Billy Elliot the Forum

Older Billy on Saturday ( and on several days last week) was Lee Hoy, not James Butcher.

dancingboy wrote:Older Billy on Saturday ( and on several days last week) was Lee Hoy, not James Butcher.

Thank you, corrected.

jmh2014 wrote: has there ever been a show before where all the mechanical sets have failed?

Not that I can recall when I was present. There was a previous abandonment of the show some years ago due to one part of the set (Toilet, from memory) refusing to return to base.

There have been at least a couple of previous occasions when the Stairs set malfunctioned and they proceeded without it. I'm sure I did a review of one of them but can't find it. The subsequent improvisations this time were more or less the same as before and also prompted the question again - who needs the stairs anyway?

There was another malfunction at the matinee on Thursday. The rising and falling black side partitions (don't know their technical name) refused to descend for the arrival of the dresses in Expressing so we saw them emerge from behind the pushed back scenery, walk towards right front and then enter stage from the usual position.

It would be B2B and the outstanding Ruthie Henshall that would give us a another special moment.......Needless to say many of the regulars dissolved into fits of hysterics.

Such moments are always fun for the fans and this was made to look even funnier when Brodie, from the back of the stage, turned his face to the audience with a bemused expression that said "What the heck is going here?".

The cast made light of the problems and it is likely that anyone who hadn't seen the show before suspected nothing. Very special kudos to Brodie who kept his professional cool to an outstanding level in circumstances he would probably not have experienced before.

Craig Armstrong played Audio Tape Man in both shows. Craig plays all of these Ensemble parts in his own way and this interpretation was an invention of monumental hilarity.

Pat

patc wrote:
There have been at least a couple of previous occasions when the Stairs set malfunctioned and they proceeded without it. I'm sure I did a review of one of them but can't find it. The subsequent improvisations this time were more or less the same as before and also prompted the question again - who needs the stairs anyway?
Pat

I think this was May last year.

I particularly liked the reworked Angry Dance. Gave more floor time for Brodie to show off his tap skills. Also liked it when he hid behind the left stage wall watching the riot unfold.