Cleveland, OH

[ERinVA]

Clove Smokes provides the cigarettes for BETM productions, judging from past tweets from them, but perhaps the tour was running low and tried to purchase some locally.

[BillyAddict]

It would seem Mike has not fully recovered yet from whatever the sickness that befel him this week. (I am told it's not an injury)

A good reminder to all us fans how demanding this role is. All the Billy's make it look so much easier than it is.

Get well soon Mike. (John recommends chicken soup . )

[porschesrule]

This article features Giuseppe Bausilio and the 2nd Tour production:

http://www.vindy.com/news/2010/nov/28/y ... ?newswatch

[johnnyc]

I went to Joseph Garry's "Broadway Buzz" talk before Tuesday's BE performance. He is quite knowledgable on many things connected with theatre, having creating original musicals, as well as staging concert events for the likes of Sarah Vaugn and Ray Charles. His Billy Elliot talk was facinating. Garry said that all the creators connected with the film and musical, including Lee Hall and Stephen Daldry, came from "the cracks of British Society," meaning they were intimately familiar with the tribulations of the sufferings miners had to endure during the 1984 strike. Garry went on to talk about the background and meaning of the various songs in the musical and the variety of styles Elton John employed in writing those numbers. Then he talked about the 40 boys who have played Billy, emphasing the training regime they have to go through, and the fact that a boy only has, in avarage, a 1 1/2 year life expectancy as Billy. An interesting bit of trivia, 7,626 pairs of ballet shoes have been used in the various Billy productions! I did pick up on one omission in the talk. Mr Garry said nothing about Elton John becoming emotional when he saw the film at the Cannes Festival. And he claimed another person, Sally Green, of Old Vic was the mover and shaker who finally convinced John, Daldry and Hall to do the musical. Interesting.

Mr Garry will continue to give these talks about BETM each performance night through December 5, at 7:00 pm in the Idea Center in Playhouse Square. I urge any fan who is in the Cleveland area to take in one of these informative talks. There is no charge.

[porschesrule]

Then he talked about the 40 boys who have played Billy, emphasing the training regime they have to go through...

Mr. Garry is a little low in his number of boys who have played Billy, as there have actually been 51 who have tread the boards to date and another who may have his debut soon right there in Cleveland (Kylend Hetherington).

If you happen to run into Mr. Garry again, you might want to refer him to this as documentation of that fact:

http://www.theskykid.com/news-random/bi ... lys-debut/

[ERinVA]

There's an interesting tidbit in this article about young thespians presenting their work at Playhouse Square.


http://www.news-herald.com/articles/201 ... 363006.txt

"The only issue was finding a weekend in 2010 that wasn't already booked," she added. "I nearly had to fight those little kids from ‘Billy Elliot' who were going to use Kennedy's theater space as their green room! Personally I'm relieved it didn't come to blows; I hate having to knock out 8-year-olds."

This actually points up a problem that the touring cast is encountering, which is having to improvise green room space and rehearsal space in the various facilities where they take up residence. In Durham, the "green room" was a curtained off area in the side lobby, and dance practice space was portable floors duct taped to the carpet in the main lobbies. There was even a sign posted at the edge of one of those floors which read: "Please watch your step. Our Billys practice here."

[johnnyc]

I'm looking forward to tonight's show, not only because I may again get to see (if the rotation holds) the happiest Billy I've encountered in a long time (Daniel), but also participate in in a post-show chat with cast members. That should be interesting. A second chat session is to take place following the December 9 performance.

[porschesrule]

Please write something about the after show chat session with cast, John. Will be looking forward to hearing about it.

[johnnyc]

Please write something about the after show chat session with cast, John. Will be looking forward to hearing about it.

Actually, I won't have to say much. The session is being streamed on: http://www.playhousesquare.org/ustream. If you go there, click on "post show chat'" then scroll clear to the bottom of the screen that comes up, and click on "post show chat 12-2" just below the video frame.


I will just say a lot of cast members, as well as the resident director, the dialog coach, the fight coach and other staff came out to talk to us. The principal actors I recall being present were Jeff Kready (Tony), Giuseppe Bausilio, Rachel Mracna (Debbie), Griffin Birney and Jacob Zelonky (Michael), Landon Harris (tall/posh boy/Michael understudy), and Nicholas Lampaisi (small boy, who told us his ambition was to one day play Michael), and several "bally" girls. I know I forgot several key adult players, but the mike everyone used to introduce themselves wasn't very loud. Some good questions were asked, many being directed to Giuseppe (who else?). I got to chat with Guiseppe a bit, and found that this kid just exudes charisma.

[johnnyc]

The bars in the State Theatre are featuring two new mixed drinks - BORN TO BOOGIE and SOLIDARITY FOREVER. The first is a mixture of Vodka, Cranberry Juice, Orange Juce and Lime. The second concoction is Vodka and Sprite, with Lemon. I've tried both, and I guarantee you'll be boogying after having a few glasses of the B2B drink.