Billy Elliot musical survives hitch

1:36pm Tuesday 13th May 2008

Billy Elliot the Musical celebrated its third birthday but only after overcoming a technical hitch that brought the curtain down early in the first half.

Around 40 minutes into the award-winning show, a member of the production crew walked on stage and apologised to the audience.

After a short pause, the show resumed, and the break did not dampen the audience's spirits: the show finished to a standing ovation.

Director Stephen Daldrey was philosophical about the glitch. There's always a technical hitch when you don't want one, he said.

Before the show he appeared on stage to give a personal welcome to the sell-out crowd and to thank the show's cast and production crew.

And as the curtain came down on the second half, he presented the singers and dancers at London's Victoria Palace Theatre with a giant birthday cake.

The musical, based on the hit film starring Jamie Bell, has been seen by more than two million people in the UK and Australia. In the autumn the show goes to Broadway, and Mr Daldrey admitted he was nervous about how it would be received.

He said it was frightening to think of how the story would go down with American audiences. But he said the show's political themes might chime with the mood of change in the US and the triumph of the underdog.

After the show proper finished Mr Daldrey introduced the three young men cast to play Billy in the US. David Alvarez, 13, Trent Kowalik, 13, and Kiril Kulish, 14, performed a short dance that had the crowd back on their feet.

Audiences have flocked to see the show, which follows the dancing dreams of young Billy against the backdrop of the miners strike in a village in County Durham during the 1980s.

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