in Arts at in Victoria Palace Theatre

24 Mar 2005 - 15 Dec 2012; not Sun

One of Britain's most successful films, Billy Elliot, in its stage version at the Victoria Palace Theatre, won two major Olivier Awards - best new musical and, for the three young stars who first portrayed Billy, James Lomas, George Maguire and Liam Mowe, best actor in a musical.

Billy is born in a northern town where men box and work in the mines. They do not dance and they certainly do not harbour ambitions of attending the Royal Ballet School. But Billy is a bit different. Brought up by a single father, without a mother's touch, he does not want to fight, but is enthralled by the grace and wonder of ballet. With gritty determination he attempts to prove doubters wrong by going all the way.

This production reunites the team behind the award-winning 2000 film - director Stephen Daldry, writer Lee Hall, choreographer Peter Darling and producer Jon Finn - and adds to that the musical mastery of Sir Elton John, to turn the film into an all-singing, all-dancing stage spectacular.

In a case of life-imitating-art-imitating-life, the boys who play Billy and his best friend come from over 3000 who attended open auditions. The successful ones and those who will go on to replace them are trained at the newly-opened Billy Elliot School, the only multi-discipline school of its kind in the North of England.

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