s tone results in a great portrayal of Billy and he makes Billys emotions, anger & naivety very believable.
Also the aggressive tone at times comes across brilliantly in scenes like when Billy is telling Tony “No” after Tony says “Dance You Little Bastard”. Great that Aaron takes a little time to pause here before defiantly saying No rather than saying it too quickly or saying it in a too frightened tone. Works really well on Billys lines here including his “I don’t want a childhood, I want to be a Ballet Dancer”.
So keep it up Aaron, just be a bit nicer to Grandma with her pasty from the co-op.
Another hilarious and brilliant performance from Joe – our cheeky little scamp just gets even cheekier with each performance and it is brilliant to watch. We did have a little hitch with the dresses in Express as Joe wore it first rather than dancing with it before swapping it with Billy then putting it on, but both he and Aaron covered it up well. His “just a little bit” in the Winter Scene was a bit too rushed but still funny and he just needs to take a longer pause before he says “I can see why they call it the Nutcracker” as if the audience are still laughing then a couple of lines Joe says too quickly are lost(drowned out by the current laughter). But another great Joe performance with some amazing dancing again in MCMT and a really really sad and emotional face when Billy leaves in the final scene.
As Dave has also said, Joe just take your time before you say your first line & allow the sound guys to fade your mic up as the first line we actually heard was Billy’s “its to do with Maggie Thatcher isn’t it?” rather than Michaels “Billy, do ye know why their on strike like ?”.
Fleur was brilliant as usual with amazing acting and dancing throughout and again perfect delivery of every single one of Debbie’s lines.
Like Francesca she doesn’t stand for any nonsense from any of the Billys, Ballet Girls or indeed Mrs W.
Fleur’s rather close (practically leaning on Billy’s shoulder) in the focussing on the wall scene and the way she does her innocent look when Billy turns round to look at her is brilliant, with her continuing to look at him when she goes back centre stage. Fleur is a great Debbie with fantastic performances every time. She is definitely one of the best ever Debbie’s in the last 5 years.
All the Ballet Girls were great as usual with their “Smile” getting a round of applause for the second night in a row. When Mrs W first appears, one particular Ballet Girl has a really piercing scream that is going to burst someone’s eardrum one of these days, but it is brilliant.
Wonderful performances from all the main cast including another excellent performance from David Bardsley as Dad and Phil Snowden’s great take on George.
We finished the evening with a great Finale performance from Aaron who was clearly enjoying himself with more great dancing and interaction with the rest of the cast. Fleur gave Joe one hell of a push again, but at least he didn’t go flying across the stage this time.
A great night with brilliant performances by all with great dancing, acting and singing throughout
and a sensational performance from young Master Watson demonstrating yet again his amazing talent and what a great Billy he is.
A wonderful show and as Michael would say, it was “Cush”.
Thursday 5th August – Evening
Billy – Aaron
Michael – Jake
Debbie - Francesca
We had another great show on Thursday with Aaron standing in for an injured Rhys. Unfortunately will not write a full review of Thursdays show as it was spoiled for me by the morons sitting in the Dress Circle (where I was sitting) who constantly coughed & talked with various people translating the show very loudly into christ knows how many East European languages throughout & the usual few idiots on their mobiles.
How sad a society we now live in that people can’t live without their mobiles for 3 hours – absolutely pathetic.
I’m sure the people in the row behind me were having a picnic judging by the noise they were making with food. All that was missing was the chequered blanket.
I was absolutely fuming by the time I came out the VP on Thursday night which led to me kicking off about various things (including some former employers) in front of people, so apologies to some forum members who were there when I was ranting and raving, but that audience in the Dress Circle got me so worked up.
However, it was another great performance from Aaron on Thursday with another fantastic Angry Dance, Dream Ballet and Electricity, with the usual perfect poise and posture we have seen from Aaron in his wonderful Ballet.
His Angry Dance was much angrier and aggressive on Wednesday night than Thursday night but it was still great. Another brilliant Electricity which received great applause with a standing ovation from some people (the only thing the audience in the Dress Circle actually did right all night).
The applause seemed to go on for ages and I thought Aaron was going to stand there all night and I wouldn't blame him if he did.
Jake and Fleur were on top form with Jake being his usual cheeky and hilarious self and yet again beating Billy in getting the Tap Shoes on, although Aaron did tell Jake, “your mam has small feet” while still putting the shoes on, but Jake had finished by that time and responded “too easy”.
The show was ok on Thursday night but at times it felt a bit lacklustre and dragging and there were quite a few dropsy incidents throughout including 50p‘s getting dropped by Billy and Mrs W as well as Chairs getting dropped by the Ballet Girls (and left lying on the stage floor).
The Piano with the chairs on top of it at the start of The Letter took ages to appear from the floor but eventually did with perfect timing from Genevieve in her line “better late than never” as she walked past it.
Must quickly mention Aaron and his skipping in B2B – wow, wow, wow, it was once again sheer perfection and the speed of the skipping was just astonishing. Aaron is definitely the master of the skipping and it is just brilliant to watch his skill here.
Two great shows in a row from Aaron, with top notch performances from all the principal cast as usual with a quick mention for a brilliantly cheeky Romy on Thursday night. Absolutely love her take on Grandma.
At the Billy Bus afterwards plenty of appreciative shouts of support for Aarons performance and great to have the opportunity to thank him for another great show. As the Billy Bus started to drive off, Jake was waving away and brilliantly blowing kisses to all the women and girls.
As PATC said in his great review in July – AARON IS BRILL. Which is absolutely spot on, Aaron is a bloody fantastic Billy who yet again on Wednesday and Thursday, proved why I still stand by my comments after his debut, in that he is set to become one of the greatest ever and all time Billy legends.
Well done Aaron, fantastic & sensational performances mate!. Keep up the good work.
Cheers
Keith
Also just to quickly say, well done Dean for doing an extra show this week in the absence of Rhys, unfortunately I haven’t seen any of your shows this week but have heard they have been stunning as usual, so hope to catch you next week. Also, speedy recovery Rhys hope you aren’t out for too long and are back on stage soon delighting your many fans.