Last night I went back to the Victoria Palace to see Billy Elliot for the eighth time - what was more of an added bonus was seeing the names of both Leon & Joey displayed in the foyer area who played the parts of “Billy” and “Michael”. For those of you who have not seen these two boys yet, you’ve got something to really look forward too.
Leon’s acting was superb and his singing was fantastic, you wouldn’t have thought that he’d only been doing this in front of a live audience for a few weeks, it’s like he’s done it for years.
Joey did an outstanding performance playing the part of Michael. His “Expressing Yourself” song was perfectly timed and you could tell that the two of them were having a laugh together doing this song.
Keep up the great work that you are both doing guys.
While I’m giving you a review about last night, I would like to take this opportunity to say that the ballet girls were so funny, you add so much character to this show.
Little Tom was playing the part of small boy and also did a great job, especially during “Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher”, where he seemed to be really enjoying himself.
On to the adults now… whoever will be taking over the roles of those cast members leaving in December, they have an extremely hard act to follow…
Tim Healey’s facial expressions throughout his performance is what makes his part of playing Billy’s dad superb.
Haydn Gwynne was also on top form yesterday playing Mrs Wilkinson, she and Steve Elias who plays Mr Braithwaite always do a great job together, especially during “Born To Boogie”.
As for Ann Emery playing grandma, she always gets a laugh when she dancers around the room at the end of her song – brilliant.
Now onto Joe Caffrey who plays Billys Brother. You are going from strength to strength. You act out your part so well, especially the confrontation amongst the miners and the police.
My only disappointing part of the performance yesterday was the amount of smoke that was used during the Swan Lake scene when Billy flies through the air. I couldn’t see much of it, which is a shame when this part of the show is a huge audience pleaser.
All in all, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Thank you everyone.
"All you have to do is learn to care less..."
