We had a personal introduction from the Director at tonight’s performance of Billy Elliot The Musical as he was introducing a few new members of cast including a new Billy Elliot played by twelve year old Brad Wilson from Doncaster. Apparently he is the thirtieth boy to play the role worldwide! I’ve just done a google on Brad and apparently he has only been dancing since he was 9 years old. It was very impressive therefore to see him deliver quite a mature and polished performance in the title role tonight.

The musical brings the hit movie and more to the stage. You have a young boy who is a miner’s son aching to find his inner person amidst the conflict of the 1984 miners’ strike in Durham. There are tears, there is anger, implied violence, love – it has it all. The whole musical really works together from the score, to the band, to the sets, to the performances – a great show.

There were two pieces in tonight’s performance that were the highlghts for me – the first being the last “solo” by Billy at the end of the (very long) first half where he is expressing his anger at being denied a chance to audition for the Royal Ballet School and the second being the first “solo” at the start of the second half where Billy is this time expressing his sorrow at a future which is apparently devoid of dance. The first was loud, it was angry, it was agressive. In contrast the second, part of it in tandem with a “future” older Billy, was gentle, passionate, touching and breathtakingly beautiful. Both performances were veyr physically demanding and I was impressed that the new Billy had the stamina to maintain his high level throughout the whole show.

I was also impressed by the boy who played Billy’s friend Michael. He had great comic timing and his dancing skills weren’t half bad either. This is not the say that the cast were just background to these two boys – everyone had their role to play and they played it to perfection.

The musical is very long with the first half going for more than 90 minutes and the whole show, including a short interval, lasting about three hours and 15 minutes. The encore was kind of cute with a dancing Billy weavng in and out of the performers for a final piece. Two standing ovations were given – that’s how impressed we all were with the show.