Wowzell wrote:KeefyM wrote:I wonder if Redmand will break as many of the Ballet Girls hearts as Deano
What happened with Dean there then?
As Ellen has said Wowzell, it was just a reference to the fact that everyone loved Dean as he had been with the show for so long and it was just something that Company Manager David Massey mentioned in his excellent speech on Dean's last night just for a bit of fun which gave us all a laugh.
Thanks for your comments Pat and David on my Redmand review, very much appreciated. Great pictures of Adam/Reece/Fran's last night David - mine turned out rubbish, apart from one or two. A lot more practice needed with my new camera.
Don't worry Pat it's only saddo's like me who notice the minor things like the stripey top colours (although, I'm supposedly the Billy stripey top expert, since by an amazing coincidence I just happen to be at the shows when they have changed colours, or know how long they have had a certain colour top). i.e. Josh had the Red stripey top throughout his run, Kaine started with the Red top but ended up with the Light Blue Stripey top - told you I was sad.
Great reviews Pat throughout this month, really enjoyed reading them and very creative as usual.
Thankfully, there were no UFO's over the Olympic Park when I was there, although I might have seen a few 'alien's' though
Great to see you back at the VP and back to writing your reviews.
I'm glad you never went to Specsavers, as if I remember correctly I'm sure Barry told me that quite a few months ago you and him almost entered Specsavers thinking it was Nandos (haha), I'm glad you never went in asked for a menu
On Tuesday matinee we had another brilliant show from our Senior Billy, the one and only Master Ryan Collinson.
His Angry Dance, Electricity and the infamous crossover skipping (now with him twisting his whole body around 360 degrees while doing the crossovers) were particular highlights and done in the way only Ryan can.
To say they were breathtaking is an understatement. He really is a great natural and raw talent and will be sorely missed by many people including me when he leaves on Sept 1st.
The usual Ryan cheekiness and nuances were there including his brilliant and hilarious Egyptian Sand Dance when packing the suitcase and it was great to see him and Joe having so much fun and having a little giggle and smiling to themselves from time to time when a young kid in the audience was a bit loud with his laughing as he found everything funny and did the odd shout out!.
I do love how Joe has to stand on his tip-toes to kiss Ryan's Billy on the cheek in the Winter Scene as Ryan is so tall, but the two of them are a great partnership and certainly ramp up the cheekiness when they are together. Ryan also ramped up the cheekiness when the unsung heroes of the show, the brilliant Ballet Girls were hilariously pushing him about and he couldn't resist a few little cheeky quips back at them and a few swear words.
As usual, all the Ballet Girls were fantastic but I must mention Amy Munden as her version of Susan Parkes is genius and absolutely hilarious. What a wonderful young actress Amy is and I hope to see much more of her 'ditzy' but always smiling Susan Parkes in the future.
A Ryan show wouldn't be complete without his great personality and charisma on display throughout and another one of his brilliant and cheeky Finales, sticking his tongue out to the cast and audience and ending by blowing a kiss to his mum and other family members who were in to watch Southport's brightest star.
It was great to see Ryan spending so much time with fans outside after the show and signing many autographs and getting pictures with many young audience members and first timers, who's visit to the VP on Tuesday will probably be their only time at the show, so it was great that they managed to speak to Ryan and get his autograph.
Ryan certainly knows how to conduct himself in these situations with fans and I loved how he was confidently going up to people and asking where they are from and if they had travelled far. Ryan has been an outstanding Billy and he will be a great loss to the show and I for one will certainly miss his stunning Street Electricity and his legendary loud and screaming Angry Dance where he always finishes with a loud and angry "C'mon then" to the audience as he storms off stage.
Brilliant work Ryan and you certainly wowed the audience who were rather quiet for most of the show, although unfortunately that was more due to the VP being half empty, which was rather disappointing to see during kids week in the school holidays, but still, there was a decent enough audience in and the regulars certainly enjoyed another great show from Ryan and all the cast with Helen French once again delivering an outstanding Mrs W performance.
Just when I thought Tuesday couldn't get any better, I pop along to the VP in the evening, and who should be playing Billy, but none other than Mr Smiley himself - Kaine. What a show from Master Ward, my favourite Kaine show by a mile and as usual his dancing was incredible, especially those high kicks in B2B, as well as his Ballet technique in Dream Ballet and Electricity which is a pure joy to watch. Really expressive acting throughout from Kaine and a great partnership with the ever hilarious Connor who was on top form again milking those 'eyebrows' in Express and the infamous "Hows about a look in ze mirror?".
Connor was at the top of his game and loved so much by the audience that he practically got a round of applause after all his lines, but he got a well deserved round of applause when he struggled to get the Tutu on in the Winter Scene.
At first he struggled to even get one leg in much to the hilarity of the audience and Kaine, but he was determined not to give up and got it on eventually and received the applause. Love Connor's 'Thank You' and wink to the audience when he comes on during the Finale and I can't wait to see how hilarious and brilliant he is going to be on his last night as I have a feeling we are in for something special.
The two girls sitting next to me couldn't get enough of Kaine and Connor, commenting how hilarious Connor is and what a brilliant dancer and actor Kaine is and how they loved his constantly smiley face, as did I.
In B2B, Kaine is another Billy who does the crossover skipping and it is always great to watch. However, Kaine is an exception to the rule as you obviously want the skipping to go perfect for him and all the other Billys, but with Kaine you actually don't want it to go perfect, and I don't mean that in a negative way, you want the skipping not to go quite according to plan for Kaine, simply because of his brilliant and outstanding reaction when it doesn't. I love the 'oh well' reaction with the 'tut' and rolled eyes, shrug of the shoulders, slight shake of the head and all still done with his beaming smile.
The only disappointment of the evening was that Kaine only had two Jaffa Cakes out of the biscuit tin rather than his usual 4 and didn't take his usual long time standing there to completely eat 2 of the biscuits before he turns round to notice Dad, Tony, Grandma and the RBS letter.
For those missing Scott McKenzie's 'whoops' and 'woos' in the Finale, then no need to worry as there are plenty from Kaine (as there were from Redmand on Wednesday) and I love Kaine's constant smiley face throughout the Finale as he is clearly enjoying himself and loving the interaction with the cast and audience.
A really enjoyable show. Great work Kaine and I look forward to seeing your brilliant version of Billy sometime soon.
Last Thursday was my first time back at Billy in over month and it has been great to see 5 brilliant shows including Fran, Reece and the Seattle Superhero's last night. I can't quite believe Adam, Reece and Fran are gone and I knew Fran was the longest serving Debbie but didn't know she was the longest serving child until her lovely mum told me.
I had to laugh at Adam's determination in holding on to Billy's t-shirt that Deka usually chucks out the suitcase after Dad and Billy have 'raced' each other to fold Billy's t-shirts, as Adam was absolutely determined not to let it go and 'get one up' on Deka/Dad, and of course succeeded. A brilliant little touch from Adam along with his many other nuances including the 'caveman' action in B2B, the infamous 'Moonwalk' and who could forget his big wide eyes, the arms aloft during some of the Electricity pirouettes and his "Thanks for Coming" to the audience at the end of all his shows.
Adam gave us a brilliant final performance and as usual I was blown away by Adam's dancing and the speed of his pirouettes.
I have to thank him and his parents for the wonderful Olympic gold medal present some of us received for our support and reviews of Adam.
A wonderful gesture that really made my night and showed what a wonderful family the Vespermans are and it is great to see Adam has such a wonderful family and support behind him.
I felt rather inadequate handing out a silly button badge to his mum after she handed out these wonderful gifts and she was telling us that Adam wants to get back to doing dance competitions when he is back home in Seattle.
He will be sorely missed and I will never forget his great version of Billy.
We might have lost Adam, Reece and Fran but the future of BETM is in very safe hands with our current 5 Billys, 3 brilliant Debbie's in Macy, Dayna and Millie, and our current 2 Michaels, Connor and Joe, who will be joined by new Michaels, Jack and Thomas at some point. Thanks to all the cast young and old for the great shows over the last few days and I look forward to getting back to the show soon after another break.
I've heard the usual rumours and nonsense lately about the London show closing, well there is absolutely no danger of that after the shows I've seen in the last few days. BETM is booking until December 2013 and will have no trouble reaching the end of its current booking period and extending well beyond 2013 and running for many more years, although it will be interesting to see 'where it goes' when the VP is due to be redeveloped in 2014, while the entire block next to it (the Stage Door Pub/Sainsburys etc) is getting completely demolished and replaced by a glass office building with walkways through it.
But until then I look forward to seeing many more shows at the ol' VP and enjoying the great experience that is BETM.
(Also meant to say there is a new programme insert at the VP with Redmand, Millie and new Michael Jack on it, so make sure you pick one up when you're next at the VP).
Keep the reviews coming folks!.
Cheers
Keefy
