My Week in London - Billy Elliot: The Musical (Review)

Last week I stayed in London and took the opportunity to see 3 shows in the West End I'd been wanting to see for ages, of which I have now reviewed to share my thoughts of them. The first show I saw was Billy Elliot and without further ado here is my review!

Billy Elliot: The Musical (Tuesday 27th July, 7:30pm)

Billy Elliot has undoubtedly become one of the West End’s staple musicals and is currently celebrating its tenth year in London. And even after 10 years, it remains an awe-inspiring production filled with breath-taking dance sequences and both heart-wrenching and warming moments.

Even sitting in the Upper Circle at the beautiful Victoria Palace Theatre gave a great view and fully immersed you in the production. The best way to describe the show would be an emotional rollercoaster (cliché I know). Lee Hall’s book and Elton John’s music takes you through a real wide range of emotions on Billy’s journey to becoming a ballet dancer whilst the struggles of the Miners Strike of 1984-85 affect his family and local community, that left me laughing and crying at various parts of the show.

The Billy I saw, Brodie Donougher, was a terrific performer who embodied the character of Billy extremely well and proved to be strong as a singer, actor and particularly a dancer. His Electricity and Swan Lake numbers were jaw-droppingly good and gained rapturous applause from the audience. Other standouts included Deka  Walmsley as Billy’s father, who perhaps emphasized the ‘rollercoaster’ factor the most through his excellent performance channelling the stern, abrasive father who steadily releases his inner love and care for his son whilst maintaining a wicked comic timing (particularly in the ‘Audition’ scene). Wendy Somerville was a more than worthy alternate to Ruthie Henshall as Mrs. Wilkinson, while Gillian Elisa and Chris Grahamson filled out the primary cast terrifically as the rest of Billy’s family.

Elton John’s music goes from being infectious and toe-tapping (Expressing Yourself) to inspiring (Electricity) to greatly affecting (Dear Billy – both renditions) and the show is at its most impressive when merging singing, dance and dynamic choreography into impressive set-pieces (Solidarity). The only struggle was hearing some of the lyrics over the orchestra, particularly in the opening numbers of the show which felt somewhat overcrowded for lack of a better word.

Nevertheless, Billy Elliot remains an electrifying show in the West End that combines great songs, amazing dancing and an extremely talented cast to bring this inspiring and heart-wrenching story to life.

★★★★½

Check out my review of Miss Saigon here and my review of Memphis here! Thanks for reading!