The Spanish production of Billy Elliot the Musical (BETM) is running at the Teatre Victòria in Barcelona. Performances began on October 9, 2021 and it has been announced that the final show will be on May 22, 2022. This production of BETM, produced by SOM Produce, previously ran for two and half years in Madrid (Sep 2017-Mar 2020). The move to Barcelona was planned in order to allow more of the Spanish population to get a chance to see the show, as the production is too big to go on a more extensive tour. Many of the cast members from the Madrid production are now performing in Barcelona, including Natalia Millán, who played Mrs Wilkinson for the whole Madrid run.
In January 2018, it was announced that a Billy Elliot School would open in Barcelona, similar to the Billy School that had operated in Madrid since 2015. This would allow children from Barcelona and the surrounding area to be able to undertake training closer to home. It was also announced that the school would be directed by Coco Comin, who is an acclaimed Spanish dancer and choreographer, and has been running her own dance school since 1971.
Many young boys hoping to star in BETM auditioned for a place at the Barcelona Billy School, and 15 boys were then given scholarships to attend the school. In March 2019 the school officially opened its doors and the boys began their training, with the aim to eventually get to play the role of Billy.
The Barcelona production was originally planned to open in October 2020, but due to the pandemic the opening had to be delayed by a year. This meant that the boys who will star in the show have now been in training for two and a half years.
In June 2021 there was a presentation of the child cast, where they performed dances from the show on the Teatre Victòria stage:
Credit: Video by Billy Elliot
Then in September 2021 the official announcement was made to introduce the five Barcelona Billys. They are Iker Castell, Pablo Fito, Marc Gelabert, Pol Ribet and Max Vilarrasa. Since the show opened, three more Billys have made their debuts in the title role — Mario Alcalá, Bernat Pastor and Andrey Kaverznikov.
To learn more about the Barcelona Billys, click on the Billy Profiles button (below) to be taken to their detailed profiles.
To see a complete listing of the rest of the Barcelona cast, just click on the Cast Information button.
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