'Billy Elliot' regional premiere set for Drury Lane

Posted July 01, 2014 1:01 am

Drury Lane Theatre in Oak Brook announced Tuesday it will kick off its 2015-2016 season with the regional premiere of the hit musical "Billy Elliot."

Joseph Jefferson Award-winning director Rachel Rockwell and fellow Jeff Award winner, music director Roberta Duchak, head up the creative team for the production, which begins previews April 9, 2015.

Frequent collaborators, Rockwell and Duchak earned accolades for their Drury Lane revivals of "Ragtime," "Les Miserables" and "The Sound of Music" among others. They are currently working on Goodman Theatre's "Brigadoon," the first major revival of the Allan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical in 34 years.

Adapted from the 2000 film and set against the 1984 miner's strike in northern England, "Billy Elliot" centers on a working-class boy who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. Screenwriter Lee Hall wrote the book and lyrics and Elton John composed the score for the musical, which earned 10 Tony Awards.

During the show's nine-month run in Chicago in 2010, the musical played to 365,000 people and grossed $27 million.

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