NOT everything makes sense in this world, not least the Duckworth Lewis Method and Fabio Capello’s broken English, but the Billy Youth Theatre is one of those brilliant ideas that comes along every so often and makes it a better place.

Simple, take one huge West End hit by Lee Hall and Elton John and invite youth theatres and schools nationwide to apply for the right to stage it, to the conditions laid down by the producers.

Ryedale Youth Theatre was first out of the North Yorkshire blocks in April with Angela Kirkham’s exhilarating production in Malton, and now the ever ambitious York Stage Musicals group is packing them in at the Grand Opera House.

Number 10 has changed tenants since the Ryedale show, and with the Con-Dems in power, there is an added poignancy in Billy Elliot recalling the rule of the Iron Lady and her Henchman Heseltine. Chants of “Maggie out” and words from the Wayne Rooney Dictionary of Modern Abusage pepper Hall’s kitchen-sink political drama-cum-street musical, the one with the unlikely marriage of the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike and the County Durham boy with a gift for a ballet Let’s get the negative out of the way first in Thursday’s performance: the sound balance. Voices played second fiddle to the band too often in the mix, and in particular Jane Houghton’s long-suffering dance coach, Mrs Wilkinson, suffered in her first scene, where she was barely audible. She recovered, however, to give one of the night’s most humorous and affecting performances.

Now for the gold stars. Josh Benson will be an actor when he grows up. Fact. Truth be told, the boy in the tutu already is one, a natural comedian at 12, a lively mover, and not afraid to be off the cuff when his dance shoe plays up in his key scene as the dress-loving Michael.

Henry Rhodes is making his YSM debut at 13 in the title role, and if his inexperience shows, notably in Billy’s Angry Dance, where he could be angrier, nevertheless this is still a mightily impressive performance. His dancing is a delight, his singing is moving, his North East accent spot on, and his acting has the right amount of pathos.

Kiera Leaper’s cheeky little Debbie and George Stagnell’s angry Tony catch the eye too among the young’uns, and then come the YMS big guns: Alex Papachristou, brilliant again, as Dad; Mikhail Lim, splendidly comical as piano player Mr Braithwaite; the ever reliable Luke Dunford and Oliver Tattersfield as striking miners; and William Gosnold’s cameo as Older Billy in the flying Swan Lake scene. Esme Suter’s Dead Mum and Chrissy Thorpe’s batty Grandma both have their moments too.

Unusually for a Readman production, several ensemble pieces could have had more panache and energy, but from the uniformly superb accents to the sense of forlorn fury at a defiant community imploding under the iron fist, this is another knockout Billy Elliot.

Billy Elliot The Musical, York Stage Musicals, Grand Opera House, York, tonight at 7.30pm; tomorrow, 2.30pm, 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 847 2322.