September 2009 Reviews - NYC

[Rasputin]

Sept 2

David A
David B
Trent as tall boy

Intermission right now...

[Rasputin]

I am posting from my blackberry which is a pain! Matinee now over a full review will be posted once I get back to headquarters. Right now I am prepping for the evening performance. My guess is that this will be trent as billy.

[Rasputin]

Sept 2nd matinee

Billy: David A.
Michael: David B.
Tall Boy: Trent

First let me say that being semi-OCD it drives me mental that I created this new topic as "September Reviews" and NOT "SEPTEMBER REVIEWS US". So now it doesn't fit in with the others! If the powers that be can fix that....please feel free.
This was my first show where a "Billy" actually played a different role.....cool! Everything in the show seemed to run smoothly. David A's dancing was as always flawless. I mean seriously, of all the Billy's I've seen, his ballet has to be one of the best. I think it was Maria who stated that Dad was a little more "drunk" at the beginning of Deep Into The Ground. I noticed that too....not sure if I like that or not. I'd rather here more singing and less talking of the songs. They did not have small boy come over and dump coin after coin into the hat for Billy's audition. I hope they didn't get rid of that as I quite liked it. I really don't have any more details....it was the typical great show....sold out once again! Okay....that's it for this review...sorry it was not as long and detailed as others!!

-Ras

[ERinVA]

Your wish is my command! I have changed the name of the thread for you. But for future reference, although you can't edit anyone else's posts, you can edit your own, so in the future if you want to change the name of a thread that you have started, go back to your original post in that thread and click on Edit. Then you can change the title of the thread. Hope this helps.

[Rasputin]

Sept 2nd Evening

Billy: Trent K.
Michael: Trevor
Tall Boy: Tommy

Tommy has continued to elude me in the role of Billy but at least I had the chance to see him on the stage as Tall/Posh Boy. I decided to buy non-premium seat for this show as I am going broke buying them!! So I sat in the front mezzanine. I have to say after all the time I spend in the first 6 rows it was quite refreshing to sit somewhere else and get a different view of the show. I had not seen Trent since his final performance in London last year. Wow has he gotten tall! Trent always seemed a little quiet and shy personality wise to me but you'd never guess that during his performance...WOW! He brings such a great energy to the show! Love that Angry Dance! The fact that he is taller and stronger has made his dancing all that much better than the last time I saw him. He is also a great actor. I could hear his voice breaking up as he sang the letter (breaking up as in crying).

I love this bunch of ballet girls too. I don't remember them make me laugh as much as before. All their facial expressions are hysterical....from Tracy Atkinson to Susan parks!! The girl playing Debbie is great too. I think she might be the best Debbie I've seen. She has such great delivery with her lines. I feel bad for not knowing her name!!!

One slip up in this show was that Trent did not say "See ya Michael" on his way into the house after the letter from the Royal Ballet School arrived. So Tony, Dad and Grandma didn't have a cue when to run over and stand behind the table so they had to do it after Billy entered the house which was a little awkward! The small boy was back to dropping all the coins (I always assumed he is the one with the pesos) again! Trevor was good as Michael. He adds that I Dream of Jeannie routine in there folding his arms and bowing his head...."doo doot doot doot da do doot". And the long drawn out high pitched "Satin and LAAAAAAAAACE" had me laughing!

That is all for now......oh yeah I Saw Tommy after the show and he had a plastic cast on his wrist. I asked him about it and he had said that he sprained it. I asked if it was keeping him out of the Billy role and he said not really he'd will be back next week.

-Ras

[phoebe]

Many thanks for the reviews! Really interesting to hear the contrast between Trent's London performance to well over a year later now. I agree, as they get taller and stronger, their performance gets better.

Debbie is played by Erin Whyland. I've never seen another Debbie, but I do agree that she is very good. Great expression and comic timing.

[Todd]

I Saw Tommy after the show and he had a plastic cast on his wrist. I asked him about it and he had said that he sprained it.

-Ras

I'm afraid Tommy is in serious competition with Dean McCarthy (former London cast) for most injury-prone Billy . . .

[Billy Whiz]

Debbie is played by Erin Whyland. I've never seen another Debbie, but I do agree that she is very good. Great expression and comic timing.

Erin is excellent and her English accent is first rate. She will be sadly missed when she leaves on September 27th.

I saw Maria Connelly play Debbie on June 9th and she also was excellent.

[SatinandLace]

I went to all the shows between Friday and Sunday this past week. I managed to see Trent, David and Kiril (twice). I'll just mention a few things that stood out for me:
First time seeing Trevor, and he's great! He has quite a few of his own touches, some of which I'm not too sure about. During Express, he says "Time, for a look in the mirror, Master" and breaks into the I Dream of Genie theme song. In the boxing scene, when George puts Michael in a choke-hold and picks him up, Trevor says "This is SO wrong!" In the winter scene, when he busts a move in the tutu chanting "just a little bit.." he yells "Take it to the bridge!" before falling over. He doesn't attempt the splits, which kind of leaves the nutcracker line not making much sense. It was pretty comical how much smaller than David and Kiril he is. During the Winter Scene, Trevor has to actual reach up and and put he hand on the top of Kiril's head to push it down.

Will Chase was WONDEFUL as Tony, and I told my friend Shannon that he might as well have gone to the Chris Lennon School of Acting. His Tony is so authentic and he plays the character with the same passion and gruffness that Chris Lennon did and I love his take on the role. I especially love when he takes the scabs money and throws it back at him...he does it with the same intensity as he would if he were throwing a punch. Overall, he didn't seem too old to play Tony and very believably passed for a 20-something. I loved his performance.

It was nice to see a few new ballet girls that have joined the cast since my last trip to NYC. At the end of Solidarity, one of the "doors" on the set was left open, leaving the new blonde ballet girl, Danika, wondering if she should attempt to close it or not. She gently tapped it, but it wasn't budging, so she tapped Tessa who plays Susan Parks and pointed to the door. At the end of the scene, Tessa got up and closed it. The next night, the exact same thing happened, but no fuss was made and I'm sure no one even noticed. There was also a point where Erin couldn't get her right tap shoe on for her "big moment", and just carried it out to center stage in her hand.

Greg isn't nearly as emotional at the end of Deep Into The Ground as he used to be, and as a result, when he breaks down in the snow scene with Mrs. W, the audience has started laughing. It's very strange and I've never heard this happen before, so that's the only reason I can come up with as to why this is happening. It happened at every show I saw this weekend.

At the Sunday matinee, the curtain didn't close after the cast takes their first bow before the "Billy" sign is revealed. The cast ran offstage leaving Kiril standing there not really knowing what to do and the Billy sign never appeared. It did finally come down at the end of the show, but the stage manager was out onstage looking up to make sure it was coming down like it was supposed to. I was blown away by Kiril's acting in both letter scenes. It even seemed to have an affect on Kerry, the actress playing Dead Mum, as her voice seemed to crack and she wasn't able to sing a few of the lines of the song. Kiril had tears streaming down his face. Amazing. I can't imagine there will be a dry eye in the house on October 3rd.

I saw Jayne Paterson play Mrs. W, and she was excellent. A younger, less tough take on the role and with a very strong singing voice. It was interesting to see all the different constumes Jayne wears as opposed to Haydn. For some reason, Haydn doesn't come on and do the kick line with the rest of the cast the end of the finale, but Jayne did. Maybe Haydn is still recovering from an injury?

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony were at the show Friday night, but of course they were at the one show I had a ticket for the mezz. so I didn't actually see them, just heard about it afterwards.

Anyway, that's all I could think of to write at the moment, but I'll be sure update if I think of anything else.

[Billy Whiz]

Thanks for your take on the shows. You must have had a wonderful time? It would seem that the replacement cast members have settled in well.

I must admit that I can't see where "Take it to the bridge" comes into the winter scene and not doing the splits before the nutcracker line certainly seems strange.