★★★★★★

Venue: Birmingham Hippodrome

Production Run: Tues 7 March - Sat 29 April 2017

Performance Reviewed: Wed 8 March (Press Night)

Upon approaching the Birmingham Hippodrome for the reviewed performance, it was difficult not to notice the theatre proudly adorned with a new tagline - ‘The West End in the West Midlands’. 

It’s a bold, confident mission statement, and one the Hippodrome has more than capably demonstrated countless times over. But perhaps nowhere has it been truer than with it’s current tenant, the debut UK Tour of smash-hit Billy Elliot the Musical.

Reviewing both West End and touring productions, it’s always a joy to see productions that sacrifice little in the way of ambition or scope by dint of going on the road, shows that can confidently go shoulder-to-shoulder with their London peers. It’s downright thrilling, then - not to mention rarer than a cheap seat at Hamilton - to witness a show that actually manages to be even better than it was in the Capital.

Yes, Billy Elliot the Musical is a stunning achievement on every conceivable level.

The core show - adapted from the BAFTA-winning 2000 film of the same name - is as moving, memorable and impactful as when it first debuted some twelve years ago. The premise is charmingly high-concept yet utterly irresistible - in the midst of the mid-1980’s miners strikes and community upheaval in Northern England, talented young Billy Elliot (Lewis Smallman in the performance reviewed) finds a passion in the most unconventional of callings - Ballet.

What follows is a story that not only masterfully interweaves the wider political zeitgeist of the time (just you wait for ‘Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher’) with an intensely personal and intimate journey for Billy and his family, but also makes for an almost incomparably good musical in the process. It’s almost overwhelming to think of the sheer number of ways Billy could - and arguably should - misfire, jumping as it can one moment from a cross-dressing young boy tap dancing on stage with oversized women’s dresses to a devastating, cacophonous depiction of police brutality and communal suffering.

Billy runs the full spectrum of what you can feel in the theatre, and none of it registers as false.

In fact, it just all feels so authentic. The plight of the miners. The aching absence of Billy's mom. The joyful expression of dance. The infectious community spirit and camraderie.

That it manages to do so very much, pull it all off spectacularly, and remain not only a satisfying and cohesive whole, but a downright thrilling one at that, is a testimony to how special a show this is.

It helps that the cast assembled for this debut tour are just as exemplary as the show around them.  Annette McLaughlin is fantastic as the dry, world-weary Mrs Wilkinson, the local dance teacher who spots the promise in young Billy. McLaughlin imbibes the character with just enough salt and grit, whilst also mining plenty of heart and humour from the lighter beats the character is afforded, including cutting a fabulous rug in her showier song and dance moments. Martin Walsh, meanwhile, is powerful and moving with faultless conviction as Billy’s gruff, pragmatic father, carrying much of the emotional weight of the second act in particular, whilst Scott Garnham impresses as Billy’s older brother Tony - a young man full of pent-up anger and rage at the socio-political injustice his community faces.

But the show truly belongs to its young cast. From a hilariously sassy turn from Lilly Cadwallender as mouthy young Debbie through to a scene-stealing tour-de-force from Elliot Stiff as Billy’s hyper-expressive best friend Michael, the talent on display is nothing short of astounding.

And nowhere is this more apparent than with Midlands-native Lewis Smallman, one of four young actors who rotate the titular role. Smallman acts, sings and dances up an absolute storm - commanding the stage with a performance and conviction way beyond his years, so exquisite and practically faultless in technique, and so moving and earnest in its truthfulness that he, like many of the talented young performers around him, has no doubt a glittering future ahead.

Elsewhere, particular credit has to go to Elton John and Lee Hall, whose powerful and striking music helps carve Billy Elliot into a treat of a musical experience. The show’s bigger musical moments - see the booming clout and genius ensemble workings of ‘Solidarity’ or the no holds-barred theatrical exuberance of ‘Expressing Yourself’ - not only blow most of their competition completely out of the water in terms of impact and clout, but also indelibly make the case for Billy Elliot as a musical where it easily could have been conceived as a straight-up play.

It’s not all John and Hall’s glory to claim, though - Peter Darling’s original choreography remains not only razor-sharp but brilliantly clever and, as with almost every element of this show, remarkably diverse. Sequences such as Billy’s audition and some of the aforementioned ensemble moments rank with some of the most exquisite uses of dance in the genre. Similarly, Ian MacNeil’s set design, Rick Fisher’s lighting and Paul Arditti’s sound are all equally praiseworthy; wonderfully evocative of place and character, cannily subdued and understated where necessary, yet also bombastic, grandiose and vigorous when not. 

That all of this praise is richly deserved is notable, that it belongs to a touring production is remarkable. All involved in this debut tour have pulled off a tremendous feat - a show that actually looks, sounds and plays even better than it did in London. It may sound like hyperbole, but let’s put it this way - when the original West End show was already a stunning, beautiful treat of a musical, to take it on the road not only with complete fidelity but also give it that little something extra, then it makes quite simply for not only the most impressive touring theatre production in recent memory, but also quite simply one of the best things you could hope to see on stage.

So, not just the West End in the West Midlands.

Something even better. 

Something truly electric.

I guess that deserves a mythical ‘6th’ star, then.

RATING - ★★★★★★

Tickets: 0844 338 5000​  / Official Website: click​