IT's the show of a lifetime - and I don't say that lightly.

Billy Elliot will give his final West End pirouette this weekend. This astonishing musical remains the best show in London, if not the world, and will retire from the Victoria Palace Theatre on a serious high tomorrow night.

I was lucky enough to see one of the final performances - a Saturday matinee over the Easter weekend - and you know a show is going to be something special when there's an impromptu standing ovation by the entire stalls even before the interval.

It happened again in the second act after another remarkable sequence from 12-year-old Nat Sweeney as Billy before a lengthy final curtain call.

It's the second time I've been in the audience during the show's impressive 11 year run and it's only got better with age.

Set in a northern mining town against the backdrop of the 84/85 miners' strike, Billy Elliot is the story of a young boy's struggle against the odds to make his dreams to become a ballet dancer come true.

It remains fresh. emotional, energetic and thrilling with a fascinating political edge which no other West End musical can boast. The Spitting Image style Margaret Thatcher puppets were a particular joy!

The show has captured the hearts of millions - 11 million worldwide have enjoyed it - and the remarkable rise of the boy ballet dancer is put down almost entirely to the Billy Elliot factor.

So why, after 4,600 performances, is the show to close?

The Victoria Palace Theatre will go dark for a planned refurbishment programme undertaken by Cameron Mackintosh, who bought the venue in 2014.

Of course, Billy Elliot could have lived on in the West End with a change of venue as other musicals have. But the decision to close the show rather than transfer it sees it go out on a high.

But do you know the best thing?

It will now embark on its first UK and Ireland tour, visiting Southampton in just under a year's time.

So it's not goodbye forever, more see you soon.

And what a delight it will be to have a date with such a distinguished guest in the diary for 2017.

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