TORONTO - "Billy Elliot" will make its way into Canada next year, but producers don't yet know if the title character will be played by a homegrown talent.
Though three Canucks have landed the role of young Billy in the stage musical in other cities -- including Montreal teen David Alvarez, who won a Tony Award for it on Broadway -- Mirvish Productions says it's too soon to say if the February 2011 show will have a local star.
"Will they deliver a Canadian Billy? I don't know. Where will they get the cast? I don't know," producer David Mirvish said at Tuesday's press conference announcing the arrival of the show as part of the 2010/2011 subscription season.
"It's very hard to know because they have such great demands upon the children in terms of ballet and tap-dance skills and acting and singing ability."
Based on the uplifting 2000 film that earned three Oscar nominations, "Billy Elliot the Musical" follows a British coal miner's son as he ditches boxing to pursue his dream of dancing.
Elton John created the music to a book and lyrics by Lee Hall and choreography by Peter Darling.
Stephen Daldry, who directed the film, also helms the stage show that debuted to critical acclaim in London in 2005. It then went on to Australia and New York, where it won 10 Tonys, and will debut next in Chicago as part of a North American tour.
"The show is always different wherever we go," said Daldry. "It's different every time you put a new child in the show."
Each production of "Billy Elliot the Musical" usually has three young stars sharing the lead role.
Other Canadians who've landed the part include Liam Redhead of North Bay, Ont., for the Broadway show, and Montreal's Cesar Corrales for the Chicago production. Kate Hennig of Toronto is also in the Broadway production playing dance teacher Mrs. Wilkinson.
Billy is 10 at the start of the story, so those who play him typically do so for a maximum of 2 1/2 years due to changes in their voice and body. Alvarez, 15, will likely be too grown up for the Toronto production, say producers.
"A year from now, I would think David probably will have outgrown the role, unfortunately," said Toronto-born producer David Furnish, Elton John's partner who has been working on the show since its inception.
"But there are two other Canadian boys -- there's one in Chicago, he's in rehearsals right now -- and I'm sure we'll be looking at other ones as well."
Furnish added they have an "enormous" pool of Billys to draw from, and continue to search for new ones in Canada and abroad.
Potential leads for the North American productions go through intensive training at what Mirvish calls a "Billy facility" in New York, where they learn modern dance, ballet, tap, gymnastics, acting, singing and how to speak with a northern English accent.
Bringing "Billy Elliot the Musical" to Toronto has been a multi-year undertaking for Mirvish, who knew he wanted it when he saw the production in London in 2005.
Furnish is thrilled to see it finally arrive in the city he grew up in.
"Overjoyed! So excited," he said with a huge smile. "It's exciting to see the show that you've worked on, that you helped create and conceive come to your hometown."
