A production of Billy Elliot the Musical (BETM) will be presented at the 700-seat Sandnes Kulturhus in Sandnes, Norway from January 24 to February 11, 2018.
This is not the first time that BETM has been performed in Norway. From Sep 2014 to Feb 2015 a hugely successful production was performed in Oslo. Three years later BETM now returns to Norway with a brand new production.
The Sandnes production was originally scheduled to open in January 2017 but was postponed as they could not find enough talent to play Billy and Michael in the Sandnes area. Therefore, they widened their search and set up a Billy Elliot School in Oslo to train potential Billys and Michaels.
Initial auditions were held in September 2016 and from there six boys were chosen to undergo intense training at the Billy School. For ten months they practiced at the school in Bårdar, Oslo, several times a week. Over the summer of 2017 the Billy School took a break, but the boys were still expected to train hard at home during this period before the school recommenced in mid-August.
Here is a short video of the boys practising pirouettes at the Billy School:
vimeo.com/234835021
Credit: Video by Sandnes kulturhus
In November 2017 the final decision was made as to which of the six candidates would get to play Billy and Michael. The chosen four were Eric Backstrøm and Jesper Leporanta, who will play Billy, and Markus Rosså and William Torgauten, who will play Michael.
To learn more about the Sandnes 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 Sandnes cast, just click on the Cast Information button.
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