Saw Billy Elliot at the Canon as a special surprise birthday present and we had the most fantastic time. What a great show, very uplifting and moving at the same time. Excellent, would highly recommend it.

While striving to be unbiased the casting of Billy Elliot did a true diservice to the play. Casting a young Asian boy (cockney acccent and all) was akin to hiring a caucasian as "Madame Butterfly". While a fabulous singer and terrific dancer this young boy was a totally unbelievable Billy. This poor choice of lead character was not only unbelievable but disconcerting and took away from the story line of a totally homogeneous small town in Northern England.

Almost fell asleep in the first act with the true star of the show being Jack Broderick as Michael in Expressing Yourself. Second Act was much more entertaining as it featured the ensemble more and had more powerful music. Had trouble with the terrible accents. Might as well have dropped the accents since Billy wasn't a believable Brit anyway. Unless he was adopted he couldn't possibly be the son of the Elliots. Made it hard to get absorbed in the small tight mining community atmosphere. Honestly, don't know what all the fuss is about.