Ben Apfelbaum

MEDIA CALL : BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL

 

When Billy Elliot The Musical premiered in Sydney in 2007 its Musical Composer Sir Elton John attended as well as his partner David Furnish who was Executive Producer. This was because the Australian production was the first to be held outside the United Kingdom.

As he is currently on a world farewell tour, I doubt that he will be attending this upcoming premiere.

This production will also be unique in that unlike the original production which toured only in Sydney and Melbourne, this production will tour the other capital cities as well.

Featuring the music by Elton John, book and lyrics by Lee Hall, choreography by Peter Darling and direction by Stephen Daldry, BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL has been seen by over 12,000,000 people and is the recipient of over 85 international awards, including 10  Tony awards, 5 Olivier awards and 8 Helpmann awards.

Because of their youth and  school demands the lead role will be shared by 4 boys. They are Omar Abiad (12) from Brisbane, River Mardesic (10 from Melbourne, Wade Neilsen (12) from Newcastle and Jamie Rogers (12) from Canberra. All four boys are making their musical professional debut.

Starring alongside these talented boys will be the tough but supportive ballet teacher Mrs Wilkinson played by Kelley Abbey.

Justine Smith previously played Billy’s hot headed brother but now makes a generational leap to play the role of Billy’s patient but grieving Dad.

Billy’s tempestuous brother Tony is played by Drew Livingstone and Billy’s eccentric grandmother by actress Vivien Davies.

Robert Grubb  as George, a miner and the town’s boxing coach,  rounds out the adult actors in principal roles.

At the rehearsals at the ABC studios four numbers from the musical were previewed : Shine, Express, Angry and Solidarity. Each number featured a different Billy and all were uniformly excellent.

These were the last rehearsals before the Company commence to rehearse in the Lyric Theatre.

BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL will premiere at the Lyric Theatre from the 10th October, 2019.

http://www.billyelliotthemusical.com.au

All pics by Ben Apfelbaum

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.