School of Rock - Gillian Lynne / UK Tour

15th November

Last night was Gary Trainor's final show as Dewey, did anyone go?

Good first show tonight.

There’s been some changes - in the Guitar Hero scene, Dewey and Ned no longer switch to the real guitars, Patty comes in earlier and claps to turn off the Wii. And then when Summer questions Ms Mullins on Dewey’s suitability to teach, there’s another “Here At Horace Green” reprise, similar to the one Dewey gets in the classroom earlier.

New cast are good - personally I think I preferred the originals in all roles, but this is their first night and did see the last cast six times (with various covers) so I’m sure they’ll be all fine once they’ve settled in.

Stephen Leask is great, but for me he’s the weakest of the Deweys that I’ve seen (David, Joel and Gary come before him for me, in that order) but for a first time viewer (my friend) he’s great. I just didn’t felt he quite had the same energy or vocal range as the others.

Michelle Francis is fine as Patty, but not nearly as good as Preeya. I know it’s not really a very big part by any means, but she is kind of just there.

Alan Pearson as Ned was fine - again nothing remarkable to report but it’s another non-remarkable part. He doesn’t have the inhaler like in the original cast. When Dewey confessed his fraud, Ned blows into a rubber glove.

Chemistry seemed good between the cast for a first show, and I definitely think they’re going to go from strength to strength over the next 12 months.

Shame that the theatre wasn’t full - stalls looked about 75% full but I’d estimate the circle to be half at best. That said, it’s a Wednesday night in term time and this is very much a bring-the-family sort of show so perhaps not surprising.

Understudy list, for people who like that sort of thing:

Dewey: Craig Gallivan (alt), Alex Tomkins, Jake Sharp
Rosalie: Cassandra McCowan, Jessica Louise Parkinson
Ned: Andrew Spillet, James Smoker
Patty: Hannah Stratton, Tasha Sheridan

Interesting! That’s quite possibly the case. Equally he could be not at 100% but didn’t want to call out on his first night proper.

I thought his voice was exceptionally strong in the “normal” range and I loved his rocky tone, it was more when he was at the top end of the score.

First time I saw Gary he really struggled with the high notes too, but on later visits absolutely smashed it. I’m sure I’ll see Stephen again later in the run and he’ll nail it

I really must go back to this one. I haven't seen it since January and even then, I've only seen it once! But Joel was fantastic!

Saw this for the second time tonight, really enjoyed it. If you can get over the fact that the plot is totally ludicrous, implausible and could have been written by 6 years olds with Tourette's then it's a great night at the theatre.

I think this might be my favourite Lloyd-Webber show, Phantom is obviously (in my opinion) his strongest score but this is probably the best overall experience. Act 1 drags a bit, there's a lot of "Dewey acts like a small child and is generally incompetent" padding but act 2 is far tighter.

Having seen both Stephen Leask and Craig Gallivan I have to say I prefer Stephen. Both are great and Craig looks just like Jack Black but Stephen has a slightly more powerful voice and hits the notes with a bit more ease. Florence Andrews is a great Rosalie, she was a little breathy and gave a somewhat underwhelming "Where Did The Rock Go?" when I first saw her but I think she might have been ill because her second performance was far better. I also have a huge crush on that character and the actress who plays her. Michelle Francis is a good Patty, Ned is alright too.

The kids are incredibly talented, but I noticed a huge discrepancy between groups. I understand that except when there's illness/injury, the kids always perform in the same groups, and the lot I had the first time were far stronger across the board than those I had tonight. I was actually blown away by how well they carried If Only You Would Listen and Time To Play the first time around, both were powerful numbers in their own right, but they were almost unbearably screechy tonight. The girl who played Summer was very good though and is the spitting image of what I looked like at that age (except considerably taller) and I may be just a little bitter that I never got the chance to audition for that role when I was 10/11.

The Cats joke was very funny. It works on two levels, many people will get that Memory was written by Andrew Lloyd-Webber who also wrote School of Rock, but fewer will get that Cats originally ran in the New London Theatre (and the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway). It deserved a better reaction than it got.

I've seen the show 3 times, Thursday 11th, Monday 15th and Thursday 18th January, the first show was Team Bass, and the second and third was Team Acoustic. To give them their due, Team Acoustic were brilliant the second time around, I don't know if it was sound levels or an off night or what but I did feel the Monday performance was weaker than the other two.

Jake Sharp makes his Dewey debut at this afternoon's matinee. He is the real life brother of the guy who plays Theo, the lead singer of No Vacancy. I feel that kicking your brother out of the band adds a new level to that scene

I just bought one of the last stalls tickets for this afternoon's show, this will be my fourth Dewey in four shows (Stephen, Craig and Alex were on for my first three).

So this afternoon was great. Pretty much full and very responsive audience. Adults worse hehaved than kids, I was tempted to kick the woman in front of me in the head.

So the cast. Craig was fine, not a patch on Joel though. Florence was great, very funny, got mid-song applause during her solo (my favourite in the show), but again, Rosanna was better. Everyone else was great, love the gay couple! Only weak link was the girl playing Katie, who seemed just angry and pissed the whole time. Not even remotely funny. The girl playing Tomika was AMAZING! Was lovely to see Nick and Joshua, who were the main reasons I went.

Its a great show, I just don't know why I'm not jumping for joy with it. I had a great time last time too but its just a good show. The Finale really didn't work for me from the Dress, it just didn't feel eventful and kinda fell flat. Its very much forced.

No standing ovation at the end, from anyone, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. I enjoyed it too, I'd go back. I wanna suss out what it is that doesn't sit with me.

I agree with you. While this is a good show there's just something off about it. I enjoyed it and was entertained but did not leave feeling on a high like from other shows. I'm glad I saw it once but would not go back.

I saw this again at the weekend. I had Craig Gallivan on as Dewey. I knew of him before from tv and didn't know what to expect. He was brilliant. I wasn't sure at first about his comedy but it worked out as it went on and he has a brilliant voice, which was a surprise. He gave it his all and you can tell he was loving it. Florence Andrews i thought was good again. I prefer the original Ned and also probably the set of kids i had seen the first time, but still of course they were brilliant and talented.

The show is just good fun.

I finally saw this on Thursday afternoon. I was intrigued by the show when it was first announced, despite knowing nothing about it. Then I saw the film, which put me off a bit as I didn't think there was much to it. I decided to go anyway, as I often prefer stage shows to films (and there wasn't anything else on I fancied that has a Thursday matinee). I thought the first half was ok, and it picked up a bit in the second half. I thought the kids were very good, especially the girl who sang Amazing Grace, that was impressive with no music! Overall it was a good way to spend an afternoon (especially as with the awful weather I needed to be inside, I was pleased the NLT is the closest theatre to my hotel!) and I'm glad I've now seen the show, but I won't rush to see it again - unless there's anyone I particularly want to see in any future cast. I would have liked to have seen Craig as Dewey, as I've seen him in other shows, but I just missed him as he was on Wednesday night (according to the cast list that was still up at the box office when I got my ticket on Thursday morning).

Forgive me of I'm just being oblivious but I can't see any details on the website. Are dayseats 2 per person?