Billy Elliot the Musical next opened to equal acclaim at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney, Australia in December 2007. The Australian wrote, “Billy Elliot should come with a warning: abandon cynicism all ye who enter. Open your heart, get out the tissues and surrender.” The Sydney Morning Herald raved, “Joyously entertaining, Billy Elliot bursts into starry-eyed showbiz magic … A rapturous pinnacle of self-expression and fulfillment.” The Sunday Telegraph called it, “Bloody brilliant! Funny, exuberantly rude and heartbreakingly moving.” The production transferred to Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre on December 31, 2008 where it was met with equally acclaim. The Australian production was honoured with 12 theatre awards, including Best Musical (Helpmann Awards, Sydney, and Green Room Awards, Melbourne).
Billy Elliot the Musical opened on Broadway, New York at the Imperial Theatre on November 13, 2008 to extraordinary critical acclaim. Billy Elliot was the winner of ten 2009 Tony Awards including: Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical (Lee Hall), Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, Kiril Kulish), Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Gregory Jbara), Best Direction of a Musical (Stephen Daldry), Best Choreography (Peter Darling), Best Orchestrations (Martin Koch), Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Ian MacNeil), Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Rick Fisher) and Best Sound Design of a Musical (Paul Arditti).
The Broadway production is the recipient of a total of 35 awards including being named Best Musical by the New York Drama Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle.
In 2011 Billy Elliot The Musical will debut in Canada, presented in Toronto as part of the 2010/2011 Mirvish Subscription Season. Performances will begin in February 2011. Eric Fellner, a producer of the show, commented, "...Canada has also been a tremendous source of talent for the stage production, already having given us three Billys and a Mrs. Wilkinson. We have been looking forward to bringing the show to Toronto since Billy Elliot opened in London five years ago and are thrilled that it is now a reality."
New international productions are scheduled for Korea (August 2010), Japan (Summer 2011) and productions are in the works for Germany and Holland.
Billy Elliot the Musical is produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jon Finn and Sally Greene. Angela Morrison and David Furnish are Executive Producers. The production features scenic design by Ian MacNeil, costume design by Nicky Gillibrand, lighting design by Rick Fisher and sound design by Paul Arditti. Musical supervision and orchestrations are by Martin Koch.
A sunny London morning and the chandeliered elegance of The Royal Academy of Music are a far cry from the bleak coal mining landscape of the industrial north-east of England, but today these two locations were fused at an exciting press launch for Billy Elliot – The Musical.
At 10.30 sharp dozens of photographers surged forward as Elton, director Stephen Daldry and producer Eric Fellner met on the stage for a short photocall. Eric Fellner from Working Title Films began the conference by reminding us of the success of the movie, Billy Elliot, one of the best-loved British films of the last decade. Co-producer Sally Greene, from Old Vic Productions, described the moment four years when Elton first watched the film Billy Elliot at the Cannes Film Festival. She saw that he was visibly moved and had tears in his eyes. Elton, naturally, gave us the bigger picture. “I was so moved by the story’, he said, ‘I was seen sobbing in my seat and had to be carted out by three people…”
Director Stephen Daldry revealed that it was a stroke of luck that Elton attended that early screening, as it was on that night that the idea for a Billy Elliot musical was born. Elton also went on to give huge support and publicity to the film all over world.
The musical will open in Newcastle, England in November 2004, ahead of its London debut in March 2005.
Lee Hall, who wrote the book for the Billy Elliot film and the lyrics for the musical, felt that it ‘made perfect sense’ for Elton to have been so moved by the story because in some ways the story of Billy Elliot is the story of Elton John. Lee said that… “he (Elton) is Billy Elliot grown up.” Elton’s music was inspirational to Lee Hall in his childhood and to be writing songs with Elton is …“a dream come true.” He then introduced …“the undeniably fabulous Elton John.”
We had guessed that there would be live music, as Elton’s piano was positioned centre stage, along with drums, keyboards and a large number of microphones and music stands. Elton walked onstage in familiar Yamamoto black and red stage gear, and was followed by Bob Birch, Guy Babylon, John Mahon and Davey Johnstone. (Surprisingly, John Mahon climbed behind the drum kit) Elton and the four-piece Elton John Band then played four stunning and very different songs from the Billy Elliot soundtrack.
The first song, What The Hell is Wrong With Expressing Yourself describes the scene when Billy finds his friend Michael putting on make-up. It’s an up-tempo song sandwiched with tap-dancing honky-tonk piano. This was followed by the big ballad Electricity, which describes how Billy feels when he is dancing.
Stephen Daldry then took to the stage to talk about the difficulties in casting Billy – finding young boys with extraordinary dancing ability, (up to Royal Ballet School standard), tap-dancing skills, and proficient in contemporary dance, acting and singing. He said that “…no child in any show has had the demands that this child would have…” The show’s producers have created a ‘Billy Elliot Academy’ and over the past eighteen months have been training many young dancers from across Britain. The final cast for Billy Elliot The Musical will be announced in September. Daldry then introduced a short film of some of the young people who auditioned for the role of Billy.
Elton and the band played two more songs: Grandma’s Song, a sad ballad about life with Billy’s grandfather, which Elton said …“had the best lyric in the whole show”... and included great acoustic guitar from Davey Johnstone, and We Once Were Kings, the final song in the show. This describes Billy setting off for London against the violent backdrop of the 1984 miners’ strike in England, and the miners’ eventual return to work in the pits. For this song Elton and the band were joined onstage by a male choir, dressed as miners in black donkey jackets. Elton did not play piano but, unusually, performed the song seated at the piano, his hands punching out the drama in the song. Guy Babylon produced an entirely convincing church organ on his synthesiser, and the emotion was underpinned by the sound of Bob Birch’s bass guitar, and John Mahon’s drums on the chorus.
A short question and answer session followed, and then it was time for the press to rush off and file their stories, while Elton gave some more interviews to television and radio.
