December 28-30:
I too did a Baltimore Billython this past weekend, seeing the same shows as muck912, Maria and Sean. They have done great jobs in their reviews, so I won't duplicate things. I have to say the production is in incredibly good shape. Each Billy impressed me in ways I was not expecting. Each one I saw was my favorite, until I saw the next one.
Ben:
The Ben Cook fan club was well represented. Many friends from his schools and home town had driven to Baltimore for the day to see him. At the start of the show when his name was announced as playing Billy, huge cheers went up throughout the house. It's hard to believe six months has already gone by since we saw him debut in Louisville, and now he is the senior Billy on tour. As previously noted, Ben did a piano flip in B2B, although he was the only one we saw do it this weekend. His singing of Electricity is now in a lower key, but he still sounds awesome. And of course his dancing is something to be seen!
The lady sitting next to me at this performance was seeing the show in Baltimore for the fourth time. She had also seen it in NYC. I forgot that I should have told her about this forum.
Noah:
He has come a long way since the summer and is really at the top of his game. He does a great Angry Dance with lots of primal screams. Overall he was everything that I expect the ideal Billy to be, with the perfect look, accent, and voice.
Drew:
From the videos I had seen on Youtube I was expecting to be impressed with his dancing. I had no idea if he could sing or act, and was concerned that perhaps my expectations of him were too high and I would be disappointed. Well not to worry. Drew blew us all away with his performance!
He did one thing that I hadn't seen before, in the Express scene. When Michael says "trackies off", Billy usually ignores the line and puts the skirt on over his trackies. Drew put his hands on his waistband like was about to take them off, then shook his head and proceded to take his shoes off. This was the first time since they revamped the tour where I saw a Billy look like actually thought about taking off the trackies.
It wasn't just us fans who were impressed with Drew. The whole audience gave a standing ovation for him at the first curtain call, which is the only time they stood that soon all weekend.
Mitchell:
He has to be the smallest new Billy ever, at least in the North American shows. This makes it easier for him to get lost and knocked around in the sea of ballet girls during Shine. He ends his Born to Boggie with a set of really fast spins that, to me are nearly as impressive as the piano flip. His Angry Dance is quite powerful, all the more so because of his small size! Man can he tap! He can act quite bratty in the scenes at the Royal Ballet, with Posh Boy and in the interview. His Electricity starts and ends with an aerial (like Ben's). His singing both in The Letter and Electricity is emotional and determined.
For both Drew and Mitchell, you would not expect them to be so polished and impressive on their 5th shows. If they are like this now, I can't even imagine what they will be like in a few months!!
Jake and Sam:
They each play Michael in different ways. Jake is more subdued and timid like the Michael in the movie. Sam is more outgoing and assertive. Both get great reactions from the audiences. In one of the shows with Sam and Mitchell, the Express number got applause mid-song at the "it's showtime" line where they start tapping together.
I very much like the new cast members Molly Garner as Mum and Cara Massey as Clipboard Woman. Chris Howard has nicely settled into his long-running understudy role as Older Billy / Scottish Dancer. His Scottish Dancer is tougher and more believable than I recall earlier in the year.
For me 2012 both started and ended with Billythons. It was great catching up once again with several fellow fans and sharing this experience.
-Chris