Review: Billionaire Boy is a fun-packed treat on stage in Northampton

My kids like nothing better than a good bum joke. So they were delighted to find that Billionaire Boy at the Derngate theatre was absolutely full of them!

Written by King of the Bum Joke, David Walliams, this musical comedy is about a boy who’s dad made his fortune by inventing a revolutionary new toilet roll, Bumfresh (moist one side, dry the other, in case you are wondering). So as you can imagine it was absolutely full of ‘cheeky’ funnies!

The show tells the story of 12-year-old billionaire Jo Spud, who despite having a sports car, life size robot, two crocodiles and £100,000 pocket money a week, hasn’t got what he really wants – a friend. So he decides to quit his ‘posh school’ for the local comp in search of a pal.

This family show was great fun from the moment you entered the auditorium and saw the set made almost entirely from toilet rolls that cleverly transform into a school classroom, a mansion, Raj’s newsagents and even a helicopter launch pad.

Aside from Jo Spud, the cast all played multiple roles and appeared to jump from one character to the next with ease. One of the funniest actors, who had the ability to make you laugh with a simple face expression, was Rosie Coles, who played Len Spud’s young, money-grabbing girlfriend Sapphire. She also played one of the Grub twins and the history teacher. Emma Matthews was brilliant as grotesque dinner lady Mrs Traffe and Jason Furnival was hilarious as Len Spud.

All of the characters were great but my favourite characters were the horrible Grub Twins (Coles and Furnival), a pair of bullies who despite looking nothing alike insist they are identical.

For a fun-packed evening full of catchy songs, larger than life characters and loads of bum jokes I would definitely go and see Billionaire Boy.

* Billionaire Boy is on at the Derngate Theatre until Saturday October 19. Visit royalandderngate.co.uk to book.