February 2010 reviews - London

User avatar
burtond
Michael
Posts: 2396
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 7:53 am
Location: UK

Re: February 2010 reviews - London

Post by burtond »

Wednesday 17th February 2010 - UK London

Lovely show this evening with Dean as Billy and George as Michael.

My focus for this little review are the Understudies of which there were a number performing tonight as follows:

Mrs W - Samantha Seager (Usually Dead Mum) - Samantha was an exceptional Mrs W - it was a joy to watch her and appreciate her interpretation of the role.

Dead Mum - Rhona McGregor - lovely performance with lots of sensitivity

Older Billy - Sergio Giacomelli - I am really becomming a fan of Sergio's - this guy has got lots of talent.

Dad - David Bardsley - to be honest, I love the way in whcih David plays Billy's Dad. He has performed this role all this week so far.

George - Phil Snowden - Phil plaays this role completely different to David Nellist - and it is wonderfully fresh to watch - like him very much.

Good going guys/gals. Just goes to show how strong a team we have access to in this marvelous show.
An ex-Regular and someone who was Passionate about the show but who has now found the rest of the WEST END.
User avatar
chocchipcookie26
Tony
Posts: 712
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 9:04 am

Re: February 2010 reviews - London

Post by chocchipcookie26 »

Yes.. i LOVE David Bardsley as Dad - I've seen Phil Whitchurch once, Phil Snowden (!) twice, and David Bardsley 4 times.. seemed like i was never gonna get Joe.. but i did at my latest show (November :O :() he was brilliant too.. but really.. David is Dad for me!
x
User avatar
patc
Mrs Wilkinson
Posts: 1406
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 5:26 pm
Location: Dublin, Ireland

Re: February 2010 reviews - London

Post by patc »

Thursday Matinee 18th February

Ollie, George, Fleur
Dad: David B
Mrs. W: Caroline
George: Phil

What a huge crowd of Forum Members and regulars at the matinee. Plus all the hundreds of half-termers made for a wonderful atmosphere and virtual full house. I think they ran out of seat cushions :D

Ollie was absolutely sensational, George showed us why he is going to be badly missed and Fleur gave us a Debbie to remember. What a trio of magnificent performers.

Caroline, once again, starred as Mrs. W and David B a wonderful Dad.
And what more can be said about Mr. Versatile, Phil Snowden that hasn't already been said. Sensational, too.

Everyone was on a high during the Finale and going out the doors the buzz was palpable.

Ollie and George's folks were there to take it all in and there was time for a few photos/autographs at the stage door but I didn't have my camera with me.

Nobody told me there'd be days like this.

Pat
Image
Todd
Dad
Posts: 1664
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:05 am
Location: Kansas City, USA

Re: February 2010 reviews - London

Post by Todd »

patc wrote: Nobody told me there'd be days like this.
Pat
Strange days indeed . . . . ;) (that was the old John Lennon song you were referencing, right?)
User avatar
patc
Mrs Wilkinson
Posts: 1406
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 5:26 pm
Location: Dublin, Ireland

Re: February 2010 reviews - London

Post by patc »

Todd wrote:(that was the old John Lennon song you were referencing, right?)
No. I was thinking of Van the Man :D I don't think Jack L had anything to do with it.

Pat
Image
User avatar
Billy Whiz
Gallery Admin
Gallery Admin
Posts: 5537
Joined: Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:26 pm
Location: England

Re: February 2010 reviews - London

Post by Billy Whiz »

Thanks for the reviews everybody.
patc wrote:Ollie and George's folks were there to take it all in and there was time for a few photos/autographs at the stage door but I didn't have my camera with me.
I hope someone had their camera with them as we are desperate for new photos of the London cast.
.
Billy Whiz is the Gallery Admin. Please send your photos, articles etc to forum.gallery[at]billyelliottheforum.me.uk Please replace [at] with @

In the email can you also please let me know the date where and when the photo(s) was taken, who is in the photo(s) as well as your forum name.

When you send photos to the gallery can you also please PM me to let me know that you have sent them. If I don't receive them after a couple of days I can then chase them up.
User avatar
burtond
Michael
Posts: 2396
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 7:53 am
Location: UK

Re: February 2010 reviews - London

Post by burtond »

Its a shame but I suppose the only time there is a chance of getting photo's these days is when the young cast are met by their parents. Certainly, when they are collected by the Billy Bus, it is like a high security operation with Bouncers and Minders ensuring that no one gets close, no photos are taken and even no one talks to the kids. They are hurridly escorted from the Theatre to the Bus like sheep and the door is quickly closed. You may be fortunate to get a quick wave before the bus drives on into the night.
An ex-Regular and someone who was Passionate about the show but who has now found the rest of the WEST END.
liberavieve
Small Boy
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:34 am
Location: Cork, Ireland

Re: February 2010 reviews - London

Post by liberavieve »

Thursday 18 February [Evening Performance]

Billy: Fox Jackson-Keen
Michael: Connor Kelly
Debbie: Francesca Mango

Greetings, all, and thank you for keeping this space in which to discuss the remarkable bit of entertainment that is Billy Elliot. I think that this is my first-ever posting here, but I needed to pop in to share some (perhaps long-winded) thoughts on last Thursday evening’s performance, which I’m still carrying close to myself a full weekend later and a little sea away.

In the very small hours of Thursday morning, two friends and I arrived in London to begin a trip that had actually started with the Facebook status: “Anyone want to head over and see Billy Elliot in London? It’s great, I promise!” We crashed for a few hours in our hostel and then immediately set out for the Victoria Palace Theatre, where we queued for day seats early enough to get under the overhang and out of the rain that began to fall.

I’d seen Billy in New York (in the middle of last May, as an end-of-term treat for myself) and had been gushing to my friends, who would be seeing it for the first time in London, about how wonderful the show was and how much I was looking forward to seeing it in its original habitat. We met two men in the queue, regulars both very knowledgeable and very friendly, who were kind enough to chat with us and to let us have a look at one of the current programs. Getting to talk with these two (hello to you both, as I believe you’re around here somewhere!) only stoked my excitement for the show that night, and it convinced my friends, I think, that they were going to be in for a wonderful experience.

Because it came up multiple times in our discussion in the queue and, later, in the theatre itself, I just want to make quick note about the differences between the London and New York productions. The essential difference between the show in London and New York is, I think, an account of flash and subtleties— brilliant flash, more often than not, in New York, and subtleties in London, just as brilliant, of course, but understated. Some of this is very literal— the flash, for instance: I’ll admit that I did miss the giant BILLY sign at the end of the show—and, in fact, thought for a moment before the finale that something had gone technically wrong and that things wouldn’t proceed—and the little flourish of the mirror lights at the start of “Expressing Yourself.” I missed the chaos of the New York “Angry Dance” and the tableau of the boards falling to reveal the riot police with their shields. Perhaps it was just the added noise of it all, or perhaps it’s just because I saw the show in New York first, but I'd be lying a bit to say I didn't miss them.

That said, though, there were moments in the London production that came as more-than-pleasant surprises. The pantomime scene and “Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher” felt very special at the Victoria Palace, for instance. Additionally, there were several lines in the London production that I don’t remember from New York—though, admittedly, this is quite possibly because I simply don’t remember them!—and that I felt added something to the story. Billy’s line about being hit at school is one; the audition scene itself is another.

The audience, too, felt different in London. I felt the audience a bit draggy, particularly in the first act, though I suspect that this could very well be because the laughs came in different places with the London crowd. It was a difference, surely— not bad, but still interesting to note.

But, onward!

I was lucky enough, in New York, to see a (then much smaller) Kiril Kulish, perhaps one of the purest of the ballet Billys recently around, and I'll admit that a large part of me was hoping to catch Dean-Charles in the role on Thursday night, out of both a personal preference for ballet and a knowledge of the absolutely glowing reviews coming in for this newest Billy. That said, though, when I saw Fox’s name up on the board, I knew that we were in for a treat; I’d heard (and seen, in Youtube clips, et cetera) nothing but great things about Fox, from praise for his acro to glowing comments about his smile, and I was certain that he wouldn’t disappoint.

Needless to say, he didn’t.

When I saw Billy in New York, while I could tell, even from far away and squinting (I’d needed a new prescription in my glasses and was back in the Imperial Theatre’s balcony, to boot), that Kiril had a lovely little voice on him and a ballet technique to take one's breath away, or that Haydn Gwynne's Mrs Wilkinson allowed her slightly pig-nosed self to grow slowly more and more attached to and impressed with her newest pupil, I missed almost entirely the little expressions that, upon this second viewing, I can safely say make the show.

And with facial expressions in mind, it only seems right to begin with Fox, who, apart from having an entirely contagious smile, proved himself more than capable of broadcasting very big emotions with very small gestures. When Grandma sang the first "But we'd go dancing..." for instance, Fox's Billy seemed overcome by a moment of absolute understanding; he appeared to just get, perhaps for the first time, that dancing could be his release from the dull or the dreary, the struggle and the resigned certainty of his existence as a growing boy in a mining town. Fox's expression, barely a second or two long, was a look of surprise, but also of a sort of wonder-filled, whole-bodied comprehension, and for such a small, fleeting look to draw my attention from Grandma to Billy, I count as a huge credit to Fox and his talent as an actor. That single look made absolutely essential and powerful a song that, for me, had always been a bit forgettable.

Similarly, Fox’s “The Letter” managed to convey so much with so little. One of the men we met in the queue told us that we would quite possibly be seeing Tom that evening and would be needing loads of tissues in order to get through his sobbing, gut-wrenching take on the scene. Fox’s “Letter” was a different sort of beast— none of the sobbing and, really, barely any weeping at all, but he sang it in such a way that one could hear Billy growing progressively less and less able to hold it together. Coupled with a heartbreaking look—as though trying to look like he was about to sneeze in order to cover up or fight off an impending breakdown—that absolutely crumpled up a face that was otherwise so often smiling, Fox’s version was just as compelling as it would have been had he dissolved into tears.

Special mention, I think, has to be made of Fox’s “Electricity.” I knew, of course, that it was going to be a far cry from Kiril’s, purely thanks to the difference in their styles of movement, but I also knew that I was about to be stricken dumb, and I was. While his dancing (even his more ballet-leaning bits up until this point) had been strong throughout, the moves in “Electricity” were where Fox really got his chance to blow the audience away. How a child can propel himself through the air like that, I’ll just never know. After striking his final pose, he managed to hold a straight face for longer than I’d even expected, but the trademark grin came soon enough, after he surveyed the hooting and whistling audience and seemed, for a moment, just to widen his eyes in an expression of, “Wow!”

Wow, indeed.

Knowing that Fox will be moving on from Billy soon, I suppose that, going in, I'd mentally compared him with someone like Trent, also soon to depart, and had pictured a boy quickly growing tall and graceful in a new, longer-limbed way, with a powerful voice slipping quickly out of its treble range; that, as anyone who's seen Fox recently will be able to say, certainly doesn't seem to be the case. Fox, in addition to looking completely believable as twelve—not out of place all standing beside Connor, who's only eleven— still has one of the sweetest voices I think I've ever heard in a Billy, high notes and all, and every word out of his mouth was a joy to hear— not a pitchy syllable in the show. What a little talent!

Now, I’ve just mentioned Connor above, and— oh, boy. Connor Kelly. What is there to say? What an absolutely gutsy ball of eleven-year-old energy. His playfulness is going to be legendary, and his willingness to strut his stuff was surprising in the best of ways. A sort of come-hither look pointed directly at me made me burst into laughter, and by the time Connor had grabbed into the edge of the wall on stage right and begun shimmying, I didn’t think that I’d even be able to stop laughing. On the night of the eighteenth, he received enthusiastic and well-deserved applause numerous times through the course of "Expressing Yourself” and was cheered off the stage by a crowd that had obviously just adored him.

Connor, though, is no simple clown, and his moments of pathos and tenderness, while naturally understated in comparison to his moments of camp, were equally as powerful. Michael, for someone who flaunts his individual spirit and finds the bright and glittery in the drab and everyday, even if he rejects the call to more overt masculinity in football and boxing, is as much the young product of his rough surroundings as is Billy; and in the show's very final moments, we see the signs of Everington's macho exoskeleton coming up to protect even our bubbling Michael, as he watches, stoic and still and with a stiff upper lip that likely wants very much to wobble, his dearest friend walk up the aisle and a world away from him. Connor, just by the look in his eyes, certainly seemed to understand the awful grief of such a parting, and to watch him watch Billy in those final seconds of the show was nearly enough to bring a new round of sniffles.

Fox and Connor had a moment before “Expressing Yourself” in which they, despite their valiant efforts, seemed to break character a bit to just grin hugely at each other, unable to help it since the audience was clearly enjoying itself so much. The audience, for its part, doesn’t seem to mind at all; in fact, I’d venture a guess and say that, in large part, the crowd actually enjoys moments like these (and like the one at the end of “Electricity”), as it lets them momentarily glimpse and show their enormous admiration and support for the young actors themselves. God only knows just how much these talented kids deserve it!

Unfortunately, I didn't know where to find the names of the adult cast; all I know is that quite a few of the actors (including those in the roles of Dad, George, Grandma, and Mrs Wilkinson) on this past Thursday evening were the so-called 'seconds.' To their great credit, though, had the man sitting next to us not said so, I wouldn't have known otherwise.

I feel that I need to mention the adult men, in particular. Both the actor playing Dad and the actor playing George seemed to bring a bit less flamboyance to their roles than I'm used to seeing and hearing (mainly through clips online, granted)— a bit less flash and, accordingly, a bit more believability.

George, for instance, didn't ham up his part in the boxing scene with the boys; rather than mug and flail and bellow (like one might imagine it would be easy to do in a role like his), he toned himself down a bit, resulting in colorful character instead of a colorful caricature. He gave more the impression of being a gentle giant than a big oaf, and I was extremely impressed and worlds more invested in his character than I’d ever been before.

Much of the same can be said of the actor playing Dad. His interactions with his sons seemed wholly natural— over-the-top neither in aggression nor sentimentality, and the whole show benefited, I think, from his treatment of the role.

Mrs Wilkinson, too, seemed a bit less abrasive under this actress' care— a choice that I rather liked, particularly as it aligned with the sweetness and gentleness of Fox's Billy. She really shone in her more motherly moments—I had to bite my lip when she held Billy in a cuddle and sort of rocked him a bit, smoothing his hair even though Debbie was shouting after her—and, to top it all off, she had a very pleasant singing voice!

I could go on and on, detailing just how utterly moving “Once We Were Kings” is, or reiterating the sentiment, fairly commonly held, I think, that “Solidarity” is one of the best-staged pieces of storytelling choreography and song in recent memory. But were I to do so, I’d be here forever, and this review is already a fair bit longer than some of my course papers, so I’ll try to wrap it up.

We had a wonderful, wonderful time. (In case you couldn’t tell!) I’d been just a tiny bit worried that my friends would be let down after my non-stop praise of the show, that perhaps I’d built it up too much in the lead-up. Those same friends, though, have sworn up and down that they’ll be naming their first two sons Fox and Connor. As for myself, if I can get back to London in the next month or two—which, after this past weekend, I sincerely hope to do—a return to Billy will be the very first thing on my agenda.

And possibly the second, too.
User avatar
porschesrule
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 9368
Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:02 am
Location: Rhode Island, USA

Re: February 2010 reviews - London

Post by porschesrule »

liberavieve wrote:Unfortunately, I didn't know where to find the names of the adult cast; all I know is that quite a few of the actors (including those in the roles of Dad, George, Grandma, and Mrs Wilkinson) on this past Thursday evening were the so-called 'seconds.' To their great credit, though, had the man sitting next to us not said so, I wouldn't have known otherwise.
And to your great credit, except that you told us so at the outset of your review, it would never be known that this was your first.

In a word: WOW!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a marvelous analysis. Not only is it well written, but it brings the performance alive for the reader and gives one the sense of actually being at the theater.

Welcome to the forum as an active participant. I, for one, hope this isn't the last post you'll make (and definitely hope it isn't your last review).
User avatar
burtond
Michael
Posts: 2396
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 7:53 am
Location: UK

Re: February 2010 reviews - London

Post by burtond »

A wonderful review which painted lots of pictures of the show in my mind.
Glad you enjoyed it and hope you are able to come to London again.
Look forward to you future reviews - great style.
An ex-Regular and someone who was Passionate about the show but who has now found the rest of the WEST END.
Locked

Return to “Reviews Archive”