Billy Elliot the Forum

Cheers Pat, that has made my day.

Don't worry folks I won't stop going to Billy, and I won't be selling my tickets this week or start going across the road to Wicked instead
and behaving like a fruit.
That was just me being worked up & frustrated this morning & the old temper getting the better of me when I was thinking about B2B last night.

And you're right Pat, I will think of what I would be missing instead as I have always wanted to run across the road to the VP every time I have seen Wicked. (and before anyone says anything, I think Wicked is a good show, but Billy will always be number 1). In all honesty, it would take a lot more than a change to B2B to make me stop coming to the VP after 5 years.

The comments I made that I hated it is because it really took me by surprise, I was shocked, I didn't expect it, only the cast changes etc.
I did think the Skipping was great actually, a great job by Ollie, Genevieve & Phil, & I'm sure it will result in some funny moments in the future when it does not always go according to plan for the Billys, Mr B or Mrs W.

As JohnCougar has just said, if Stephen Daldry is fine with the changes in the show, then we should be as well.
I will probably warm to B2B eventually, and no doubt I will be made to eat my words.
However, the hand gesture by Billy to Mr B in B2B is unecessary. I think some people could be quite offended by it.

There will be a positive review of Mondays show coming up and my usual infamous long reviews coming up of Saturday night's show
concentrating on the fantastic & phenomenal performance of Tom Holland & the rest of the cast.

As I have said before, keep the reviews coming folks!


Cheers
Keith

Few quick comments re last night ::::

I did feel the audience was a bit flat, but maybe that was just because sat's audience was just so good, that tonight it seemed quiet.
Genevieve - loved the new bright outfits. Her acting is extrodinary - very powerful. She added a nice few touches which I havnt heard before - my fav was in the snowing scene when she tell mr E that your KID is gifted. I dont think this has been said before. She def reminds me of the Mrs W in the film.
New small boy - fab - cheeky, smiley - excellent. He delivered his w****r line perfectly.
New tall boy - again, brilliant. Excellent posh accent. Very good acting when scab is after him in stars look down.
Ballet girls - a few old ones, but mainly new girls who seemed to be having a ball. Their dancing was fab, and didnt spot any mistakes. Hard to belive it was their first show - seemed pretty perfect to me.
Sorry, just wanted to quickly mention new cast/changes as dont have time for a full review, however, all the cast were brilliant last night in supporting Genevieve. And well done Ollie - the first boy to perform with her and the new changes - you did exceptionally well

The changes :::
The hand gesture is B2B is unecessary. I think some people could be quite offended by it.
The toilet scene - I actually quite enjoyed it
B2B - Well not an overall lover of it, but think I probably enjoyed it more than what everyone else did. Its quite a skill doing skipping/tap (I would imagine), and I think the three of them did very very well for the first time.

Anyways, sorry its a quick one - lots of things to do today
Was lovely to see so many forum members again
Lotsa lov Nic xxx

pinknick103 wrote:
Genevieve - loved the new bright outfits. Her acting is extrodinary - very powerful. She added a nice few touches which I havnt heard before - my fav was in the snowing scene when she tell mr E that your KID is gifted. I dont think this has been said before. She def reminds me of the Mrs W in the film.

I thought she reminded me of Julie Walters, too.

Just a quick thought, how many Mrs Ws had David Bardlsey played opposite now?

Other than B2B changing, were there any other changes?

Would the change be because the new Mrs W (Genevieve Lemon) is used to the Broadway version? Embarrassingly, can't even remember how the Australian version was

The Australian B2B didn't have a skipping rope. It had the ballet barre on wheels, where Billy would do some leaps on it. As well as that they would spin it around I think, they would duck under it and such.

Thanks for the reminder Meagan about the barre. I only saw the Australian show once and had completely forgotten about that.

I also agree with Pinknick and Chris about Genevieve reminding them of Julie Walters in the film.

I always thought that Genevieve was just like Julie. For a while I thought they cast ever Mrs W to be like Julie, then I saw a photo of Haydn

The hand gesture is B2B is unecessary. I think some people could be quite offended by it.

This is Stephen Daldry at work from the changes he made to the Chicago Production

Thank goodness for that explanation, Sam! I thought I had completely missed something in the B'way show.

Just a comment on that new rope hopping in B2B obviously imported from the US:
Sadly it's contradicting the story:
- Billy hates boxing!!
- Billy is in this evening to lern proper dancing from Mrs. W. - and not rope-hopping, and no boxing-gloves anymore, please!!
(If at all, that might better fit into the boxing scene then...)
The only explanation I would have is that the new Mrs. W. (just coming from Broadway) can't do a propper boogie...
I'm very sad to read that they destroyed that great London B2B that was so much nearer to the original BE movie!

The new Mrs. W has never been on Broadway. She played Mrs. W in the Oz show in both cities. She was chosen for Chicago, but because of Equity problems, they decided to use her in London instead. As for the boxing theme, well, they are in the boxing hall after all, and Mrs. W is using "found objects" (in the film, the object is a soccer ball) to make her point that dance is a way to express yourself (and why not make up a dance about something you hate--get out your frustration?) Also, Billy does not wear the gloves in the number, she does. I think that's because she is challenging him. At first, he is very taken aback and asks her several times, "Miss! What're you doin'?" as he tries to avoid her punches before he catches on to the idea and gets into the spirit of the dance.