Theater Buff14 wrote:Yes, but I haven’t been to London for many years since I was in the Navy. One reason why I think I wouldn’t want to see it again is that after seeing David Bologna as Michael, anyone else would inevitably be a letdown!
I'm sure you didn't mean it this way but I find your comment disrespectful to all the other boys that have played Michael. I was fortunate to be in New York when David made his debut and he was terrific but I have seen many other boys in the role on both sides of the Atlantic and they are equally talented.
The simple fact is that every Billy, Michael, Ballet Girls, Small or Tall Boy, has been fantastic, and in their own way. To limit oneself to just one performer limits one's experience and pleasure. Rather like finding one good bottle of wine, and refusing to try any other. How..dull.
For me, the interest is found in seeing how each character adapts to the role. I have never been other than amazed.
I don't think he was trying to be disrespectful. I know he used the word letdown, but he hasn't seen anyone else as Michael. If he's seen another actor and then said "that guy was a letdown" it would've been different.
I can understand someone associating a particular actor in a role and wanting to keep it that way. For my, Ghostbusters has always been my favorite movie. And I think I'd have a hard time buying another actor as Dr Peter Venkman. Because to me, that IS Bill Murray.
That being said, he said he would try and see the show again, and I am confident when he does, he will see that each actor puts his own unique spin on the roll, and that they are all fantastic in their own way.
"I'll go back to Dana's apartment and check her out........ I mean I'll go check out Dana's apartment."
I have never seen even a semi-professional play, let alone a professional one, in which I would characterize any performer as having been an embarrassment, including ones which feature one or more kids in demanding roles. I have never even seen a professional performance where an actor blew a line, song or dance step, unless he or she recovered so adroitly that I failed to notice. No professional director or choreographer would ever let it get to such a point. However, some performers, of course, are better than others as with any field of human endeavor.
I was too young to have seen The Music Man in its original Broadway run. Having seen the movie, however, I can’t envision wanting to see the musical with anyone other than Robert Preston.
(I once had the pleasure of corresponding for awhile with Eddie Hodges, the original Winthrop on Broadway. (He’s now a mental health counselor in his hometown in Mississippi; and no, I wasn’t a patient!) He said that he never met anyone—inside or outside show business—who worked as hard as Mr. Preston had. Mr. Hodges recounted that Mr. Preston had spent hours at the theater after rehearsals rehearsing on his own.)
I was very disappointed with the remake of the movie (for television) with Matthew Broderick and an attempted revival on Broadway with no less an eminent performer as Dick Van Dyke didn’t fare well, receiving mediocre reviews.
It’s not just David Bologna's singing and dancing that is superb, but his acting as well. He hits every line, every inflection perfectly, and his facial expressions (perhaps the most difficult aspect of acting to master) are always right on the proverbial money. And for a kid from New Orleans originally, his Durham accent is quite good to boot; better, I thought, than that of Ryan Collinson who hails from Southport, not all that far from Durham.
(From viewing the one song I linked to in my original post, it doesn’t appear as if Ryan even attempted an accent different from his native Southport one. People from Durham speak closer to a Scottish accent than do people from the Liverpool and Southport area.)
There must now be well over a hundred kids on both sides of the “pond” who have played Billy or Michael professionally. Relatively few will ever go on to become really big names as adult performers. I’d bet the metaphorical farm that David Bologna will if that is his ultimate desire. He’s gotten rave reviews in a teenage version of Chicago (notwithstanding that such seems rather an odd concept). The boy has the sort of innate talent which cannot be taught.
Regarding Ryan Collinson, for example, I said I was impressed by his performance (from the little I have had the opportunity to see of it), and I stand by that statement. However, as others have noted, each performer in these roles have their own particular strengths and weaknesses. What so impressed me about Ryan’s performance is his natural athleticism and poise. The child seems fearless. His gymnastic background afforded his choreographer a lot of latitude regarding an acro interpretation of the dance sequences. (And the kid’s wholesome, All-American boy good looks (rather an odd metaphor for a limey kid, to be sure!) didn’t hurt him either.)
However, Ryan, unlike David, appears to have had absolutely no acting or singing experience and not even any formal dance training, and such tells (at least regarding the first two aspects of the performance). I think Ryan made the right decision in bowing out in order to attend the prestigious British school for the performing arts. There he’ll get the formal training he lacks, and I think he too has an excellent shot at making it big as an entertainer if that is what he ultimately wants.
