August 2011 Reviews - London

[dancingboy]

Great review,Pat. As you say,I am glad I was there to witness the performance of a lifetime from Josh.

[Westletonion]

Pat said:

Extraordinary that we currently have 5 Billys all different, a testament to the prowess of the company in the finding and training of these amazing examples of real human wizardry.


Absolutely true. Five equally talented and brilliant Billys each with his own unique charisma and personality.

As has been said Josh and Reece gave the performance of a lifetime yesterday. Good to see the theatre packed with a huge number of young folk, all tremendously enthusiastic about this magnificant show.

[Barry Appleby]

Sat here in Bridlington, It ------- down with rain, cant do owt, but what a tonic, reading that great review Pat! just makes me feel as though I was in the theatre, so another outstanding performance from King Josh, haven't we got some great Billy's at the moment.

Barry

[Billy Whiz]

haven't we got some great Billy's at the moment.

Barry

We've never had anything but great Billys ...... ever

[angelenroute]

Those who brought Richter scales to the show today will have seen them destroyed...feet belting out the angry beat at a rate of 100 tps (taps per second)...these amazing examples of real human wizardry. Eat your heart out Harry Potter...A brilliant Boogie had a rousing finish as Josh first did his usual somersault off the piano and then proceeded to make Drogba green with envy with an outrageous “dive” to the floor that would have earned a yellow card on any football ground...The young audience didn’t just go ballistic when it was over. They went straight into Outer Space and when Josh smiled the smile back at them you could feel the waves of appreciative vibes rushing from the back, where they were seated, over Row B’s heads and onto the stage and the hairs on the back of your neck stood up. Yeah, spine-tingling.

I've clipped together some of my favorite bits from your review above, Pat. Well done all around!

The weekly Billy barm brack has eight slices (nine this week). Each slice is delicious, tasty, crisp and nourishing. Sometimes a slice of brack contains a bonus, the ring, and it was our turn to get the ring today.

As a New York fan and fan of the English language, I'd love to be taught a new lesson on this one as it's a completely foreign metaphor for me. =)

--Sean

[Billy Whiz]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barmbrack

[angelenroute]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barmbrack

Ahh, okay, and similar to "raisin bread" then too...perhaps the Irish-American version of the same.

Thanks!

[dancingboy]

Friday 26 August


Great Scott!!! Yes, another great show on Friday night,this time with the Scottish maestro otherwise known as Scott McKenzie.His singing voice has always been good and tonight he set the tone for the show with a very tuneful rendition of ''Take me Oop''. There followed faultless displays in B2B and Expressing (with Reece,with lots of comments going on between the two of them as,yet again,Scott won the race to see who can get their tap shoes on first). Dream Ballet was absolutely perfectly executed by both Scott and Barnaby that had the audience purring with delight. Add to that the usual noisy Angry Dance and the finishing touch with a well-sung and sublimely danced Electricity,where I counted no less than 14 pirouettes to end the dance, and what more could one ask for? Well, the extra was that beaming smile of Scott's when taking the ovations after Electricity and Finale. It certainly looked as though Scott thoroughly enjoyed himself tonight,but probably not as much as the audience enjoyed his performance.

I've only one more show this week,on Saturday evening.Things can't get better,can they?

dancingboy.

[zakactor47]

Thursday 18th August

Saw Billy Elliot for my 4th time! Saw the new Billy.

Was a fantastic show. One of the best I have ever seen. It just keeps getting better and better every time i see it. went with WEST END STAGE a drama academy and we managed to get to have a question & answer session with the cast. it was fantastic getting to find out what happens behind the scenes and how they audition for the adult parts. I stayed at the academy for a week and we had many different workshops and one of them was BILLY ELLIOT and we got to do some script work (the hammer scene) with tom who plays tony. It was fantastic.


Zak Charlesworth

BILLY ELLIOT MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jacob]

Saturday matinee August 27th

Ryan
Connor Lawson
Emily Smith

An interesting afternoon as I had not seen Ryan before.
I should say to start with that the Show was stopped in Act 1 just before Tony's fight with his Dad. The wretched bedroom lift failed yet again and the Stage Manager had to come on to stop everything and bring down the fire curtain. The audience duly remained seated and accepted the situation in their customary docile way. This malfunction destroys the flow of the story and must be really difficult for the crew and cast. After a few minutes David Massey came on stage to apologise and the performance resumed. No doubt the problem will be reported back to the producers but I really feel that the lift system needs replacing.

A lot of compliments have been paid to Ryan since he joined the cast and I must say that all are justified. I could see many touches of originality that he is bringing to the part of Billy. He produced some very funny moves in his boxing scene with Michael which had the audience in hysterics. I always think that it is a promising sign when an audience responds so strongly at this early stage in the show. In fact the audience loved Ryan and their response grew and grew throughout the matinee. Strangely the FOH managers described the 'house' as quiet compared to the earlier part of the week. Yet there were extended periods of applause after Angry Dance, the aeriel ballet sequence and of course Electricity. I had not anticipated seeing the 'board' back for his street version of Electricity. Ryan was spot on with his timing in this scene and also in his roll off the piano at the end of Born to Boogie. He gave an uplifting performance and duly received standing ovations at the end. It will be fascinating to see his career develop.
Connor Lawson has a sensitive interpretation of Michael and I felt that he was moving in the winter scene as well as hilarious in Express. For me Michael is such an important character in the story.
BETM is a bitter sweet story and yet it never fails to lift one's spirits.