August 2015 at the Victoria Palace Theatre. For this performance, we had Ollie Jochim as Billy and Zach Atkinson as Michael, with the understudy Mrs Wilkinson.
I can't really fault the casting, as all of the cast were brilliant, especially the two young men playing Billy and Michael.
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| Ollie's part of the programme |
I believe Ollie was the newest Billy when we went to see it, but you couldn't tell. He is a ballet Billy, meaning his version of Electricity is based more around ballet, rather than acrobatics or other styles as street Billy's have. Here's Ollie performing at westend live, his version of electricity is slightly different here due to the small size of the stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVw5M5fJEZw
and here's expressing/finale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlWnGv205Ws
Other ballet Billy's that are good are Liam Mower and Elliot Hanna in case you want to see some different routines.
Just in case you are interested, here is a street Billy performing electricity, I think Harrison is one of the best, so I chose him, other good street Billy's are Fox and Bradley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJC6Vv4dOT4
Ollie was brilliant at facial expressions and making you believe the story. My favourite dance routine to watch was Angry Dance as it was very intense and he really put his heart and soul into it. He worked really well alongside the other cast members, especially Zach who was particularly strong when performing the funny lines. You could tell that they both enjoyed dancing Expressing Yourself together. If you want to see Zach in action, he played Michael in the recorded live version that you can buy on DVD that was recorded a few weeks after we visited. Ollie also features in the finale.
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| Zach's part of the programme |
I can't remember which young lady we had as Debbie, but her and the other ballet girls were excellent dancers. The young lady playing Susan Parks was very funny and stood out!
Onto the adults, Deka and Chris were really good as Billy's Dad and Tony. The scenes between them were very tense at points and others showed a funny father/son relationship. Chris was very good at showing the frustration and anger of the miners. Ann Emery as Grandma was amazing to see as she had been part of the original cast, with only a small break in the middle. Grandma's song was very emotional and one of my favourites, here she is performing it 10 years ago! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMS18ShVrZw
David Muscat as Mr Braithwaite was also very funny and probably the person that made me laugh the most. His excellent dancing skills were a surprise and he made Born to Boogie to be honest. The fact that we didn't have Ruthie as Mrs Wilkinson was a shame, but the understudy did an excellent job and did remind me of how Julie Walters played the part in the film. George was cast well as the actor playing him really did look the part and was very funny during Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher.
The music is brilliant, a mixture of sad and emotional songs, with the intense angry dance, funny songs and then electricity made to show off Billy's skills. As someone who's family contains lots of ex-miners and a Labour party member, Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher was particularly fun and they allowed for audience participation by having the house lights up, making you feel part of the community. The letter is a very emotional song and I liked that they brought Billy's Mum onto the stage alongside Mrs Wilkinson and it switched between them singing the Mum's lines to show how Billy had maternal role models in his life. Solidarity was also very impressive, I think it was one of the first songs I had ever heard from the musical so I couldn't wait to see it live. I have read a lot about the miner's strike and police actions and have even studied the police in the 1970/80s and this song does help to reflect how two different working class jobs were pitched against each other. This song does show the intensity of the situation and the anger and frustration faced by the miners and their communities. Yet, how people tried to carry on and how the children were put in an awful situation.
The set and costumes match the period and mood perfectly. I've heard that Billy wears seven pairs of shoes in one performance! The best part for costumes and stage props is probably Expressing Yourself when giant dresses and trousers appear on stage with a sparky background, this is a very funny song and does lighten the mood up. Angry dance is very intense as the police are in riot gear so have the shields and batons, when they bang the batons against the shields it is very effective. If you like feathers, then you will like Shine as all of the ballet girls and Billy dance around with a sort of huge feather fan! The lighting is also very well done, in angry dance it is very dark so makes it even more intense and in electricity there is minimal lighting expect for a main spot on Billy to put the focus on him entirely as this is his chance to show what he can do. The set is quite clever at times, Billy's room and stair case come out of the floor and other rooms are pulled in from the side of the stage such as Michael's house and the toilets, which I guess is quite a quick way of doing scene changes and it did not slow down the performance.
Anyway, that is probably enough for now, as I am hoping to see it again when it goes on tour, if it comes anywhere close to where I live! I would highly recommenced this show to anyone. (Be warned there is quite a lot of swearing so I would think about taking children under 11/12 who aren't at high school so might not be used to swear words yet, and the bit between Billy and Debbie from the film is kept in as well, look it up if you don't know which line I am talking about!). Lots of shows talk about how many emotions you go through watching them, but in this one it really does happen, you can be upset by the letter scene, tense in the miners vs police scenes, laugh at Michael's scenes and be amazed by the standard of dancing. Visit it if you can!
It is still running at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London, but they are slowly announcing UK tour dates at the moment! http://www.billyelliotthemusical.com/
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