April Reviews 2014 - London

[dancingboy]

I' m Reviewing the Situation.......

Those of you who know me will be aware that, living in the London area, I do get to see the Show on a very regular basis and the month of April was no different to usual. So these are just a few words about the Show in general over the last month.

In view of Elliott's absence for almost the whole month it fell on the shoulders of Redmand, Mitchell and Bradley to play the extra shows and I have nothing but the highest praise for the work they put in. They were tremendous.

All three have something different to offer when on stage although I particularly like the way Redmand adds a few words to the script here, or leaves the odd word out there, his use of pauses, which add something to the meaning of the words. His acting ability means there is action and reaction throughout the show and I find this so good to watch.

Mitchell is a very solid performer, playing the role in a fairly serious manner, I find, but this does not lessen my enjoyment at seeing him on stage. His dancing is always very strong.
Bradley has certainly grown in stature over the weeks and seems to have strengthened up somewhat. There now seems to be more depth to both his acting and his dancing, which obviously comes about with the more experience he has. Meanwhile, I saw Elliott on the last day of the month on his second appearance after his absence and it felt as though he had never been away. It was so good to see him performing again.

The Michaels and the Debbies all carried out their duties as usual, all with great enthusiasm and not without a little class too.

During the course of the month there was a change in the Ballet Girl groups, but, as usual, that made no difference whatsoever to the show. All the teams slotted into their routines in fine style, making sure they gave Billy and Mrs Wilkinson all kinds of bother.

It was also good to see some ' Alternates' on view during the month, the likes of David Bardsley ( Dad), Matthew Dale ( Tony), Helen French ( Mrs Wilkinson). They all play their role in a slightly different manner to the ' main' actor, but this makes absolutely no difference to the show. After all, just like watching the various Billy's play their part differently, we would not want to see every show looking and feeling exactly the same.

Reverting to the Billy's, is there any other show in Town where the lead, a 13 year old boy ( or 11 if you are Elliott and Bradley), during the space of some forty minutes in the First Half of the show, has to perform dancing, including a series of pirouettes, in Solidarity, followed by tap dancing with Michael in Expressing Yourself, ballet, tap and skipping in Born to Boogie, and ending with Angry Dance? I very much doubt it. The Billy's have to be super fit and they show it.

All the above are reasons why we go back to see the Show again and again. Is it The Greatest Show on Earth? Maybe not, but it is still bloody good.

[ERinVA]

Thanks for telling us about the most recent shows you saw, John. This just whets the appetite for the upcoming shows over the anniversary weekend in London.

[dancingboy]

Thank you, Ellen.

[porschesrule]

John -- It's nice to read your words of observation written from an "aerial" view of the show. There's nothing wrong with a review that includes lots of technical observations about the lines or the music or how this or that was done compared to "normal".

But it's also great to see the show through someone's eyes who obviously has seen it many times and can stand back and present an overall "report card" on how the show is doing. From what you've written, it's apparent that it's doing very well -- all A's in fact

Thanks for taking the time to give us one learned professor's grades of the show we all love.

[dancingboy]

Thanks, Gary.

[porschesrule]

This popped up today. It's a blog piece on the show although, as the author says, it's not intended to be a review. I've posted it here for lack of a better spot. Though it was written before the latest cast changes, it's got a lot of good info about BETM.

http://sammioneill.wordpress.com/2014/0 ... ia-palace/

[ERinVA]

We actually have a thread for blogs about the show here:

http://www.billyelliottheforum.me.uk/fo ... =70&t=1269

It has gone dormant, but it encompasses various productions of the show. I will copy this post over to that thread but also leave it here.