Ben Apfelbaum

THE FOUR BILLYS HAVE ARRIVED

When Billy Elliot premiered at the Capitol Theatre in 2007 it had two unique qualities apart from the originality of the show and its talented cast.  At the media call, Louise Withers, the producer of the original and this production revealed these unique quirks.

The first of these  qualities is that the original Australian production was the first of its kind to premiere outside the United Kingdom’s  2005 debut ahead of its season on Broadway. The second unique quality was that due to its staging design, an archaeological dig  had to be excavated below the basements of the Capitol Theatre in Sydney and Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne to allow Billy Elliot’s bedroom to be elevated onto and then lowered below the stage. This meant that the 2007 production could only be seen in  Australia’s two largest cities.                        

This tenth anniversary production does away with this onerous engineering requirement and will allow ito tour to all of the other major capital cities.         

For the 2007-2009 season approximately a thousand boys were auditioned. For this production, because of the lessons learnt from the previous audition, six hundred boys were tried out for the part over a three month audition process before the final four were chosen, thereby becoming  the 105th, 106th, 107th and 108th Billy Elliot’s.

Playing the role in rotation are Omar Abiad (12, from Brisbane), River Mardesic  (10, from Melbourne), Wade Neilsen (12 from Newcastle) amd Jamie Rogers (12 from Canberra). All four boys are making their professional debut playing this most demanding, inspiring and  poignant role.

At the media call the boys did an electrifying dance number showing their undoubted talent. They were also interviewed about what their favourite song from the show and in the majority the song was ‘Express Yourself’.

Amongst the adults in the show are Kellie Abbey as the demanding but supportive ballet teacher Mrs Wilkinson, Justin Smith as Billy’s sceptical and loving Dad and Vivien Davies as Billy’s eccentric grandmother,

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

After a seven month gruelling audition and rehearsal process for the young Billys, the production will open on the 10th October, 2019  at the Sydney Lyric Theatre. After its Sydney season it will move to the Festival theatre in the Adelaide Festival centre from December 2019, Melbourne at the Regent Theatre from February 2020, Crown Theatre, Perth from June 2020 and QPAC’s Lyric Theatre in Brisbane from July 2020. Tickets for the Sydney season are on sale now.

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 Treborland. 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.