April 2010 Reviews - London

KeefyM
Michael
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Re: April 2010 Reviews - London

Post by KeefyM »

Wednesday 21st April 2010 - Evening :D

After the carry on of last Wednesday & the previous Thursday, I glad to say that tonight’s performance was perfection & nothing (thank god) went wrong. Instead we had a great show with fantastic performances by all the cast & especially by the brilliant Connor Doyle & the fantastic Ollie Gardner (who is becoming one of my all time favourite Billys) – if you haven’t seen Ollie yet – get booking now as you will not be disappointed.

It was a great show tonight with the audience really enjoying it & the majority of them even clapping along for once during Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher. It was great to here a few comments from audience first timers at the Interval & after the show that they enjoyed it so much, they are definitely coming back.

Great to see Ollie again – although I must admit I was expecting & hoping for Rhys (because I have only seen him once) & also given the amount of times Ollie had been on in the last week.- surely it would be Rhys tonight.

Anyway, Ollie was his usual fantastic & energetic self (his 5th performance in 7 days) & I love his unique take on the role & some of the lines compared to the other Billys. As I have said before I love the cute laugh he gives when Michael asks, "Do you get to wear a Tutu ?" & his interpretation of lines like “You're supposed to be encouraging us to do things” as “You're supposed to be encouraging me to do things” which seems more relevant for that scene as it is about him (Billy trying Ballet) rather than saying "us" which makes the line more generic.

I also like his take on the biscuit tin/eating the biscuit, as one little silly thing that has been bothering me in the past 4 times I have seen Ollie is that I kept thinking why is he forgetting to put the lid back on the biscuit tin when he walks over to it after dumping the Royal Ballet School letter in the bin saying he did not get in.
Until I seen Tom on Thursday, I have now remembered what it is, - Tom, Rhys & Dean take one biscuit out of the tin & eat it – Ollie either takes two biscuits out, looks at which one he prefers & discards one in the lid or he takes one out & splits it in half & decides which half to eat while the other half is put in the lid of the biscuit tin. Therefore he does not put the lid back on as the other half of the biscuit/other biscuit is still in the lid, whereas Tom, Rhys & Dean do not have half a biscuit or another biscuit sitting in the lid, so put the lid back on. – God how sad I’m I to notice minor details like this.

At the end of the Boxing scene George throws the Keys onto the floor so Billy can then give them to Mrs Wilkinson. Usually, Billy uses both feet to lift the keys into the air whilst he catches them in his boxing gloves – Unfortunately for Ollie in his performances last week, yesterday & tonight, it hasn’t gone well for him & he has had do the contingency of lying down on the floor & picking the keys up with his mouth.

However Ollie just gets better & better every time I see him & the emotion he is starting to show in The Letter is fantastic & the interaction with Dead Mum is very touching & heart wrenching to watch & he reduced the couple sitting next to me to floods of tears & who had come all the way from Alabama to see the show but were not expecting it to be so emotional. So a great job done by Ollie & Samantha Seager.

Ollie’s Angry Dance & Electricty were fantastic (his Electricty as I have said previously just gets better & better each time) & his energy & enthusiasm for these numbers is great. His dancing is terrific including that amazing summersault he does in the air without using his hands. His aggression at the end of Angry Dance really shows as he is still telling the audience to “F*** Off” when he leaves the stage.

Tonight was the 3rd time I have seen Phil Snowden as Mr Braithwaite & I have to say he was great, giving it his all & his unique take on the character compared to Sean. I loved his fun & unique acrobatic style dancing during Born to Boogie & you can tell he was really enjoying the scene & the dancing with Ollie & Caroline.
His “I was a little detained at the Rose & Crown” is not as comedic(i.e. drunk) as Sean Kingsley's as I prefer Seans but still a great performance & his dancing & looks to the audience were fantastic. Is there any role in this show this man cannot play ? (if he was younger & smaller he could probably play Billy & Michael as well).

I have to say after seeing her a few times, Caroline Deverill as Mrs W, is good in the role, but I just cannot warm to her for the simple reason that I feel she does not show as much emotion as Jo in various scenes (especially The Letter) & therefore find it hard to care for her & at times find myself wondering if Mrs W really does care for Billy or want him to succeed due to the lack of emotion.

For example, in the Goodbye scene with Billy where she says
“ Here’s a piece of advice to you Billy, P*** Off out of here, there's sod all for you here”. – "You, are very F***ing special". To me it seems to be delivered with a total lack of care & emotion compared to Jo, especially that last line.
Her overall performance is ok, but I much prefer Jo in the role.

David Nellist continues to use the "sitting there with a face like you've booked a flight to Iceland" line which he started last week as obviously the subject is still topical.

Expressing Yourself tonight was simply brilliant – Connor Doyle was outstanding
Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to make it on Saturday night so this was the last time I would see Connor as Michael & I have to say he was amazing & absolutely fantastic tonight, there was something particularly brilliant & special which he brought to the show tonight & his interaction with Ollie was just great & with the rest of the cast especially during Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher which I have commented on before.

Connor was just so funny, so perfect, so spot on for Michael’s actions during Express & his performance really makes you understand the character of Michael & his actions/feelings/sexuality. I love the fact that later on in the Christmas Day scene, Connor even has a unique, clever & quicker technique of putting the microphone & its cable upstage compared to Connor K & Jake.

As soon as he comes on stage on the bike, he just brightens up the opening for me everytime.
Tonight looked like the last night Ollie would be performing with Connor. Ollie obviously knowing that this was going to be their last performance together was a bit tearful in places, especially in the Miners Welfare Club on Christmas Day scene when they are facing each other & Michaels “I’m just warming your hands”. You could see Ollie wiping away a few tears after Michael/Connor kissed him on the cheek & as he sat down when he gives Michael the tutu to put on.

Although with the current Billy illness situation, Ollie may end up having another performance with Connor (might even be Sat night) before Connor leaves.

Connor Doyle is a legendary Michael & his interpretation of the character will be very much missed by me & countless others. I agree with burtond & Born To Boogie in that as Connor is older than the other Michaels & indeed the Billy’s, he brings a little bit extra maturity to the role which makes such a difference for the role of Michael & more along the lines of Stuart Wells’ excellent portrayal in the movie.

Also as per Monday night, when the curtain slowly comes down after Billy places a final tender kiss to his best friend before he departs - Connor again showed great emotion & started to cry when Billy is leaving, which is a great touch from Connor as it is one of the most relevant & significant points in the show & places great emphasis on the hurt Michael feels.

Well done Connor, Thank you for being a great Michael & thanks for the few words to burtond & myself as you boarded the Billy Bus tonight.

Best Wishes & Good luck for the future Connor.


A great show overall tonight, well done Ollie, Connor, Fleur & the rest of the cast.
Another show where the audience behaved themselves as well & no major coughing fits during the quieter parts of the show.


Cheers
Keith
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burtond
Michael
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Re: April 2010 Reviews - London

Post by burtond »

Great comprehensive review Keith. Loved reading it - it brought back the whole show to me.
An ex-Regular and someone who was Passionate about the show but who has now found the rest of the WEST END.
KeefyM
Michael
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Re: April 2010 Reviews - London

Post by KeefyM »

Cheers David for the comments about my review of Wednesday night - I enjoyed reading your review of Wednesday as well & also your brilliant comprehensive reviews of Monday & Tuesday night.

Anyway, here is my review of Thursday evening.

Thursday 22nd April 2010 - Evening :D

Well what can I say - another great show with faultless & excellent performances from the cast & especially from Tom who gave an outstanding & knockout performance, so full of energy, emphasis & emotion, considering he also done the matinee from the Angry Tony/Dad scene.

Tom Holland is just perfection as Billy, his timing, his pauses, his emphasis on sentences etc is just brilliant & he gave flawless Angry Dance, Ballet & Electricity performances, throwing himself around the stage as usual in Electricity with complex acro moves & his hip-hop/street moves, culminating in the signature back flip off the board.
Tom got well deserved rapturous applause after all three dances & especially after Electricity where the applause continued for a while & eventually resulted in a pleasing smile from him.

As usual his performance in his signature scene - The Letter was perfection with great interaction between him & Samantha Seager. Unfortunately for the second night in a row, I was still not convinced by Caroline Deverills performance as Mrs W during The Letter – at times she looks bored rather than as emotional as Jo would & I still did not like her seemingly lack of emotion to Billy in the Goodbye scene at the end of Act 2. She of course does show emotion/interest/sensitivity to Billy but I just cannot put my finger on it, maybe I'm been too fussy. She is a great actress having seen her in various shows including Mamma Mia & We Will Rock You. Her performance as Mrs W is very good but overall does not click with me at all.

Tom as usual during The Letter managed to get the right amount of emotion into his performance & reduce quite a few people to tears (including both male & female sixth form students who were sitting along the row from me & also managed to reduce a few big burley looking blokes sitting in the row in front of us to tears as well (who then all teased each other at the Interval in the Stalls Bar as to who was crying the most).

Tom’s Letter Reprise tonight was excellent as usual but I noticed not as emotional as he has done in the past – which I do not blame him for as he is probably exhausted considering the amount of shows he has done in the past week & doing the matinee a few hours earlier.

When the Ballet Girls, Mrs W & Billy are downstage “focussing on the wall”, I love the expressions on Tom’s face in the amount of times he looks back & forward at Debbie (Dean is also now doing it) when Billy realises that Debbie is constantly staring at him rather than the wall.

Sean Kingsley was back as Mr Braithwaite & gave another excellent performance & really went for it as usual during Born to Boogie with great interaction between him, Tom & Caroline (I do like Carolines performance as Mrs W in this scene).

Expressing Yourself was fun tonight & the first time I have seen Connor Kelly in a while (in fact the first time I have seen him since the 5th Anniversary performance).

Connor is great as Michael & gave a brilliant & very funny performance. I love his take on the character & his different emphasis from Connor D & Jake on key lines like “it's f***ing weird if you ask me” & “people ‘ill think you're mental’ which makes them even funnier in the way he says them as they always get a great laugh from the audience.

A great performance by Tom & Connor in Expressing Yourself & I love Connor’s deep/manly voice on the word “man” in “Pretty soon you will start to feel a different man”.

Unlike the last few nights the Polaroid camera did not actually take a real photograph which has developed while sitting on the mirror during the song, instead we were back to the camera popping out a photograph with the image of Billy already developed. Both Tom & Connor seemed to be having great fun as they delivered the song with a ‘high five’ at the end. The audience really enjoyed it & Connor K got a standing ovation from a few people including the sixth form students mentioned earlier.

Connor unfortunately did say a couple of Michaels lines while the audience were applauding & therefore they were lost. “A f***ing great Christmas, this has been” was said while the audience were applauding Jo Caffrey for his great performance of Deep Into The Ground, so the line was lost in the applause & did not get any laughs or even a slight titter at all. However Connors performance tonight was still great & he is a brilliant Michael.

I did not realise how much smaller Connor is (or how much taller Tom is) until they were standing face to face when Michael is "just warming Billys hands”. I noticed that in the same scene, because of the height difference, Connor had to stand on his tiptoes & reach up to kiss Billy/Tom on the cheek - rather than just lean over.

His, “just a little bit” when dressed in the Tutu & trying to encourage Billy to show him some Ballet is hilarious as is his very brilliant exit from the Miners Welfare Club.

One thing I must mention about tonights show, is Joe Caffreys outstanding performance of Deep Into The Ground which was fantastic & has been brilliant in the many times I have seen him but tonight seemed more powerful & emotional than ever. He seems to be putting more emotion into it everytime he performs it & its now become the song in the show that sets me off into tear land.

The Scab seems to have lost his new jacket from the last few nights & was back to the brown leather one he usually wears. Although Billy did have his new tracksuit top & new stripey top on & as said previously in reviews, I’m glad that the wardrobe department now seem to have sorted out different school ties for Billy & the Posh Boy.

I do like Francesca in the role of Debbie but as has been commented on before, one of Debbie’s funniest lines in the show, “if ye want, I’ll show you me fa**y” was again said by Fran too quickly & therefore it hardly generated any laughs as the audience obviously missed it/did not hear it clearly & therefore the line went right over the audiences head.

Considering the amount of silence there is before Billy responds (especially when its Tom as he takes longer than the other Billys) - a great bit of acting Tom does here as you can see him taking a little time to actually think about it & he makes gestures with his hands – before he gives her an answer. During the silence there is usually some form of on-going laughter from the audience but there was practically none tonight due to the line been said too quickly & lost. However Francesca is good in the role & will no doubt develop throughout her time in the show.

David Nellist was on top form tonight as George with another great front of curtain routine at the start of the 2nd Act.
Romy Baskerville also gave another great performance as Grandma & the chemistry between her & Tom during all their scenes was great. She is brilliant as Grandma & seems more of a "madder" Grandma than Ann, but I absolutely love both in the role & adore the legend that is Ann Emery (especially since some of us are old enough to remember Ann as Mrs Meaker in Rentaghost). Some of you forum members might even be old enough to remember her in The Dick Emery Show - but I''m saying nothing.

No husband for Mrs Wilkinson tonight as she answered the door to Billys dad herself rather than her husband shouting on her & then her appearing at the door. Obviously the actor was indisposed - I'm surprised Phil Snowden didn't step in as the husband.

Tom must have been thirsty tonight, as when Billy goes & has a drink of milk after dumping the Royal Ballet School letter in the bin, rather than just having a small drink of milk as the Billys usually do – Tom drank the whole lot tonight (almost a quarter pint). He must have been thirsty after doing most of the matinee show as well. Oh and yes, he did put the lid back on the biscuit tin after my earlier post (in Wednesdays review) about why Ollie keeps leaving it off but Tom, Rhys & Dean put it back on.

A lot of empty seats in the back of the Stalls & around the Dress Circle again tonight. Disappointly a little bit quieter than normal midweek audience levels which is not surprising given the current flight situation etc, but not great.

Again it was great to here comments from show first timers in praising the show overall & great comments about Tom saying what an amazing dancer he is & what a talent he has.

Rhys had obviously went back home to the Billy house due to his in-disposal earlier as he was nowhere to be seen when Tom, Ollie, Connor K, Jake, Francesca boarded the Billy Bus after this evenings performance.

Overall, a fantastic show tonight with great performances & the audience really got behind the cast especially Tom who you would never have known had done some of the matinee as well given his enthusiasm & energy this evening with another knockout performance.

Well done Tom & get well soon Rhys.


Cheers
Keith
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burtond
Michael
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Re: April 2010 Reviews - London

Post by burtond »

I must say, I have never felt that Caroline Deverill showed any less interest/emotion/sensitivity for Billy than Jo Riding. I'm not saying I disagree but I will look out for this next time Caroline performs.

Thanks KeefyM for a second comprehensive and detailed report.
An ex-Regular and someone who was Passionate about the show but who has now found the rest of the WEST END.
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iht
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Re: April 2010 Reviews - London

Post by iht »

KeefyM wrote:Wednesday 21st April 2010 - Evening :D

Anyway, Ollie was his usual fantastic & energetic self (his 5th performance in 7 days) & I love his unique take on the role & some of the lines compared to the other Billys. As I have said before I love the cute laugh he gives when Michael asks, "Do you get to wear a Tutu ?" & his interpretation of lines like “You're supposed to be encouraging us to do things” as “You're supposed to be encouraging me to do things” which seems more relevant for that scene as it is about him (Billy trying Ballet) rather than saying "us" which makes the line more generic.
The first way is the North East way of saying it though. We wouldn't say 'me' when saying a statement like that. The statement isn't spoken as encouragin 'us' but rather as encouraging 'is' which means me in the North East.
KeefyM
Michael
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Re: April 2010 Reviews - London

Post by KeefyM »

cheers iht for correcting me, now I get it & should know better as I do understand & love the north east accent/language/pronunciations.

I think I have confused myself as the boys do sound like they are saying US rather than the correct IS .

So Ollie should be saying "Encouraging IS" (meaning ME) rather than saying "Encouraging Me" which is wrong - naughty Ollie.

and here's me thinking he was saying it correctly & making it more relevant than the other Billys. Obviously not as observant as I thought I was.

Oh well lesson learned & so bloody obvious that it should be "Encouraging IS" now that you have pointed it out & I have had time to properly think about it.


Cheers
Keith
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PaulWilly
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Re: April 2010 Reviews - London

Post by PaulWilly »

Many thanks for your great reviews, Keith!
Reading them is always a delight - and really the next best thing to being there myself!
Please keep them coming! 8-) 8-) :D
“It is a great show that people do come and see. Because it's not
just a show for adults, or just for children, or just for people that
like theatre, I'd say for everyone, and it's got so much emotion
behind it. Because who ever comes and sees it, feels the story -
so I think: it's brilliant!" (GM)
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ERinVA
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Re: April 2010 Reviews - London

Post by ERinVA »

KeefyM wrote:cheers iht for correcting me, now I get it & should know better as I do understand & love the north east accent/language/pronunciations.

I think I have confused myself as the boys do sound like they are saying US rather than the correct IS .

So Ollie should be saying "Encouraging IS" (meaning ME) rather than saying "Encouraging Me" which is wrong - naughty Ollie.

and here's me thinking he was saying it correctly & making it more relevant than the other Billys. Obviously not as observant as I thought I was.

Oh well lesson learned & so bloody obvious that it should be "Encouraging IS" now that you have pointed it out & I have had time to properly think about it.


Cheers
Keith
Not all Billys use "iz" in that line. Some do use "me," both there and when telling Dead Mum that Dad has left 50p for the boxing lesson.
Ellen



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-George Balanchine 1904 -1983


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Todd
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Re: April 2010 Reviews - London

Post by Todd »

KeefyM wrote: I think I have confused myself as the boys do sound like they are saying US rather than the correct IS .
Wow, all this time I thought they were saying "us" too. I just figured it was an interchangeable term for "me" so it could be plural or singular. That actually makes more sense to me than the word "is" being used for "me."
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Born to Boogie
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Re: April 2010 Reviews - London

Post by Born to Boogie »

The word used always sounds to me like 'us' (meaning 'me') in Geordie dialect. This and other phrases are set out in the link below. 'Me' is used in the dialect for 'my'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geordie
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