Victoria Palace Theatre (London)
Billy Biographical Information
On March 31, 2005, Billy Elliot the Musical opened in previews at the Victoria Palace Theatre (VPT) in London when Liam Mower became the first boy to ever set foot on a stage in the title role in front of a paying audience. A total of 42 boys — all with extraordinary talent — brought the title role to life at the VPT. There is no doubt that the reason for the 11 year run of this show was largely the result of the unique abilities of these young stars.
But how did these young men come to be in the show?
Contained here are the detailed profiles (bios) that answer that question.
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Profile Index for the London Billys
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The profiles of the 42 London Billys who graced the stage of the Victoria Palace Theatre in London over its 11 year run are found in the index below. The index is in alphabetical order by the actor’s last name. By clicking on the name of the Billy below his picture, you’ll be taken to that Billy’s profile.
Billy Timeline
The timeline, below, is a visual depiction of when the 42 London Billys graced the stage of the VPT. It lets the viewer easily see who was in the Billy rotation at any given time. Note that the number above each name is each actor’s “London Billy Number”, the order in which they debuted in London. That number should not be confused with their world-wide Billy Number, which is the order in which all Billys around the world have debuted, in all the different productions of the show. So after Josh Fedrick (#13), when the Australian production opened in Sydney, the London Billys will have two different numbers: their London number (which is the one contained in this timeline) — and their world-wide Billy number. If that’s confusing, go here and you can easily see how the two numbers work: https://betm.theskykid.com/billys-debut/
From the Site Administrator: The staff of our site would like to acknowledge and thank the creator of the above timeline, Dan (last name withheld by request) for his work and for generously donating it to the site for publication.
To Main Billy Alphabetical Profile Index Article
To a List of All Billy Elliot The Musical Articles at theskykid.com
 of both the boys who currently portray the role of Billy at the Victoria Palace Theatre and those past Billys who have starred in but have since left the show.){kind=link}
John,
Record keeping in the earlier days of the show was very haphazard if it existed at all. At the original Billy Elliot Forum, there may have been records kept from 2005 to early 2009, but if any such information did exist it was lost when that Forum shut down. The current Forum has information from 2010 on, but mainly the Billys, Michaels and Debbies were reported (although there are gaps in that information as well.)
Given the above as background, here’s what I can share with you:
October 18, 2007: The Billy was Corey Snide. No other information on the child cast was reported. The adult cast principal roles were generally single cast. You can go to the following link and look up who was playing those roles at the time of this show: https://betm.theskykid.com/meet-billy-elliot-london/3/
July 21, 2010 (Matinee): Billy was played by Aaron Watson, Michael by Jake Pratt and Debbie by Francesca Mango. No other information on child cast performers for this show was reported and no adult understudies were reported for this show, so you can again go to the above link to look up who of the adult cast would have been playing the principal roles at the time of this show.
Sorry I couldn’t be any more specific than this. Good luck!
Gary (porschesrule)
Hi Tom,
You can find the current London show count here: http://www.billyelliottheforum.me.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=114441#p114441 The count at the end of January, 2016 can be found at the bottom of that chart in the monthly summary. Please note that this count is the actual number of shows presented with a paid audience. I’ve found it’s a few off from what the BETM company has announced in the past as it is their practice (and may very well be the practice of the West End as a whole) to count all scheduled shows, even if they are cancelled and not actually presented. There have been several of those over the years. But the number shown will get you close. Hope that helps.
Gary (porschesrule)
P.S. The method of counting we use at the BE Forum directly ties the number of shows performed by all of the Billys in London (42 to date) to the total number of show count that I cited above. In other words, if you added up all the Billy performances, it will add up to the total number of shows. Of course, the “official” London number they give won’t do that as you can’t give credit to a Billy for a show performed if the show didn’t actually take place :p All the information on London Billy performance tracking can be found at https://betm.theskykid.com/billy-elliot-the-musical-tracking-the-billys/