With its off-the-hook dance numbers, songs by Elton John, and story of a boy’s journey from boxing ring to ballet studio, Billy Elliot: The Musical is a show that sends you out of the theatre with a big, stupid grin on your face.

You can’t resist it—mostly because the production based on the hit 2000 movie sets its feel-good tale against the grit of County Durham’s 1984 miners’ strike. Of course, it all comes down to who plays scrappy Billy himself, but Nolan Fahey—a kid with mad ballet, tap, and gymnastic skills whom we’ve seen in a bunch of local musicals leading up to this—seems like he’s up to the task.