If you know anything about the Billy Elliot musical (get your Billy Elliot tickets here) – about the boy who chooses ballet over boxing, you’ve probably heard that there are three different boys playing the lead role of “Billy.” The boys are Kiril Kulish, age 14, and David Alvarez and Trent Kowalik, both age 13. Here are just a few interesting facts about the different Billies:

• Each Billy does 2-3 shows per week.
• Trent Kowalik was one of the Billies in the London production of Billy Elliot.
• Trent, Kiril and David beat out 1500 other boys to land the role of Billy.
• Kiril has been ballet dancing since he was 5 and had actually been nicknamed “Billy Elliot” at his ballet school, before he ever knew about the film or musical.
• David Alvarez only knew ballet – he had to learn how to tap dance and sing in order to fulfill the role of Billy.
• The Billies will only play their roles for a limited time, due to the fact that their voices will eventually change. In fact, the search for new Billies is already underway.

To learn a bit more about the boys, you can watch an interview with the Billies here and watch Kiril Kulish perform a song here.

Also, check out what director Stephen Daldry has to say about the role of Billy Elliot.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Theater News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.