The show was absolutely fantastic, everyone involved were at 110%. I will post more pictures and reviews as they come in the next days.

Before the start of the show, Stephen Daldry took the stage and delivered this short but very emotional speech:

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, my name is Stephen Daldry, I’m the director of Billy Elliot.

Tonight I wanted to welcome you here this evening personally because tonight is a very special and dare I say it, very emotional night for us because we are saying goodbye to one of our Billys.

His name is Tanner. Tanner’s been performing the title role of Billy Elliot for over a year here in London. I first met him over two years ago when I was auditioning for the Broadway production of Billy Elliot, in fact pinched him for London but he is one of the only two boys who ever played the show both here and on Broadway, because he went back earlier this year and played it on Broadway for some time and then came back to London.

He is from Norfolk, but that’s Norfolk from Nebraska, and I’d say that I’m sure you can imagine the extraordinary commitment his parents, and whole family have made to come to England and relocate them to New York and then come back to London and of course his whole family here tonight Jan, Marty and his wonderful grandmother and I thank you.

I know Tanner will be incredibly embarrassed because he’s probably listening to backstage, but Tanner is an extraordinary child, he’s incredibly gifted but he’s very, very much beloved, not just by this company but also by the company in New York. And I think everybody wanted to say a very special goodbye to him tonight, for this extraordinary child.

I’m getting emotional. We all wanted to thank his parents for their extraordinary commitment and love, not just to Tanner but their commitment to the show, to wish them great speed and safe flight home in the next couple of days.

Thank you for your son, he is an extraordinary boy, we wish him well, I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of him, he is wonderful and thank you very much for being here.

Have a great night.”

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I just want to thank Tanner and his dad for tonight, for taking the time to spend some minutes with the fans after the show. All the Billys were there and they had a farewell party inside, things got quite emotional. We understand what it meant for Tanner to leave that, if only for a couple of minutes, and spend it taking pictures or giving autographs.

I’ll keep the site updated.