I have been remiss in posting my comments about Wheelock, although I'll claim having had a significant distraction which is noted elsewhere on this forum.
After Lancaster with the experienced Jamie Mann being directed by Adam Pelty, I was not intending to attend Wheelock at all. In the end, I attended a handful of performances and that was indeed a whole lot better than none. However I still think the combination of a known high-quality Billy and a director who sets a high level of choreography may not be something we'll see again.
What was most interesting to me was the observable improvements that could be seen in the primary roles over a period of time. In the case of Shane, besides becoming the 188th Billy in the world, it was achieving a milestone with his acting. Even a few months ago at Thommie Retter's Jingle Jam, my description of
Expressing Yourself performed there with Jamie Mann was still seeing Shane playing Michael. At Wheelock all I could see was Michael. And Billy when he took on that role.
Seth is a very strong dancer. His pirouettes have some element of Mitchell Tobin and some element of Drew Minard. Mitchell in the ability to put his foot down and twirl on that one spot and Drew with sometimes raising his hands while doing tight spins. It was also notable how his comfort level on stage increased steadily. It will be fantastic if Seth is able to continue his Billy career in a future production.
I have to think Wheelock leads all BETM productions in the number of hugs. Besides the usual spots - first Letter scene, Mrs. W after the 2nd Toilet scene and for Dad after packing the suitcase - there was the second Letter scene with Mum plus one hug each for Tony and Dad at the end of
Once We Were Kings.
Aimee Doherty was
brilliant as Mrs. Wilkinson. I could not get enough of her wonderful singing, and the excellence included just the right gestures and right amount of gruffness and tenderness as was befitting the scenes and the lines. I really hope to see her in future productions in this role.
Neil Gustafson was excellent as Dad. Perhaps not quite as distinctive as Aimee shining in her role, but that is no discredit to Neil. He was a valuable asset in this production.
A couple of the other roles, however, unfortunately bring diversity to the forefront. It is hard to think that Grandma and Mr. Braithwaite were chosen because they were the best candidates. Artistically, at least, they were not great choices. Maybe there are other reasons for not casting the best actors for those roles, but one of the possibilities is that it is deliberately done as promoting diversity. If that is the case, I would say the message is better presented if the production had better actors there. Like Dead Mum who was played by an African-American woman and she did add something to the role. In this case, however, I just gotta wonder if blind casting of an immediate family member is the best strategy when there is typically a young, inexperienced actor playing Billy.
During one of the performances, Michael kissing Billy brought about an audible "Ewwwww" from a very young audience member. Seth understandably had a case of the giggles during much of the remainder of the scene and kudos to Shane being able to continue on through that sequence.
In the final performance, it was nice to see that the director gave her blessing to the traditional "See ya Shane"/"See ya Seth" closing lines. This was evidenced by the open captioning showing those lines exactly. Shane confirmed the official approval of the change after the show.