So, as a birthday present, we paid the approx. 700 pound cover price and went to see Billy Elliot the Musical.  And let me tell, expensive tickets or not, I loved it.  In fact, let me exclamation point that:  I loved it!

First of all, it has a real book, rather than just the usual stitched-together nonsense (see Carousel).  Second, it's funny and smart and sentimental and paced exactly right.  And third - and best of all - it has the foulest mouth of any musical I've ever seen.  There's something utterly splendid of a chorus of cherub-faced wee girls singing, "O my darling, o my darling, o my darling Heseltine/You're a tosser, you're a wanker, and you're just a Tory swine".  And that's only what's publishable on a family blog.

Really, I have no idea how this is going to go down in New York (where it opens this month); the accent alone will be an obstacle (it's called Geordie, for all you US readers), the politics and references will be baffling, and I get the feeling that "family shows" have about 600 fewer uses of the f-word.  Who cares?  It's how musicals should be and rarely are:  good for your brain, actually about something, and shamelessly tugging at your heartstrings while cussing you out.  Brilliant.

On a tangential note further north, there's quite a nice review of Knife of Never Letting Go in the Scotsman today (and another in the Australian Courier-Mail, so not really north at all, that one)