The Man, The Myth, The Legend!

Guess who I went to London for again! The Voice. The Maynard. The Deankerstrap!! And boy was I relieved to see him after missing him the last time I went down there. I must’ve looked odd in that theatre when he stepped forward and he gave me his traditional little eyebrow raise hello because I just sat there laughing to myself! It was hysteria induced by relief and excitement and the joy of him being there was immense. I admit though, Dean or no Dean, I’ve grown to love Billy Elliot. A lot. I will never, ever get over how talented these ten and eleven year olds are. The ones who play Billy...I mean, honestly, the dancing! And the boys who play Billy’s best friend Michael...they’re ten and yet they know where ALL the laughs should come from and they can improv and draw laughs out and make things funnier all by themselves and awkward-up pauses and it’ just....you’re TEN, how did you get this good at comedy?!?! And on top of that, they manage to set me off sniffling alllll the time with their friendship – these young boys portray such an incredible bond between these two kinda-quirky kids stuck in a very dire situation and when Billy leaves Michael behind to go to ballet school it breaks my heart – the music combined with how the boys play it, with Michael on his own on stage on his bike watching Billy walk off down the centre-aisle of the theatre...it’s really rather beautiful. Honestly, I’m going to be sad to see Dean leave this show because I think it’s really won my heart.

But, Dean won my heart before Billy Elliot did, so he takes priority, of course. And of course, I went around to the stage door afterwards. You know how there are some people in the world who are just so...genuinely good that...you could watch ‘em kick a puppy right in front of you and yet you know you would believe wholeheartedly whatever dumb reason they gave for their actions and accept their apology immediately because you just KNOW they deserve it? Yeah, Dean is one of those people. Even if I’d intended to, I could not possibly have pouted at him for not being there last time – not even jokingly! He’s just...he’s a pretty special human being. So seeing the show AND being able to get hugs from him afterwards...there is no substitute for that feeling! More or less the first thing out of his mouth was an apology for not being there last time, bless him. And as I’ve already mentioned, I just rolled my eyes at him and assured him it was fine. I could never hold anything against him I don't think. We had a lovely chat – I got a tiny bit of singing out of him. The ‘Are you blind when you’re born?’ opening line of Cats, the very line which caused me to fall in love with him in that show! He didn’t full-on power-sing-it as he was literally just trying to remember the lyrics for story-telling purposes, but still, hearing his singing voice, a capella and right in front of me like that...wowwww, the man can sing. I kind of want to beg him to record some of my favourite songs for me! Cannot wait to see him again - just two more trips to Billy Elliot for me before Dean leaves it now, but hopefully there's still a lot more to come from the ever-charming Dean!