VIDEO: Wisconsin Company Presents First Community Theatre Production of Elton John's BILLY ELLIOT

Elton John and Lee Hall's BILLY ELLIOT is a demanding enough musical for seasoned professionals to produce, with its major ballet sequences danced by its young title character and an ensemble full of child dance students.

But tonight, for the first time, a community theatre will tackle the show about a kid from a poor mining community with dreams of becoming a great dancer, as Wisconsin's La Crosse Community Theatre celebrates opening night of their production of BILLY ELLIOT.

The show runs through Sunday, May 29th, with performances Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., in the Lyche Theatre of the Weber Center for the Performing Arts.

"It is an honor and thrill to be making the national debut!" said LCT's artistic director, Greg Parmeter, who is the show's director. "It is a powerfully and beautifully written work, and we are grateful to be among the first to stage it."

BILLY ELLIOT is about a coal miner's son in northern England. With his father out on strike, the Elliot family is falling apart. Billy's life is forever changed when he stumbles out of a boxing ring and into a ballet class. He trades in his gloves for slippers and discovers a passion for dance that inspires and unites the entire town. It is the triumphant story of a young boy's fight to heal his family and chase his dreams.

BILLY ELLIOT is for the dreamer in all of us," said Parmeter. "It's for all those who have ever felt awkward, for anybody who's ever been afraid. It's for all those who have ever had a dream and the courage to follow it. Everyone should be their own Billy Elliot, and that is what this play is about."

Because of the production's great physical demands, Parmeter has double-cast the key younger roles of Billy, Michael, and Debbie, portrayed by Larsen Birdsong and Brandon Haring as Billy, Joshua Kaiser and Reilly Sullivan as Michael, Darcy Reimler and Stephanie Skemp as Debbie Wilkinson/Sharon Percy

Visit lacrossecommunitytheatre.org.

Click the logo below for a video interview with Greg Parmeter.

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