Reviews of the 5th Anniversary Show

[jen]

Part 1 Before the show.

Arrived at about 6/30. There was a great atmosphere as soon as you arrived at the theatre a red carpet outside and an air of anticipation. Already a bank of photographers was established outside the theatre. Passers by were looking to see what was happening. The Evening Standard distributors or were they front of house staff were all wearing tutus to add to the fun of the occasion. The small side street by the stage door was closed of for the night and all the buses that go down there were diverted for the night, obviously a lot of thought had gone into this. The stage door pub was heaving with people and I think there were quite a few family and friends in there. Outside the stage door there were a lot of the young cast members George Maguire was there chatting nineteen to the dozen to Brad who was his Michael they obviously had a lot to say to each other who says teenage boys don’t chat. Late George was talking to a group of girls possibly former Debbie’s but I don’t know. Didn’t want to stare. Quite a few people were carrying posters I don’t know if they were Evening Standard posters or they had been purchased at the theatre. I then stood on the Island outside the theatre you could get quite a good view from there. Nice to meet up with Paul Willy and Gabour. They told me that there was going to be a Billy parade at 7pm. Soon after the parade took place Layton had a very fetching hat on. Elton I think arrived soon afterwords. There was s now a veritable media scrum. The traffic in the main road was almost coming to a standstill. A coach came to a stop at traffic lights the people were standing up peering out of the windows trying to see what was happening and taking photos at the same time. All the people attending the show were given a 5th birthday badge quite a tradition now. Special programes were on sale however unlike the 1st birthday the contents were the same as usual. Still they were nice to have. It was nice to meet up with members of the forum briefly in the small bar.
In the theatre itself there was no sign of Elton but good see George chatting away to someone not sure who it was but she had a very glamorous evening dress on.
Will bore you with some more thoughts later.

[Todd]

The gentleman in the background is David Walliams.

I've seen this guy in many of the pictures, but I'm not familiar with him. Did he have some prominent role in the evening's activities ?

[NIKKIE-NIKKIE]

Thanks for that comprehensive list, Nikkie.

Now I hope that we can get some members' reviews in here too.

Oppsy I thought you meant media reviews.... as we have reviews thread

We could copy those that are already in March over to this one.

[Moby-Dick]

Lurrrved the pics, Billy Whiz! Thanks for posting them up.

Gosh, everyone is so grown up! The difference between the current and past Billys is insane. So much change in just 5 years.

And thanks to patc and jen for the reviews.

Under "normal" circumstances at the end of a Billy show your emotions are all over the place anyway but when the curtain came down after the Finale what followed was the most emotional experience I've had at the VPT. On Tuesday evening one of the adult cast had warned us, without giving any details, that we'd be in floods of tears. As the curtain rose again and the music started, George, James and Liam came "out of the mist" to the front of the stage wearing the famous Billy shirts. It was just too much. Then the hammer blow as 19 Billys, similarly dressed, came forward, so many of them having grown so tall from when we last saw them. The magnificent, powerful yet graceful display of dancing that followed I saw but it was through such streaming eyes that I hope and pray that it is going to be released publicly to enjoy all over again. This was the business. They can never better it.

Wowza...sounds like an amazing Finale performance. So jealous of all of you who were there to witness what must have been such a beautiful moment in BETM history. Five years later...Wow. Just wow.

Will bore you with some more thoughts later.

Looking forward to being "bored" with more of your thoughts on the show!! Keep 'em coming! Am always excited to read reviews of BETM performances. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your (v. UN-boring) thoughts!!

x
M-D

[Justin]

So for those who weren't there...I'll try to pin point who is who...

the dance sequence (that was recorded) starts from about

38 secs in - you see 2 Billys on stage - the blonde one in the front is Bradley Wilson, and behind him is Leon Cooke. Brad exits with coupe jetes that take him across the stage to house right and at about

44 secs we see a smaller darker haired Billy come in with a flip - that's Fox Jackson-Keen. He does a no-hands backflip, two more Billys enter on stage with a flip at about 48 sec. I'm not sure who they are (ETA - I think these are Ollie Gardner and Tom Holland)

57 secs we see Layton Williams (house left) and Josh Fedrick (R) slide to the front of the stage

1:05 street billys - I see Sam Angell, James Lomas, Dean McCarthy, Layton and Josh are behind. I think Travis Yates is on the far stage right.

1:18 - appearing in jete from upstage we see Matthew Koon who double somersaults downstage and he leads a little solo section. Behind him I think are Rhys Yeomans and Dean Charles Chapman and for a brief second we see Olly Taylor saut de chat across the stage behind the three of them.

1:35 - Liam Mower in his now iconic ala seconde turns. Four Billys somersault across the stage alternately behind him. All do no hands somersaults. I'm unclear who they are.

[Gburr]

Wow Liam's turns are so fast.

[pexcornel]

In almost all press material released to the public but also in the picture archives of the big agencies, there is 80% representation of Elton John and 10% of other adult persons present at the gala and 10% of the former Billys. (rough percentage but you get the idea).
With all those photographers present it's damn difficult to find some decent pictures of the real action, the finale megamix.

It's like they were in a spellbound state as soon as the 3 originals got on stage.

[Born to Boogie]

I do hope that there exists somewhere a record of the three originals standing centre-stage after appearing through the mist. It was such a moving moment it will be etched in my memory for a long time to come yet - but for me it is perhaps THE defining image of the night, if not the last five years since I first saw the George in the show in 2005, and it would be great to have a copy.

[jacob]

Hopefully the Theatre will sell some of the professional photographs taken during the finale. They did this with some of David Scheinmann's photographs taken during the early days of the Show.

[Thomas]

So much change in just 5 years.

It's called puberty Happens to everyone

Thanks for sharing the pictures, Billy Whiz! Great as always!

I thought it would be crazy to just come over to London for one evening, but if I hadn't done it, I had missed a lot! Somehow I haven't though about the show very much, but when I saw the red carpet in front of the theater it somehow struck me that it would be very special. And it was. The last time I have seen Elton John has been 27 years ago when he did the performance on stage. This time he was just one of the introducers of a piece he had prepared and he gave a nice speech, as did Stephen Daldry and Lee Hall. When the show started and Connor Kelly entered the stage you could see a big smile on my face and it got even broader when Tom Holland entered. I had hoped to see them both, as they are my current dream combination of Billy/Michael. And together with Francesca and the rest of the cast they gave the best performance ever!

The whole performance was topped with the grand finale of Billys and Michaels. My view was a little obstructed, as I had about 5-6 cameras directly in front of me. These are the times I am really thankful to be a little bigger than others Wonderful performances of the older boys, too! It was great to see Leon Cooke again!

Cheers - Thomas