Billy the Kid – National Youth Music Theatre

Billy the Kid, presented by National Youth Music Theatre at The MCT at Alleyn’s, London.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

In historical real life Henry McCarty – aka Billy the Kid – was an outlaw who shot and killed eight men before being shot at age 21. But you don’t go to the theatre for a history lesson.

Richard Hough’s version is a feel-good, happy ending story and anyone who rhymes “bloomers” with “rumours” gets my vote.

The show opens with a very young Billy (Charlie Wright) trying, in a neat framing device, to find the courage to face down an aggressive group of bullies in his 21st century school.

Daydreaming as an escape, while the teacher recounts the events of the 1860s, Billy becomes a forceful, but ultimately moral, hero in his own story as we flash back colourfully to the saloon bar and the sauve-qui-peut of the days when the whole town was under a protection racket.

In The Wizard of Oz style the bullies and the 19th century gang are all played by the same actors. Other school characters reappear in different guises in Billy’s dream – a group of five leggy, sporty, all-American cheerleader types become a very good troupe of saloon bar dancers, for example.

Ben Morales Frost’s enjoyable score underpins all this with evocative off-beat sequences and contrasting lush lyricism which together conjure up the world of late 19th century cowboy country.

Of course there’s a jolly hoedown. It isn’t quite Aaron Copland but it’s great fun.

Charlie Wright – only 14 – steals the show as Billy. He gives us wistfulness spliced with strength and pragmatism finally overcome by wisdom. It’s quite a nuanced performance and his singing is both sensitive and mature

The support cast is strong and the piece is written to give lots of characters a moment in the spotlight so we hear a number of good soloists. Amongst them, Sophie Muringu stands out as Mary, the bar co-owner who becomes a moral support in Billy’s life. She sings beautifully and her acting is totally convincing.

The atmosphere of Lincoln County, New Mexico is well caught with some sultry lighting and wheel-on-and-off sets, the movement of which is integrated into ensemble action.

The southern accents are harder for a young cast to nail and some of the vowel sounds are inappropriately distorted but these young people have worked together for only a short time and it really doesn’t matter much.

One of the things I like very much about NYMT shows is the use of a vibrant youth band and the habit of bringing them all on stage at curtain call. This lot do a fine, pretty professional job with Olivia Howdle’s violin work being especially noteworthy.

Commissioned by NYMT in 2017, this Billy the Kid revival showcases the talents of an enthusiastic, talented young company and, as ever, it’s James Robert Moore’s imaginative direction (lots of slow motion with chairs, for instance) which really lifts it.

Susan Elkin