Big, stirring and flooded with transformed anger, Billy Elliot deserves its hit status – first in London, then Australia and now on Broadway. This story of a young boy seeking his dream in ballet, against the backdrop of the 1984 British coal miners’ strike, recycles timeworn devices, most of which work surprisingly well.

Based on a 2000 film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall (they perform similar jobs here, with Hall contributing the lyrics to Elton John’s better-than-mere-formula music), Billy Elliot uses the strikers’ agitprop of Les Mis and the working-class conflicts of The Full Monty.