I've now gone to several shows at the Stanley Theatre and I've never yet left disappointed.  
Well there's my opinion given away in a sentence but humour me and keep reading.
If I might flash my theatrical credentials at you for just a moment you'll hopefully understand that I'm slightly more observant than an average theatre goer.  I've been personally acting in plays and musicals since I was ten and I went off and did my first year at University majoring in Theatre.  I've been lucky enough that, however artistically lacking my parents may be they've taken me to enough shows to let me gain an appreciation for the art and artistry.   
Regardless I feel like I am qualified enough to voice my opinion on a theatrical production and have it be considered official and serious.

So, if you go back to the first sentence of this review you'll notice that it was positive in sentiment.  Yes I did enjoy Stanley Theatre's production of Billy Elliot.  But that statement comes with a few qualifying sentiments.

Firstly, I want to congratulate Nolan Fahey (Billy) on his performance.  He has an exceptional amount of talent for someone only thirteen years old.  I can't imagine the dedication, discipline and skill it takes to do what he does and I'm almost eight years his senior.  
In my opinion his dancing is definitely his strongest trait.  I actually, audibly gasped when he and his "older self" started pirouetting to Swan Lake because it was such a tight, perfectly executed performance.  However, while his foot-work is top rate his singing, disciplined as it is, falls a bit flat.  Based on his age that's something that he can't really control so I'm not faulting him for it.  To be able to have as much vocal control as he does so early on is ridiculous but I guess it just goes to show puberty hits some harder more than others. His singing was technically good but lacked a certain richness that I can't quite put into words.  
Reflecting on it this must have been a hard show to put on because your chorus is basically made up of The Coal Miners (deep baritone and basses) and The Ballet Dancers (school children and Billy both of which are alto / soprano).  

I think my favourite performance in the show was Billy's Ballet teacher (Mrs. Wilkinson) played by Caitriona Murphy.  From a look at the biography in the program she has serious acting chops and her performance on stage made it clear that she deserves all the praise she receives.  Her dynamic presentation added energy to the stage and made me immediately invested in the story as a whole.  

I was genuinely surprised during curtain call when they showed that an Orchestra had been accompanying the cast for the entire production.  Which immediately annoyed me because why go and hire a bunch of musicians just to have them accompany the play off stage.  If you're going to project the sound through a system you might as well have recorded it and not wasted the money on live musicians.  Something was definitely lost with not having them play in the orchestra pit.  The sound quality was much different coming from the speakers than it would've been from live instruments.

Overall a very good performance, there wasn't a cast member whom I could single out as the weakest link.  Everyone (for the most part) supported and matched one another for a fun and emotional performance of Billy Elliot.

G-