It is with immense pleasure and pride that I can announce that we have been chosen to appear in the Billy Youth Theatre West End Showcase on Sunday July 18th, in the Victoria Palace Theatre (home of the real Billy Elliot show.
All the cast of the “Born to Boogie” number will be involved - Stuart Thompson, Lizzie Heward, Jennie Henry, Emily Collins, Tori Mc Dougall, Annabelle Crosby, Emma Walton, Macy Stasiak, Hannah Lucy Jackson, Rachel Elphick, Eavie Proffitt and Ellie Manvell.
What a wonderful outcome and total honour to be included in this event, after all the hard work that has been carried out on this Billy Youth Theatre project by all the staff and students in our seven main schools.
Our children will be rehearsing with West End directors and choreographers within the stage set that “Billy Elliot” uses, and singing and dancing to the show`s live band. The show is already sold out. The news continues our long-term connection to “Billy Elliot” ever since Jamie Bell won the film role in 1998.
I found out the news last Monday but had to keep it secret until Friday when the news went public. I chose to continue to keep it to myself until after the regional showcase on the Sunday because I did not want to spoil the atmosphere amongst the other groups at the event, nor did I want to disappoint the rest of the 40 Billy of Billy cast members that we had with us on Sunday. I felt it would have left them with a feeling of disappointment after the euphoria of their event instead of positive memories of the success that they had enjoyed there.
One other NE Youth Group is going to the West End - Shotton Hall Community School Youth Theatre, who also performed on Sunday at the Gala. That group is run by Katherine Ackley who taught Early Stages for me in Darlington, for some time, several years ago. Then went on to be the principal of Stagecoach Durham for several years. The musical director of the group is Pippa Anderson, who was another popular teacher with Stagecoach Darlington for several years and who has, until recently, trained the Joseph Choir with Sue. So strong Stagecoach connections all round from the NE.
The regional showcase on Sunday was a happy event, which ran efficiently up to a lively and winning performance from all 6 groups and a joint final song. The standard was uniformly high, back stage was calm and good humoured and all the audience members were buzzing when they came to collect their children.
Please leave us a comment after this post with your observations of the show, if you were there.
