Brilliant poem Alex and Great reviews Deanfan5, dwallen, Jacob & Billy Whiz
Keep them coming folks!.
Wednesday 11th August 2010 
Billy – Ollie
Michael – Jake
Debbie – Francesca
Mrs W - Genevieve Lemon, Grandma: Deborah Bundy.
A brilliant show this evening led by the great trio of Ollie, Jake and Francesca, with a very appreciative and up for it audience, including quite a few forum members in attendance, as well as former Billy Tanner Pflueger & Ollie’s lovely Mum and Gran.
The cast were on top form, from the moment the black curtain dropped to the finale with a really passionate and powerful performance of The Stars Look Down at the beginning of the evening including Small Boys loud and passionate scream of “yeah” at the end of the song.
A wonderful and hilarious breakfast scene with John Coates as Big Davy yet again eating most of the salt and baked bean sandwich before he leaves the stage. God knows how he does it night after night eating that, but great stuff John and another brilliant performance as Big Davy.
Every single member of the cast was at the top of their game tonight, Jake, Francesca, Small Boy, Tall Boy, Joe, Craig, Genevieve, Phil, Sean & Tim all wonderful performances with the hilarious and brilliant Posh Dad from Tim Funnell and his simple “Ha” reducing the audience to fits of laughter as usual.
Particular mention must go to the Ballet Girls who were absolutely stunning throughout with great performances from them all in Shine and Solidarity, yet again they gave Ollie’s Billy a hard time (maybe because he is Senior Billy (ha-ha) ), really pushing him all over the stage. It looked like Ollie glanced at Mum sitting in the front of the Stalls with a look of “help me” on his face when Billy was been squashed inbetween the Ballet Girls.
Also must mention Samantha Seager, a great performance tonight as usual.
A brilliant and versatile actress which is evident in the many ensemble parts she plays and of course in playing Dead Mum. A perfect mum to any of the Billys and such great performances everytime, especially in The Letter.
She brings so much emotion and believability to Dead Mum, which is evident in how the Billys react to her in The Letter and throughout the show.
A brilliant focusing on the wall scene where Francesca staring lovingly at Ollie’s Billy got that close to him at one point I thought she was going to kiss him, but Debbies feelings for Billy were yet again portrayed perfectly by her with wonderful delivery of Debbies dialogue as usual. I certainly agree with Jacob in his review, Francesca’s Debbie is definitely “cush”.
Of course at the top of his game and leading the way was our favourite wee laddie from Bath (complete with haircut)
– the legend that is Ollie “20th London Billy” Gardner – aka Senior Billy.
Tonight, Ollie yet again proved why he is a great Billy and will be remembered as such, and why I am proud to be co-chair of OGAS.
An astonishing performance and it is just fantastic to watch a Billy at his peak from the moment he is pushed on stage by Dad until his infamous thumbs up to the audience at the final curtain, such confidence, energy and enthusiasm with an edgy side to his Billy throughout which makes his Billy and scenes so believable and his performances a joy to watch.
Brilliant tone & pitch in his delivery of Billy’s lines and in his great singing voice with the right inflection and emphasis on words/sentences throughout the show, including the perfectly delivered “No, she was just me mam” and the great way he says “hello” to Mrs W in the goodbye scene with her.
Never in a million years will I ever get bored with Ollie’s Boxing Scene, so perfect throughout with his brilliant, hilarious & genius dance moves.
With Jake as Michael, Isaac as Tall Boy and Aaron Lynch as Small Boy and their pathetic attempts at press-ups while being shouted & swore at by Phil Snowden’s George, it resulted in one of the most hilarious and best Boxing Scenes ever.
Phil Snowden’s George has grown on me as I wasn’t too keen on it at first especially his front of curtain routine. But I’m really enjoying it now and loving his Boxing Scene and his MCMT, good luck to Phil when he takes over the role of Mr Braithwaite when Sean Kingsley leaves later this month.
A wonderful B2B with brilliant & perfect skipping from Sean, Genevieve and Ollie where he has speeded up his skipping again before and after Billy changes shoes. Hurrah! Just don’t let that rope hit you in the eye again Ollie if you are going too fast.
Great reaction from Ollie tonight to Debbie’s “I’ll show you me f***y” line with a brilliant initial shocked wide eyed expression to a look of confusion on his face why Billy thinks about it and finally opening his mouth a couple of times as if he is about to say “yes” or “okay” to her but then stopping himself and thinking about it more (while seemingly having a few glances “down there” at Debbie) before he decides “nah, yer alright”.
Ollie’s response time to Debbie compared to the other Billy’s tends to be shorter (some people were saying that it is “too quick”) – not me though Ollie. Still a great scene to watch with all the Billy’s and Debbie’s despite the dialogue being disjointed & not making sense. Debbie’s lines about her Dad/Deputy Manager/Alcoholic etc always used to get a laugh in the old version. In the new version this has never got a laugh due to the cut lines as it implies that all men who have affairs are/turn into alcoholics and the audience quite rightly don’t laugh or get it because it isn’t true. Thankfully the scene is saved by the great performances from all 4 Billys and 3 Debbies.
Angry Dance – Astonishing & absolutely stunning, Ollie certainly went for it tonight, I don’t think there has been an Angrier Angry Dance in a long time, Even his Mum said he was really angry tonight, and he certainly was - just fantastic.
Forget the really really Angry Dances mentioned previously in Ollie reviews as tonight he shouted, screamed and swore the place down with a really aggressive tap throughout.
His “dance you little bas****” was delivered in the most pi***d off and angry way I have ever seen, yet again he kicked the hell out of the bed, the stairs and practically most of the stage.
At one point I thought he wasn’t going to stop kicking the hut as he was brilliantly going nuts with a few extra swear words
before he remerges and says “Come on Billy”.
Ollie brilliantly stormed from the stage really pi***d off at the end of Angry Dance, although I still wish he would go back to telling the audience to f*** off
when he leaves, but his Angry Dances are stunning and some of the best I and quite a few others have seen.
Dream Ballet with Sergio was very graceful & elegant and a joy to watch with perfect poise and posture throughout (as far as I know – as I have said before I’m not a Ballet expert) but it looked great to me. Great to see Ollie’s ballet skills at the fore here and how good they are and how they have developed over the last year both in Dream Ballet and the elements in Electricity.
Unfortunately, some Billy Virgins sitting along the row did not get who Sergio is meant to be, especially with his dark hair compared to Ollie’s blonde hair, therefore Dream Ballet with the blonde Barnaby might have helped their confusion. But Sergio is a great alternative to Barnaby and works well with any of the Billys in Dream Ballet and is great in his many ensemble parts.
Had to tell the Billy Virgins in the end who Sergio is in Dream Ballet – and they responded by saying “so that is why the older one is wearing the same top”,
“but why is his hair different ?”.
Now that we have 4 blonde Billys there no doubt will be a few more Dream Ballet “queries” when Barnaby with his blonde hair isn’t on.
But the Billy Virgins absolutely loved Dream Ballet, as we all did, a wonderful performance from both. The Billy Virgins also loved the entire show and are definitely coming back (although they were going to Wicked on Thursday, but I let them off since they are coming back to Billy).
There have been some great Ollie Electricity's but tonight was just wonderful.
A perfect Street Electricity, such energy and passion from Ollie throughout and some amazing acro moves including the infamous no hands summersault and ending with another perfect board jump which resulted in loud appreciative applause and another large standing ovation(quite a number of which Ollie has had lately) led by Mum and a few of us in row B which went on for a good while and Ollie took his time to lap up the applause before he left the stage.
Another legendary performance from Jake as Michael, a wonderful partner to any of the Billys and a great partnership with Ollie tonight (and another Jake tap shoes victory) in Express. A great performance in the Winter Scene with Jake doing his usual puking up at the football kit and really loud and excited “CUUUUUSSSHH” when Billy throws the Tutu at Michael for him to put on. Thankfully Jake has also stopped over shouting Kevin F***ing Keegan for quite a few months now and his delivery of this line is much much better, whereas with the over-shouting there wasn't any audience response when Jake said it. But as Jacob has said, Jake is great at letting the dialogue do the talking. He also knows how to improvise or add a few cheeky touches if the need arises.
Brilliant acting throughout from Jake with even more winks and growls at the audience than usual & a very devastated face in the final scene as Billy leaves.
The audience didn’t applaud until the curtain was all the way down which allowed us to take in the emotion of the scene and listen to the music in full without the applause drowning it out. Jake is a talented young man, with a great future ahead who certainly knows how to work an audience.
Well done Jake, another brilliant, hilarious & cush Michael performance.
Final word must go to the wonderful Small Boy that is Aaron Lynch.
Such a brilliant young performer for his age and what a character he is, he never fails to put a smile on anyone’s face by his actions and great performances in every show with him singing everything and occasionally shouting/singing a few lines at the top of his voice as well.
Tonight he was constantly yapping away as he sorted out the chairs before being lifted up on to Big Davy’s back/shoulders, i.e. Big Davy and George were saying their lines but he was still talking to them, Brilliant!.
His delivery of “je-sus” in the Boxing Scene is perfectly done in every show and absolutely love the rather cute & innocent way he delivers his “see ye George” before stopping at the door and shouting rather loudly “w****r”.
Wonderful stuff and really really funny in his delivery of these lines.
We go on about stunning performances from the Billys, but young Aaron gives a stunning performance every time,
definitely a great future ahead in performing arts for this legendary Small Boy.
A great evening and another wonderful & entertaining performance throughout from our Senior Billy, filled with the usual Ollie charisma, confidence, energy and glances (plenty at Mum) that we know and love him for.
Delighted I got the chance once again to say hello to Ollie’s brilliant and lovely Mum, who is clearly so proud of her very talented son and also the opportunity to have a joke with Mum and Gran as we walked out through the Stalls Bar as I shouted out, “Well I don’t know about you, but I thought that Ollie Gardner was rubbish tonight”, which resulted in immediate laughter from Mum and Gran as they knew I was obviously joking.
Ollie rubbish ? never in a million years, a fantastic Billy and a wonderful performer in his acting, dancing and singing with a bright future ahead.
Well done Ollie, another fantastic, legendary and cush show mate,
and one that you and all your supporters and members of OGAS can be very proud off.
Cheers
Keith
Is there a new Older Billy alternate that hasn't been listed in the ensemble on the website yet, or have I completely missed something?
. It was a pleasure to meet her mum and sister. Francesca has been in the Show for about 18 months and, apparently, loves every minute of it. The children in the cast are looked after so well that homesickness is rare. Francesca maintained her focus as Debbie throughout, despite the proximity of her vocal supporters. Her Debbie is indeed cush.
