Thursday 28th Jan and Wed 27th Jan.
jmh2014 wrote: we, the audience, are being treated a spectacle that has to be seen to be believed.
I second that. Amazing full-blown performances every show. No let up in entertainment value.
A rare moment in the Letter as Brodie managed to grab the letter the second time from Ruthie.
That was a first for me. Very funny from a fan's viewpoint as you could almost hear Ruthie say, "You little bxxxer".
Electricity with Brodie is always going to be special. His ballet looks to be so precise and clean.
Yes, Brodie performed a monumentally powerful and graceful exhibition of the greatest individual dance ever created for the stage. The musical arrangement for this piece is one of the most complete and exciting as I have ever heard.
As always Nathan’s solemn look at the end is a tear-jerker.
Breaks your heart no matter how many times you see it. Nathan also did the Wed show (which I watched from the DC again this week) and his splits in the Winter Scene were quite probably the best I have ever seen. It's the way he does those twirling backwards leaps that puts him in perfect position.
At the beginning of Shine, Billy has to trap the keys between his feet and flip then up to catch them, something that Thomas has obviously done many times before. This time instead of the keys being flicked up, they shoot forward across the stage. He calmly walks forward after them and then looks on in horror as they fly off the front of the stage. Left at the front of the stage not knowing quite what to do with the Ballet girls pouring in through the door, Chris Hatt saves the day by picking up the keys which were lodged in the rail at the front of the stage and throws them back.
For the fans this was one of those golden fun moments and it was an advantage to be already familiar with Thomas'
modus operandi and his now legendary facials. As the keys had been originally thrown over the set (after the Boxing scene) they landed in quite a backwards position, not exactly flying out the back door but back far enough. How they managed to end up where they did only Thomas knows but I will never forget the look on his face when it happened. Chris' lightning reflexes proved he could well be keeping wicket for England's next test Series.
Thomas delivered his usual busy-as-a-bee top-notch performance one of the many highlights being his emotionally charged tear-jerker Letter and, as you say, the continuing hugging battle between him and Ruthie is always a "let's see what happens this time" event at all his shows. What an entertainer. We are completely spoiled.
Ben was Michael and he has really come into his own.
Ben has great stage presence, great smiler, great dancer, full of beans and a pure joy to watch in action. I loved every second of it.
What a servant to the show Connie is. By my reckoning she will just about make 18 months in the show by closure time in April. Both her performances I saw this week were absolutely top-drawer. Sadly, Beatrice won't have the opportunity for such longevity but she is proving to be a great capture and delivered another beauty at the matinee. Both girls were superb with great timing at the front of stage short scene with "me Mam's dead" Billy.
Returning to Wed evening this was my second chance to see Euan from the DC and he was phenomenal. With wonderful pacing and skill he took us through all of the emotions, thrills and spills that follow Billy over the three hours.
Up there your head needs to have much more RAM to be able to store the so much more data you get to take in. The perfect timing and co-ordination of movement with the floor lighting and the music is really breathtaking. The Dinnington girls did all three shows and the number of movements (steps, bodies, arms, legs, heads whilst upright AND flat on the floor) they are required to do in quick and precise succession is mind bending. I don't know how they remember them all. There must be hundreds. The Pink Dress section of
Shine is a sight to behold with the gloriously coloured floor lighting resembling a giant flat floral arrangement.
Other great floor lighting experiences are seen in
Dream Ballet as the stage floor smoke changes colour and shape. After Billy comes down off the wire he and Older Billy dance the final steps across a rectangular corridor of light. In
Angry Dance, as Billy begins he is in a rounded circle of light but when he rolls across the floor and stands up on the square preparing for the hut to come up the light quickly morphs into a square shape. In the pit scene the fight between Dad and Tony is on a clay-like bed of light but this reverts back to floorboards as they "return" to the hall. When the Miners sit on the rows of chairs in
We Once Were Kings the row of chairs on each side sit on rectangular shaped light which fades out as they stand up to come to the front centre stage.
I'm raising my hat tonight to Mike Scott, who is the only one to have been with the show since the beginning and was a terrific Posh Dad/Scab in all three shows I watched this week.
Pat