St. Paul Reviews

[Todd]

I was thinking I'd heard that some of the "wow factor" stuff mentioned here was cut from the show - not because of lack of rehearsal - but for safety reasons. I'm sure all of the current Billys on the tour are capable of doing a flip off the piano like the past Billys used to do, but I think they discontinued it because of fear of injury. Personally, I don't remember many - if any - injuries from the piano flip in the past, so I wonder if they're erring a bit too much on the side of caution in this case.

[ERinVA]

Maybe the safety factor has to do with the stability of the piano and/or how it's fastened to the stage. I suppose that this could be different now than it used to be. That's just a thought.

[accessmenj]

Thank you, kport. The show couldn't go on without all those talented and dedicated cast members in addition to the Billys. Having seen this SETA version of the tour as well as London, NY, Chicago, Toronto, and the first incarnation of the road tour, I actually think that as a whole, this current BETM tour cast is one of the strongest I have seen anywhere.

I agree with ERinVA. I have not seen as many venues and productions of BETM as some, but the quality of the child-performers remains as strong as ever, and the ensemble and adult actors are better overall currently than the previous productions. I worry that this would degrade in a non-SETA or Actors Equity production.

[ActingDude17]

I was thinking I'd heard that some of the "wow factor" stuff mentioned here was cut from the show - not because of lack of rehearsal - but for safety reasons. I'm sure all of the current Billys on the tour are capable of doing a flip off the piano like the past Billys used to do, but I think they discontinued it because of fear of injury. Personally, I don't remember many - if any - injuries from the piano flip in the past, so I wonder if they're erring a bit too much on the side of caution in this case.

Wasn't Alex Ko's injury the result of a piano flip?

[ERinVA]

I don't recall ever hearing anything about what brought about his injury.