Stephen Daldry News

Elton John, Stephen Daldry and Lee Hall last night (30 May 2012) joined a special Gala audience at the Victoria Palace Theatre to celebrate 3000 performances and seven years since the world premiere of the award-wining British hit, Billy Elliot the Musical. Scroll down for photos of the event and to find out what happens to that cake.

Alex Ko, who shared the title role of "Billy" in the Billy Elliot the Musical on Broadway will be attending the gala performance of Billy Elliot The Musical to mark seven years and 3,000 performances in the West End. The evening will be a star-studded event with attendance by Elton John, Stephen Daldry, and Laurence Olivier Award winner, Liam Mower, one of the three boys who shared the lead role in the original London cast of Billy Elliot the Musical.

Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Working Title Films, Old Vic Productions and NETworks Presentations, LLC bring the multi-award-winning Billy Elliot the Musical to Detroit's Fisher Theatre from September 4 - 16.

Twelve year old Harrison Dowzell from Nottinghamshire has become the thirtieth boy to play the title role of Billy Elliot in the West End. Check out the production photographs of Dowzell in action below.

Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Working Title Films, Old Vic Productions and NETworks Presentations, LLC bring the multi-award-winning Billy Elliot the Musical to the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center from June 19 to June 24. Based on the international smash-hit film and featuring music by Elton John, book and lyrics by Lee Hall, choreography by Peter Darling and direction by Stephen Daldry, Billy Elliot the Musical has earned critical acclaim around the world and was the winner of ten 2009 Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Trinity Repertory Company previously announced that Rhode Island's own Academy Award-nominated actress, Viola Davis, would be honored with the 2012 Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts at the 16th annual Pell Awards. Theater educator Elaine Foster Perry will receive the Charles Sullivan Award for Distinguished Service in the Arts, Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons will receive the Pell Award For Leadership in Arts Education, and J.L. "Lynn" Singleton, President of the Providence Performing Arts Center and Professional Facilities Management, will be honored as the recipient of the Pell Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Arts. All awardees are past or current Rhode Islanders.

Billy Elliot the Musical, now in its eighth year, will release a further 640,000 tickets this week, taking booking at the Victoria Palace Theatre to 21 December 2013. Check out the production photographs below.

Twelve year old Harrison Dowzell from Nottinghamshire is to become the thirtieth boy to play the title role of Billy Elliot in the West End. Harrison, who joins the cast of Billy Elliot the Musical today, 14 May 2012, will alternate the role of Billy with Harris Beattie (13 year old from Aberdeen, Scotland), Kaine Ward (13 years old from Hertfordshire), Ryan Collinson (13 years old from Southport) and Adam Vesperman (13 years old from Seattle, Washington, USA) He will be the 65th boy to play the role worldwide, including Jamie Bell who played Billy Elliot in the award-winning film.

Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Working Title Films Old Vic Productions and NETworks Presentations, LLC bring the multi-award-winning Billy Elliot the Musical to Milwaukee from July 17-22. Based on the international smash-hit film and featuring music by Elton John, book and lyrics by Lee Hall, choreography by Peter Darling and direction by Stephen Daldry, Billy Elliot the Musical has earned critical acclaim around the world and was the winner of ten 2009 Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Charming and unabashedly buoyant, BILLY ELLIOT--which danced away with 10 fairly well-deserved Tony Award wins including Best Musical back in 2009--is a smile-inducing, pleasingly-staged musical based on the 2000 film. The stage musical version's national tour has finally stopped in Los Angeles for a five-week engagement at the Pantages Theatre through May 13.

Present Theatre presents Dominic Taylor's new play, STOP SEARCH, from tonight April 27 till May 26 at the Catford Broadway Theatre. The show is directed by Thierry Harcourt and designed by Libby Watson with lighting by Andrew May and Consultant Paule Constable. The score was written by Daniel Adeyemi and Jermaine Opara.

blurbThe U.S. National Tour of the 2009 Tony Award winning musical BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL officially opened in Los Angeles April 12, 2012 at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for a limited 5 week engagement through May 13.

In 1984 when Northern English coal miners went on strike in defiance of Margaret Thatcher's announcement to dissolve the unions, there was little hope for the future. Prospects were dim for kids like Billy Elliot who would be expected to enter the family business like his dad and his dad before him and on down the family lineage. Within 10 years, there would be no jobs, and where would Billy go, what would he do? Fortunately, this 11 year-old had unstoppable dreams that would perhaps take him far, if only he could defeat the tremendous odds and get his dad to agree to an audition in London for the Royal Academy - ballet. Since 2000, when the film Billy Elliot won the hearts of the entire world, there came a musical stage version - in 2005 on the West End and 2008 on Broadway, winning 10 Tony Awards. The stage version was as successful as the movie, mainly because the screenwriter Lee Hall and director Stephen Daldry stayed with the project. Billy Elliot has universal appeal for kids with artistic talent, and speaks to the young at heart in all of us. Finally Billy is in LA at the Pantages through May 13 only, with a sensational cast that will have you standing, cheering and singing its praises for years to come.

Actor/singer Rich Hebert will open tonight, Thursday, April 12, at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for Broadway LA in the second national tour and the Los Angeles premiere of Billy Elliot, playing Billy's dad.

The Los Angeles premiere of BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL begins performances tonight, Tuesday April 10 at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for a limited five week engagement through Sunday May 13. Broadway/L.A. is announcing that a day-of-show lottery for a limited number of $25 seats will be held for each performance.

The national tour of BILLY ELLIOT plays San Antonio's Majestic Theatre through April 8th.