Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre review: Bravo – this superlative adaptation never puts a foot wrong

Nadine Higgin, Grace Saif, Daisy Sequerra and Yanexi Enriquez in Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre - (Manuel Harlan-097)

When I was a boy I thought Ballet Shoes was for girls: a story of poor strivers desperate to don a tutu. This delicious show about three female foundlings forging their own identities, and a makeshift family, in a house full of oddballs in interwar London absolutely bowled me over. Based on Noel Streatfeild’s 1936 novel but tweaked and modernised by adapter Kendall Feaver, it’s suffused with gung-ho spirit, exuberance and larky wit.

Above all, it tells young girls (and by extension, boys) they can be whatever they want to be, and mounts a powerful defence of the arts. One of Streatfeild’s young heroines, Petrova (Yanexi Enriquez) is a natural mechanic who wants to be a pilot. But that doesn’t mean wannabe ballerina Posy (Daisy Sequerra) or talented actress Pauline (Grace Saif) should look for a job in cyber.