Billy Elliot the Forum

Go home Billy wrote: 
BBC Radio 4's 'Front Row' was not impressed (warning - contains spoilers):
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01bzh28

Nor was I when I saw it. Brash, noisy and tedious in the extreme. In my mind marginally worse than Wicked.

I have a ticket for the Children in Need Gala Performance hosted by Sir Terry Wogan on Thursday, November 7th. Having never seen the show I am going to go in with an open mind having read the conflicting comments from Pat and Westletonion

Peter Darling has won the best choreographer What's On Stage award for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:

https://twitter.com/CharlieChoc_UK/stat ... 20/photo/1

http://awards.whatsonstage.com/about

I saw this show this evening and found it to be an interesting mix of stage musical and magic show. The special effects and high-tech staging were something to behold, as it contained a number of things I hadn't seen before.

But like the topic of the show itself, I found it to be all sugar and not much sustenance. It reminded me of the many movies these days which subsitute loud special effects for character development and heart. Maybe kids (12 and under) would like it better than I did, or maybe I've just been spoiled after seeing "Billy Elliot." But despite the strong efforts given by the cast and the superb sets and technological wizardry, the show couldn't overcome the vanilla-sounding songs or the assault of special effects to make me want to see it again.

There will be a Charlie performance on Children in Need on the BBC tonight

OliverWaters wrote:There will be a Charlie performance on Children in Need on the BBC tonight

Here it is:

http://youtu.be/D4X53K1vJ7A

Thanks for the link.

I took my children to see Charlie and the chocolate factory last week. We enjoyed it and found the sets particularly amazing. It's certainly a visual treat. Like others have said, I did find it quite brash and I thought it was very over acted in places. Apart from Charlie, the other children (and their parents) were played as caricatures. I know this is meant to add to the fun and comedy, but for me it lacked strong character development and emotion. The fact that we were sitting quite far back in the stalls probably didn't help. I've come to the conclusion that the cheap seats in any show just don't give the same dramatic experience & if you're going to see something, it's really worth paying more ...although, that said, the tickets for this show are super expensive (especially for a family of 4) and it would've cost nearly £400 to get any closer!!

I think I saw Zachary Loonie as Charlie. Like Billy, he's hardly off the stage and was a brilliant actor, singer and mover. Though the range of emotions needed is much less.

I don't know what the BETM experience has done to me, but the 3 shows I've seen since just haven't come even close to the way I feel about BETM, and I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever rave about any other show ever again!!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has announced it will close in London. The West End production is booking to Saturday 7th January 2017; it hasn't been confirmed whether this is the closing date, but the announcement says the show is entering its "fourth and final year" at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

http://www.westendframe.com/2016/02/cha ... close.html

porschesrule wrote:Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has announced it will close in London. The West End production is booking to Saturday 7th January 2017; it hasn't been confirmed whether this is the closing date, but the announcement says the show is entering its "fourth and final year" at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

http://www.westendframe.com/2016/02/cha ... close.html

Also in this article cast changes in April are mentioned with a couple of ex-Billy cast members joining.

Chris Grahamson, who finished as Tony in November, starts as Mr Bucket, and Ben Redfern moves from the Billy ensemble to the Charlie ensemble.