#81: Billy Elliot: The Musical

September 10, 2025
  • Performances: 1,312.
  • Open / Close: November 13, 2008 – January 8, 2012
  • Theater: The Imperial Theatre.
  • Tony Awards: The production received 15 nominations and won 10 awards including Best Musical. But the most noteworthy news for the Broadway production was the first time the Best Actor award was shared by 3 people, in this case by the 3 teenagers who played the title role: David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish. The score by Lee Hall and Elton John was nominated but did not win.
  • Fun Fact: Continuing with award-oriented intrigue, the Australian analog to the Tony Awards – the Helpmann Awards – also honored the actors playing the lead role, but in the Sydney production, there were four actors – Lochlan Denholm, Nick Twiney, Rarmian Newton, & Rhys Kosakowski.
  • Fun Fact #2: This used to be common knowledge but maybe is less so now: “Spider-Man” actor Tom Holland started out playing Billy Elliot in the London production.

Podcast

Fifteen years ago, “Billy Elliot: The Musical” was all the rage on Broadway. It was a show where hot button social issues — from labor relations to social mobility to questions about gender expression — mixed with a searing family drama, plus there was a LOT of really great dancing. Tack on a score co-composed by Elton John and there was little doubt this was going to be a hit.

What’s curious is that this story seemed to fade from view in the subsequent years, even though ALL of the social issues continue to be compelling components in the current zeitgeist. As I discuss with the fight director for the Broadway production, David Leong, the ongoing challenge of finding young actors who could portray such a demanding role eventually proved too much for the show and continues to hamper efforts to stage the show.

Not to denigrate fight directors AT ALL but it’s worth noting that David Leong is SO MUCH more than a fight director. As chair of the theater department at Virginia Commonwealth University, he helped raise the standards and the overall quality of the program to a nationally recognized level of excellence. He is also a savvy entrepreneur who has leveraged his ongoing involvement in the performing arts into several different companies.

This episode spotlights a lesser known job among those needed to make a Broadway production work, a theme that will continue is several of the next episodes. For more information on the business David and his wife, Patti D’Beck, now spend a lot of time on, check out GoldenAges.net.

Here’s a link to the pro-shot of the London production. You can watch the whole thing for free but warning – there are lots of annoying ads!
Elton John awkwardly introduces the “Billy Elliot” performance at the Tonys.
Here’s a young Tom Holland talking about his time in “Billy.”
Here’s the great “Electricity” performance – dang, Elliott Hanna is adorable and exceptionally compelling,
Here’s the scene that maybe made more conservative Broadway interests a bit nervous…
A pretty concise recap of the transition of the movie to the musical, with a lot of Stephen Daldry and of course some Elton John.
Since the Aussie production was mentioned above and gets talked about in the podcast, here are all 4 “Billys” from that production performing on “Dancing with the Stars” I expect it confused people who might have thought the stage show had 4 actors performing simultaneously.
Here’s a performance notable for including 15 of the Billys.