Billy Elliot at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth

Last week I had a fantastic surprise email offering me press tickets to the dress rehearsal of Billy Elliot at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth. I jumped at the chance immediately – I love the theatre, I’d never seen Billy Elliott and it was finally a blogging offer in my neck of the woods.

As I’d got two tickets and I knew she’d love it as much as me, Mum accompanied me to Plymouth and we both queued excitedly for the doors to open. As the show started we were  blown away by everything displayed. The set was wonderfully created, sliding rooms and scenes in and out of view. The music and lighting was incredible, benefiting from a score written by the grand man of pop himself, Elton John, and spanning hard rock, jazz and folk.

However, the true magnificence was the choreography. The dancing was unbelievably, most especially for children of 11 and under. We were blown away by the talent of the whole cast, but most especially Billy, Michael in all his camp hilarity, and the other remarkable children, who all danced with grace and elegance far beyond their years.

I loved how powerfully political the whole performance was, with significant passion and unashamed references to the distaste towards Thatcher and the damage caused to the entire mining community. It starkly reminds us of the not so distant past.

If you live in the south west, or in fact anywhere near a theatre, there’s quite a chance that Billy Elliot will be coming close to you too. Funnily enough, before I was invited to the press day, I’d been eyeing up some of the remaining tickets in the Theatre Royal and now we’ve bought more to see the show again in Plymouth before it moves onto the next town. The Billy we saw, Adam Abbou, was amazing, and I can only imagine the other three are just as talented, they are not only sure to dazzle the audiences in these performances but many other ventures in the future too.