March 2010 Reviews - Chicago

[johnnyc]

Sunday evening, March 21

Cesar as Billy
Gabriel as Michael

Cesar just keeps getting better and better! This kid will be a Great Billy in a few months. Another change - when Billy tells Mrs Wilkenson the letter is from his mum, she turns and starts to return it to him. It's then that Billy tells her "you can read it if you want." Mrs Wilkenson then knows Billy's giving her the OK to read his treasured letter.

Small boy's part keeps expanding. During Maggie Thatcher, a drunk trys to grab the mike and sing, but small boy in his cop uniform pushes the guy back to a chair. And when dad agrees to sing, small boy gets behind him and shoves him forward. Just two of the boy's cute antics during the Thatcher bit.

OK, this does it for my Chicago Billy adventure. I'm flying home tomorrow (Monday) morning. It's been a real blast. Just two observations about the show in passing. Dad's part still needs some serious work, and the sound in the massive Oriental Theatre needs work. Away from the front orchestra area, the sound has no real punch. This lessens the impact of Angry Dance especially.

johnnyc signing off

[Todd]

Interesting that Giuseppi hasn't performed yet, and Cesar has done 3 shows already.

Kind of curious that they would change the small boy's line from "fat b*****d !" to "loser !" I suppose that might be because the actor who plays George in Chicago is rather tall and lanky, so to call him "fat" doesn't make much sense I guess.

As for Cindy the Nurse becoming Barbie the Nurse, I remember it got a pretty big laugh at the first preview show when it was Cindy. Not really sure why the name would make much difference anyway, since the joke is that Michael would be excited about getting a female doll, regardless what her name is.

[Musical Fanatic]

Sun. March 21 7:30PM

A Massive Dose Of Hope For The Future
Billy-Cesar
Michael-Gabriel
SB-Elijah

I feel overwhelmed by the this last two weeks of Billy Elliot. Five shows in NY With the Aussie contingent plus some locals(Hugsy2k and Gerideth plus others). Michael Dameski's family reunion show on March 14 being the best part. Now six shows in Chicago(exhausted) . This being my last show in Chicago for the time being . I was hoping for a good run of the show tonight with few glitches. Boy did I get my wish The whole cast with some small exceptions just blew me away. Dad(Armand) still needs a little more work but I thought it was much better than first show. George(Jim Ortlieb) had it going tonight in boxing scene. Very much funnier played. Now comes my real hope for the future of BE Cesar and Gabriel I was lucky and sitting 6 rows from front of stage center tonight. Boy did I get an eyeful. Cesar and Gabriel show a promise that leaves me desperately wanting more. In my opinion both could go to Broadway or London and pack the houses. Cesar had his best Electricity of the three shows. An Absolutely Brilliant Ballet. Finally a Angry Dance that had some character(oomph) to it. Cesar really put his all into it . Gabriel"s Expressing Yourself I love that he is channeling Elvis impressions. In the two of them I see the future of BE and it is now. Two funny things from this show by Cesar and Gabriel. In the toilet scene where Mrs W mentions the RBS for the first time Cesar stamps his feet on floor when he yells( what did you have to do that for now I'm banned). Gabriel mocks Leslie in the kitchen scene after the RBS with a body motion best left to the imagination. After this show I will be back to Chicago as soon as I can Buy tickets now to see Tommy, Cesar, Keean and Gabriel and Cast . You will not regret it .

[SatinandLace]

I personally don't understand all of the negative reviews of Armand's performance. I much prefer his take to Greg's interpretation. He is definitely a more serious Dad, but I think that's how Dad should be played, not over-the-top angry or funny as Greg is prone to do. He's more on par with the London Dads that I have seen in the past. I thought he was great and very believable in the role. I especially love his celebratory dance when Billy gets the RBS letter, as well as his timing on the 'esquire' line . The audience seemed very receptive to him and he got big laughs in all the rights places. Just wanted to put in my two cents, for what's it's worth.

[Musical Fanatic]

A couple of more small changes From NY that I noticed. Billy comes downstairs in first kitchen scene with toothbrush in his mouth. He does first line (found pasty in laundry basket) with it in his mouth. Second change Billy is his own prop man. He has to grab can of baked beans and and packet of soup to take with him from kitchen.

[ERinVA]

Interesting that Giuseppi hasn't performed yet, and Cesar has done 3 shows already.

Kind of curious that they would change the small boy's line from "fat b*****d !" to "loser !" I suppose that might be because the actor who plays George in Chicago is rather tall and lanky, so to call him "fat" doesn't make much sense I guess.

As for Cindy the Nurse becoming Barbie the Nurse, I remember it got a pretty big laugh at the first preview show when it was Cindy. Not really sure why the name would make much difference anyway, since the joke is that Michael would be excited about getting a female doll, regardless what her name is.

I was wondering about Giuseppe as well. It may well be a repeat of what happened during previews in NY, in that Giuseppe may not have had his full tech rehearsal yet due to time pressure.

Changing small boy's line makes sense if Mr. B is skinny.

I'm with you on Cindy (actually, she is Sindy). Can't see why it would make a difference what name she has, except that for Americans, Barbie is a recognizable icon. It's interesting to consider what little details audiences will or will not respond to from place to place. I guess that even though Sindy got a laugh, they wanted a bigger one.

[Musical Fanatic]

Sorry about doing this in dribs and drabs. As I remember changes I have noticed I post them. With the stage being higher in Chicago they have put in a ladder that SB climbs on to the stage with. Billy uses it to get down and back up at end of Letter Reply. At start of second act when the four boys are coming down the aisle they have to run in the Oriental to get to the stage. I definitely wish they would ditch the wood hut in Angry Dance The Bill'ys can't really do much for sound in it.

[BillyAddict]

Interesting that Giuseppi hasn't performed yet, and Cesar has done 3 shows already.

I was wondering about Giuseppe as well. It may well be a repeat of what happened during previews in NY, in that Giuseppe may not have had his full tech rehearsal yet due to time pressure.

I can confirm from that very open chat with SD that he has not had his full tech rehearsals yet.

[BillyAddict]

I personally don't understand all of the negative reviews of Armand's performance. I much prefer his take to Greg's interpretation. He is definitely a more serious Dad, but I think that's how Dad should be played, not over-the-top angry or funny as Greg is prone to do. He's more on par with the London Dads that I have seen in the past. I thought he was great and very believable in the role. I especially love his celebratory dance when Billy gets the RBS letter, as well as his timing on the 'esquire' line . The audience seemed very receptive to him and he got big laughs in all the rights places. Just wanted to put in my two cents, for what's it's worth.

I can live with the serious portrayal for most of the play. I have seen it done this way especially by Tony Coggin in Sydney but he could still generate the humor when required. By the end of Saturday my opinion was that the character of dad was softening noticeably by the end of the musical. The scene that to me suffers most and has no punch at the moment is in front of the Royal Ballet stage curtain. This has to be done with humor or you would be better to take it out. It is doing nothing at the moment the way it is played out. As I mentioned in an earlier review one of the great strengths of BETM is the roller coaster of emotions. All serious and no humor negates this strength.

[Todd]

I would hope that the way Armand plays the scene with the Scottish ballet dancer will continue to be fine tuned throughout the previews. It sounds like from the reviews here that each performance by Cesar as Billy, Armand as Dad, etc. has been a little bit better than the one before, which is certainly the goal.

I reminded myself of that when I realized that there has never been a bigger gap in experience between Billys than Trent Kowalik (the all-time record holder who had been Billy in the most recent performance I'd been to, on March 7) and Cesar Corrales, who was not only doing his first performance as Billy, but his first performance in any show ! That made what Cesar did even more impressive in my eyes - that he came across as good as he did, given the inevitable comparison with Trent, whom I'd just seen. The same could be said for Armand Schultz, who was doing the part of Dad for the first time, compared with the experienced Phil Whitchurch whom I'd just seen 11 days before.