Billy Elliot The Musical — Page 30

Well, having travelled most of the night having missed my train connection late last night I have finally returned home from last nights performance.

Last nights performance was quite simply amazing. Far better than I thought any first night could possibly be. Mr Daldry could have not bothered giving his introduction as there isn't a person in the audience that could have told, from the performance alone, that it was anyone's first night.

Leon started strongly. His verse in "The Stars Look Down" showed off a voice with a wonderful tone and a strength that belies his stature. He went on to create his own Billy, a confident Billy. He has obviously watched the others and learned what works and what doesn't but the part he portrays is as different as you could wish. Joey has done the same thing creating a new Michael and forged a great new partnership.

Leon's acting, singing and dancing are all superb. If this is the calibre of the next generation of Billys then the show is in good hands and Decembers changes don't seem quite so daunting as they might have otherwise. If the cast recording were being recorded today rather than a few weeks ago, I would put Leon forward as a very serious candidate for who should be performing on it as his voice is really something special. That's not to say his dancing and acting lack anything, they most certainly do not. His interpretation of the "Angry Dance" was tap perfect and you could literally feel the buzz in the air through "Electricity" which shows off his amazing voice and amazing dancing in equal measures.

"Express Yourself" was a pleasure to watch as usual and Joey got to show what a star he is as well. It was wonderful in the finale that Tim Healy pushed Joey forward for a joint ovation with Leon that was fully deserved.

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Hi, yes this was the position when I rang to enquire on 13 September I actually bought seat B22 for 15 Sept over the phone for £25 rather than que on the morning

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Hi, I was at last night's show, too. Before I'd seen James and George. I love George's Billy; I know that James has a lot of support here, but I didn't like him as much as George, maybe he was having an off day. His acting and dancing was good, but his singing wasn't great.

It was hard to tell it was Leon's first night. Great performance, very confident, although his accent slipped at times. I thought he sang Billy very well - Dear Billy and Dear Mammy were great. He seems to have a good rapport with Joey and Expressing Yourself was a real showstopper.

I've never seen Liam, but I'd guess the cheorography is similar to his, a much more traditional ballet dance in Electricity than I'd seen before; James and George both seemed to sort of break dance. Different arrangement too - did George and James both have the same arrangement for Electricity, I don't recall noticing a difference before.

The one other difference I noticed was that when Billy collected his shoes to go boxing, after his mam's first appearance, instead of him complaining that the shoes were dirty, he found a pork pie in them.

On a more disappointing note, I overheard one of the usher saying the cast recording would be October or November.

Based on the totally gratuitous and offensive comments by 'LM (not Liam)' posted earlier today are we to assume that all of us who love 'Les Miserables' are obsessed with the French Revolution?

Updated On: 9/20/05 at 01:06 PM

James and George shared the same orchestration and Liam and Leon now share the same orchestration. The choreography is subtly different between Liam and Leon though by the looks of it especially the gymnastics that are thrown in.

I loved the pork pie gag. There were a few bits that were also different, for instance telling "Little Boy" to get lost instead of "Shut Up".

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No, Leon and Liam do a similar "Electricity" in style but the backflips/cartwheels etc are slightly different from what I could tell. The version Leon and Liam do doesn't end the same way as the version George and previously James did, it ends with a sequence of pirouettes and spins (yeah, yeah, I know I don't have a scoobies about ballet terms :P)instead.

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regarding the new forum,

please could you copy your posts from here and put them on the new forum I am making, and also I would appriciate it if anybody with web-building experince (any) could help

thankyou

http://s13.invisionfree.com/Billy_Elliot_Musical/index.php?act=idx

Updated On: 6/26/17 at 09:39 PM

Leon and Joey performed again last night and I was able to get a late ticket. Leon's dancing is good and he has a nice singing voice but I feel he has to grow in confidence and stamp his own trademark on the role of Billy.I am sure that will come with time and experience. I agree also with previous comments on his dialect which needs working on with a dialect coach as I felt it wandered a bit. I absolutely concur with the comments made yesterday about Joey. What a natural and he simply oozed class and stage presence. I think potentially he could be one of the best Michaels. His dancing is top notch coupled with the fact that put a frock on him and what a stunner!!. Comparisons are however at the end of the day odious but last night brought it home to me quite forcefully that James, George and Liam over the last six months have raised the bar and set a very high standard of performance that others in the future may find hard to emulate.

If Billyfan2 had read my comments carefully it would be apparent that I was not claiming that Leon's performance was below par.Far from it. I think it is important however to provide a balanced perspective and to recognise that it will probably take a while for him to define his own Billy and to reach the very high standards already set by Liam,James and George. This is the challenge and I am sure that Leon is more than up for it. One must also remember that Leon and Joey did not have the benefit of preview performances. There was plenty of evidence last night that both boys are on continuing learning curve and have tremendous potential. My prior observations on last night were therefore made in the context of constructive support and not criticism.

Updated On: 9/25/05 at 07:31 AM

I feel a little guilty. On Leon and Joey's first night one of the first things I thought when "Tall boy" came on and said "He's Heard" was how proud he would be as it was his first night too. I resolved to mention it and then didn't. Sorry, you did a first class job. All the children are marvelous. I think that is what you see when you see it many times that you don't necessarily see when you see it just the once. Each of the different ballet girls is a character as are small boy and tall boy (multiple characters in the latters case). You all do a phenomenal job and the show certainly wouldn't be the same without your efforts. I hope you all enjoy doing it as much as you seem to.

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yes! When i frist saw it me and my freinds had a little mutter to each other...wondering why the little boys mother wasnt going to get him and also why the music conductor man wasnt tryign to stop him...we just thought he wanted a closer view. but then you realise...i think its a great begining that gets the audience wondering...i like it !!!