Saturday 2nd July 2016, back at the Millenium centre, Cardiff,for another visit to the fantastic Billy Elliott musical. As the title suggests this is the 5th occasion I have been fortunate to see this show and must admit to being blown away by the sheer brilliance of it all. This has to be one of the best musicals around and a bit of shame it’s run its course in the west end.    

Checking the cast list for tonight,we have Haydn May playing Billy, Samuel Torpey as Michael and Evie Martin as Debbie. And not forgetting Bonnie Burgess as the sweet ‘short boy’ role.I’ve seen these actors before and must say they are all exceptional in their various roles (in fact they are all brilliant,as I’ve been saying for the last few weeks).

Tonight it’s time to talk about the adult cast, who again are totally amazing. Annette McLaughlin as Mrs wilkinson is just so good with great support from Daniel Page as Mr Braithwaite (so funny and a pretty good dancer for a big man). Billy’s family consists of dad (Martin Walsh), Tony (Scott Garnham),grandma (Andrea Miller), and not forgetting Billy’s dead mother (Nikki Gerrard). As the show progresses these characters play a major role in Billy’s life, as the strike leads to heartache and misery, things go from bad to worse, leading up to the brilliant climax to the first act. So much going on in that first act, just brilliant to watch.

During the interval I’m actually exhausted just watching and need a short break to get over the fantastic scenes of that first act. So now onto the second act. The ballet scene immediately comes to life with a wonderful performance from Billy and his older self (played by Luke Cinque – White), sheer heaven to watch and my favourite part of the show Electricity, really is an amazing performance from such a young person (as I mentioned in last weeks blog). The adult cast are just superb as usual, and intermingle with the children to perfection. Such an amazing show to watch, so will be back again next week for more of the same.