Ottawa Reviews

[angelenroute]

Here's a very positive review from 2B magazine:

http://www.2bmag.com/2013/01/beyond-the ... lliot-9865

Loved that!

[rob_hanson1979]

Hey, so I bought a ticket last minute from someone on Kijiji. It was front row! I've never been in the front row before! It was amazing. You notice so much more from there. I even noticed I caught more of the dialogue from there. Plus you can smell the cigarettes they smoke. Not the same as real cigarettes but they still have a smell.
So Drew played Billy again tonight. Much like wednesdays performance, he was amazing. He's really good, I'm a big fan of his.
The front row of the NAC gives a perfect view. I know front row of some theatres means your looking up to see everything, and you can't always see all the footwork, but the front row is very good here.
I think that's all I can add for now, but I'll be at both shows tomorrow, in the front row again for the evening show.

[dongringo]

Thanks rob. Looking forward to your comparison of the front row verus the very back row.

[rob_hanson1979]

The thing is... I planned on being in the back row, and then the front row. Now that I've been in the front row, tomorrow afternoons back row is gonna SUCK. At least I still have tomorrow nights front row to look forward to!

[dongringo]

[rob_hanson1979]

OK! Here we go. Two shows today.

The afternoon show, as you know, I purposely chose the worst seat in the house. Now, you can still see the stage and all, so it wasn't horrible. But you don't get any emotion or connection from that far away. I would only recommend being that far away if thats the only seats available. Otherwise the price difference is definately worth it to be closer.
Noah Parets was very good. He is a really good well rounded performer. I also met him a couple times this week and he was very nice! Also, Joel Blum played Dad in this performance. He is quite different in style from Craig Bennett but he's also very good.

The evening show I was back in the front row. Much better in SO many ways.
Mitchell played Billy at this performance... and I thought Drew was small. Mitchell is even smaller. He's shorter than both Michael and Tall boy, but it works with his character. I found his version of Billy to be quite different from any other Billy I've seen. I found his Billy to be a little more cocky and swarmy... but in a good way. Many 11 year old kids have that attitude so it made it believable. I also found he was very expressive. His emotion and thoughts really come through in his performance. So he's a very good Billy, but he definately puts a different spin on the character. I hope you will all get to see him and experience his performance.
There were a number of technical glitches in the show tonight. I won't go through them all but I think the cast coped with it well, all things considered. There was an issue with the sound during the Dream scene. But both Billy's kept going and didn't let it affect them. Also, when George throws the keys to Billy at the start, they flew to the opposite side of the stage and under a chair. So Mitchell just went over and tried to pick it up with his boxing gloves as normal, but used that as an opportunity to slide the keys out to the middle, where he could kick them up and catch them. It was well done.

After the second show I went to the stage door and got autographs from a lot of the cast. They were all very kind. I decided I would have them sign my Billy Elliot Through the Lens book. I got all the autographs on the front page. I figured it would be a nice way to collect autographs. I wish I'd thought of it earlier.

Well thats' about all I can remember at 1am. I will probably post more tomorrow. But very glad Billy was in Ottawa and I was able to see the show 4 times!!! It's beena good (but expensive) week!!!

[CJ-Rochester]

Thanks for writing the review Rob. It sounds like you had a great time enjoying the tour in Ottawa. As you said, it is nice to have the show in your home town but it can be expensive.

[angelenroute]

The afternoon show, as you know, I purposely chose the worst seat in the house. Now, you can still see the stage and all, so it wasn't horrible. But you don't get any emotion or connection from that far away. I would only recommend being that far away if thats the only seats available. Otherwise the price difference is definately worth it to be closer.

Well, part of me wants to say, "I could have told you that and saved you the grief," which I knew I could have said in advance too, but since I have enjoyed the show from the last row of rear mezzanine at The Imperial, I am glad you too have learned the value of the closer ticket. Yes, you often pay more, but once you're spoiled by being that close, it's very difficult seeing it from the back. Usually I can find partial view close orchestra seats that work for me, but not always.

Either way, I'm glad you got to see the show so close to home, and 4 times at that! Thank you for the reviews, and definitely add any more thoughts to this or future tour city threads if you think of anything!

Sean

[rob_hanson1979]

Yea I'm glad I sat in that seat, just to see what it was like. Considering my post-Christmas budget, it was a bad seat vs no seat option, so a bad seat is better than nothing. But I will hopefully have good seats for any future show.

I remembered another thought about Mitchell. He has the capacity for a very pitched voice. He Dad walks into the ballet class at the end of Solidarity, when Billy runs of the stage and yells "oh S**t", Mitchell does it very high pitched and squeeky. It was hilarious!!!

[CJ-Rochester]

I love when a Billy can do the "oh S**t" in a high pitched squeak! It certainly maximizes the laughs.

About that worst seat in the house you had, one good thing about sitting upstairs is you get a whole new appreciation of the choreography. I too like sitting close enough to see faces, but once in a while it is nice to sit upstairs to remind me how brilliant Peter Darling's contribution to the show is.