February 2011 Reviews London

[Billy Whiz]

Just a quick note to say that Aaron was terrific tonight. It's late and I have an early start in the morning so I will just post these photos for now. Aaron and his family have seen the first photo and they thought his expression was funny as did the ballet girls that saw the photo

[ERinVA]

Thanks for the excellent photos, David.

[Brad]

Love the pics BW - thanks

[pinknick103]

Sounds like it was an awesome night
Thanks for the reviews guys
Great fotos Billywhizz xxx

[Yorkie]

His personal highlights were Angry Dance which was awesome in its intensity,and Electricity where he bestrode the stage and put everything into his final big number.The whole evening was dominated by Aaron at his best.

I must agree about Aaron's Electricity - so much energy but yet retains tremendous grace.

Romi has come to the end of her stint of eight shows a week as Grandma.She has been terrific and great fun to watch.

She also showed a remarkably safe pair of hands and quick reactions as she caught the 'mank' pasty as it flew of the plate when Aaron flurished it with a little too much vigour

Special mention to 'George's' panto ad lib at the start of the second half of the show I'll never look at a Werther's Original with out breaking in to a smile again

[patc]

Not a review as such. I have done a separate little piece in Aaron's own thread.

It was a fantastic evening in all senses of the word.

Apart from the cast who rose magnificently to the occasion, kudos to Chris Hatt and the guys who used all their expertise to the full to guide Aaron through in the singing department.

Since Diane is due to return this coming week I want to applaud the astounding 8 shows a week performed by Romy as Grandma during her absence. A big hit with audiences in every show she will still do two shows a week as before. Romy's Grandma is right on the spot and it is so clearly evident that she enjoys every moment of it.

Finally, the current version of the show includes all sorts of little added bits by the talented Ensemble members. Just a small example is one line expertly delivered by Spencer Cartwright during Deep into the Ground that is so placed that everyone can plainly hear it. Priceless.

Pat

[Yorkie]

Just a small example is one line expertly delivered by Spencer Cartwright during Deep into the Ground that is so placed that everyone can plainly hear it. Priceless.

Pat

Yeah, I like that too although the way his character is castigated by the rest of the community is not repeatable on a family forum. I noticed a few other new touches yesterday which I'm sure weren't there when I saw the show in January.

[Born to Boogie]

A bit of a last minute decision for me to see the show tonight (Friday 25th Feb) - but when I saw that B7 was still empty at 2pm I thought it must be destined to be mine, and as I’m playing the ‘Billy lottery’ at the moment hoping that I’ll be able to see Scott or Josh for the first time I thought it was worth the chance. Despite still not catching either I was so pleased to have the opportunity to see Rhys again – who is in his element at the moment, as the months he has now been in the show have allowed him to develop his performance superbly. I was also really pleased to see Joe as Michael this evening - who I haven’t seen for months. Unfortunately the 'sound gremlins' seemed to be back tonight - with the quality and cueing of microphones not being as tight as might have been expected.

The production is clearly focussing on developing a number of small but significant and very effective changes at the moment - one of which is mentioned above. Caroline played Mrs Wilkinson this evening – who must have had a hard week because she came to the door with a drink in her hand again instead of the playing cards which had seemed to have replaced it in my recent visits. The weather in Easington must be warming up as well, as Billy left without his coat on tonight – which I assume must have been a one off rather than a permanent change? Neither did Michael have his whistle with him during Express - and again, I don't know if this is particular to Joe or just a one off? I also noticed that Rhys let his hand linger on the handlebars of Michael’s bike as he turned to leave in the farewell scene tonight for just a moment longer than I remember – adding even more to the moving power of his departure.

As has been reported in Rhys’ thread, he could hardly get a word in edgeways after the finale when he was about to introduce the charity collection for http://www.theplace2be.org.uk/ . He was helped to make the announcement by Kay, following which the cheering and clapping resumed! It must have great though for the entire cast, who were all on stage at that point, to hear such an appreciative audience at the end of the evening.

Well done and many thanks to all for another wonderful evening at the VP.

[jacob]

Saturday February 26th eve

Rhys
Joe
Francesca

I had not been to BETM for a while so in a sense I was coming to the Show afresh. I gather that the adult cast had had a very busy week. Apparently there was a rehearsal on Monday afternoon, two Shows on Tuesday, a technical rehearsal for Josh on Wednesday afternoon, two Shows on Thursday, and three further Shows on Friday and Saturday. It is quite rare to have nine Shows in a week I would think. Well done to the cast and crew for coming through this marathon.

I am always taken by the brilliant atmosphere that West End Musicals engender in their audiences. A lot of people have spent a lot of money on their travel and tickets and yet they are all out for a good time. The Economy benefits so much from the ever increasing success of the London West End. Working Titles isn't doing badly either

The Saturday night audience was most enthusiastic. They loved Rhys, Joe, Francesca and small boy. I thought that the adult cast seemed a little tired in places which was not suprising in view of their workload during the week. Chris McGlade doesn't seem to have decided quite how to play his scene at the start of Act 2. Stand up or pantomime?? He picked on the MD for his line ' are you enjoying the Show.........then tell your face.' The MD did not seem amused It is as if George is waiting for heckles. Bring back the politics I say Newcastle got some stick which was perhaps not entirely appropriate considering the nature of the charity appeal at the end of the evening. Most of the technical stuff seemed to work although Billy's cuppa soup didn't look right, Michael's polaroid camera doesn't work at all and one of the big dresses got tangled up with the reflective strips at the back of the stage in Express. Some of the lines are being changed too. Michael says ' your dad's pissed' instead of bladdered. On a more positive note, the orchestra now features a saxaphone in Born to Boogie which gives a better musical texture to dance/skip to.

Thomas has reviewed the same cast on Friday and described the final curtain where Rhys is meant to make an Appeal for the Easington Charity. As the audience would not stop cheering Rhys, Kay stepped forward to do it. I may say that she spoke with tremendous feeling and dignity about the plight that the youth of Easington find themselves in. I reflected that this musical is not just about a 'dancin' boy' who gets into the RBS.

Joe was excellent and shed some tears as he said goodbye to Billy. He is still a tiny Michael but projects the complex character that is Michael with sensitivity. Rhys too, shows his anguish in the letter scenes with feeling. He is becoming a good actor. His dancing in Electricity was received with rapturous applause and I shall say no more for fear of appearing to lionize him It was a pleasure to meet Rhys and his parents at the end of the evening and to see lots of programmes being autographed. Quite like the old days in fact!

[iht]

Saturday February 26th eve

Rhys
Joe
Francesca

I had not been to BETM for a while so in a sense I was coming to the Show afresh. I gather that the adult cast had had a very busy week. Apparently there was a rehearsal on Monday afternoon, two Shows on Tuesday, a technical rehearsal for Josh on Wednesday afternoon, two Shows on Thursday, and three further Shows on Friday and Saturday. It is quite rare to have nine Shows in a week I would think. Well done to the cast and crew for coming through this marathon.

I am always taken by the brilliant atmosphere that West End Musicals engender in their audiences. A lot of people have spent a lot of money on their travel and tickets and yet they are all out for a good time. The Economy benefits so much from the ever increasing success of the London West End. Working Titles isn't doing badly either

The Saturday night audience was most enthusiastic. They loved Rhys, Joe, Francesca and small boy. I thought that the adult cast seemed a little tired in places which was not suprising in view of their workload during the week. Chris McGlade doesn't seem to have decided quite how to play his scene at the start of Act 2. Stand up or pantomime?? He picked on the MD for his line ' are you enjoying the Show.........then tell your face.' The MD did not seem amused It is as if George is waiting for heckles. Bring back the politics I say Newcastle got some stick which was perhaps not entirely appropriate considering the nature of the charity appeal at the end of the evening. Most of the technical stuff seemed to work although Billy's cuppa soup didn't look right, Michael's polaroid camera doesn't work at all and one of the big dresses got tangled up with the reflective strips at the back of the stage in Express. Some of the lines are being changed too. Michael says ' your dad's pissed' instead of bladdered. On a more positive note, the orchestra now features a saxaphone in Born to Boogie which gives a better musical texture to dance/skip to.

Thomas has reviewed the same cast on Friday and described the final curtain where Rhys is meant to make an Appeal for the Easington Charity. As the audience would not stop cheering Rhys, Kay stepped forward to do it. I may say that she spoke with tremendous feeling and dignity about the plight that the youth of Easington find themselves in. I reflected that this musical is not just about a 'dancin' boy' who gets into the RBS.

Joe was excellent and shed some tears as he said goodbye to Billy. He is still a tiny Michael but projects the complex character that is Michael with sensitivity. Rhys too, shows his anguish in the letter scenes with feeling. He is becoming a good actor. His dancing in Electricity was received with rapturous applause and I shall say no more for fear of appearing to lionize him It was a pleasure to meet Rhys and his parents at the end of the evening and to see lots of programmes being autographed. Quite like the old days in fact!

Newcastle has nothing to do with Easington so no problem taking the mick out of Newcastle. In fact, most of the youth of Easington wouldn't look to fondly on Newcastle anyway!