A production of Billy Elliot The Musical (BETM) will be presented at the 583 seat Helsingborg City Theatre from September 18 to October 30, 2026.
Helsingborg City Theatre began operations on September 6, 1921. It is therefore Sweden’s oldest city theatre with a permanent ensemble. The first theatre in Helsingborg was an idyllic but not very useful theatre barn from 1817. The barn was demolished in 1876 to make way for the theatre that is today known as “the old theatre”. The theatre was completed in 1877 and was a magnificent theatre, built according to the court theatre principle with parquet and four rows. Several visiting theatre companies with varying repertoires were based at the theatre.
Discussions about rebuilding the old theatre had been going on since the 1920s. During the 1960s, the lack of space was so great that people started talking about a completely new theatre building, and in the spring of 1976 they moved into the new theatre building on Gröningen, near the Concert Hall. The building was designed by Erik Magnusson at the architectural firm Arton.
The new Helsingborg City Theatre is a unique theatre in many ways. The theatre house houses a carpentry workshop, a painting studio, an attribute workshop, a costume studio, a patination workshop, a prop workshop and a wig and mask studio. Very few things are manufactured outside the building, which is quite unusual these days. The theatre’s two stages, Storan with 583 seats and Lillan with 153 seats, have modern and exciting stage machinery.
Billy Elliot will be produced in the Storan theatre, the larger of the building’s stages and house.
Before the show opened in Helsingborg, the production’s director, Ronny Danielsson, had this to say about the show:
“To tell the story of how modern times demand changes that have far-reaching consequences for people living in a society. And in this society – built around strict regulations, traditions and family patterns – a boy grows up who violates everything that “society” demands of him. He stands up for his feelings and his longing – to want to become a ballet dancer. A profession that in an English mining community in the 1980s is completely impossible. The boy Billy’s struggle to become a ballet dancer changes his own family and the surrounding society’s view of themselves and the future.
The musical “Billy Elliot” tells the story of a society in crisis in 1980s England. It is about dreams. A closed-off “macho” society with a mine at its center. A society where the inhabitants dream away to another world. The musical focuses on Billy, the boy who does not fit into society’s traditional patterns: Boys box in their free time, girls dance. Billy dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. How will he be able to realize his dream?
“Accept me for who I am – not who I should be” is a saying that permeates the musical. “Live your dreams”. Nothing comes easy. Billy has a hard time in the circle of his family. The father has a hard time in his surroundings – defending a son who wants to dance ballet. The musical describes a process with many complicated positions. But in the end Billy gets to live his dream.”
This production will be led by two experienced performers as Billy Elliot, Algot Olsson and Amos Kesar, both of whom played the title role in the Kristianstad, Sweden BETM production in the Fall of 2025. It is relatively uncommon for youth perfomers outside long-running West End or Broadway replica tours to star as Billy in two completely different productions of the musical within consecutive years. But both Amos Kesar and Algot Olsson have successfully done so, which underscores their strong technical foundations and cements their status among Sweden’s notable young musical theatre performers.
To learn more about these Billys, just click on the green “Billy Profiles” button here:
To see a complete listing of the rest of the Helsingborg City Theatre cast, just click on the Cast Information button.
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