From Billy Elliot to Broadway: Where Are They Now?
Tom Holland, now Hollywood's Spider-Man, and Layton Williams, an Olivier nominee currently starring in Jesus Christ Superstar at the London Palladium, both got their first big break in the same job: playing Billy Elliot in the West End. A feature published today by WhatsOnStage traces the careers of the boys who wore the ballet shoes — and the list of where they ended up reads like a casting director's wish list.
Billy Elliot ran for 11 years at the Victoria Palace Theatre, closing in 2016 after 42 boys had played the title role across its run. The show, based on the 2000 film about a County Durham boy who discovers a talent for ballet against the odds of his mining community, opened in London in 2005. James Lomas, George Maguire and Liam Mower were the three originating Billys, and they jointly won the Olivier Award for Leading Actor in a Musical — an unprecedented three-way win for three child performers.
Holland is the most famous alumnus by some distance. After Billy Elliot, he landed the Spider-Man role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has starred in blockbuster films ever since. Williams, from Manchester, was 14 when he joined the first London cast. He went on to lead West End productions of Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Cabaret and Rent, and played Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar at the London Palladium this summer, a run that finished on 5 September. He is now confirmed to reprise that Herod role when Jesus Christ Superstar moves to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where eight different performers will rotate the part across the run.
The Palladium production itself was a rotating-cast affair. Six actors played Jesus, and the role of Herod — a single song in the show — was shared between performers including Williams, Julian Clary, Richard Armitage and Boy George. Tickets were priced from £40 with no booking fees.
Other former Billys have built careers behind the scenes. Josh Baker is now a choreographer working internationally on the Max Martin Romeo and Juliet and on film adaptations including Matilda. Sam Angell works as a movement director and co-founded the theatre company From The Gut. Colin Bates returned to the West End for the premiere of Girl from the North Country and has since appeared in Task and the film Queer.
On Broadway, Trent Kowalik opened the production and won a Tony Award alongside his co-stars — the American equivalent of the Olivier.
The Billy Elliot story is not over. Four new young performers have been announced for the show's return on tour and in the West End: Noah Mannion, 12, from Stockport; Rafferty Smale, 12, from Leigh-on-Sea; Spencer Collins, 13, from Los Angeles; and William Gurney, 12, from Berkshire. They will follow in the footsteps of a roll call that has produced a Spider-Man, an Olivier nominee, a choreographer, a movement director and a Tony winner.
