Drury Lane's new season includes 'Billy Elliot,' Pan prequel

In the latest in a series of scheduling coups, Drury Lane Theatre in Oak Brook Terrace has secured the rights to the regional premieres of "Billy Elliot" and "Peter and the Starcatcher" as part of its 2015-2016 season announced Monday.

Jeff Award winners and frequent collaborators Rachel Rockwell and Roberta Duchak reunite for the season opener "Billy Elliot" (April 10-June 7, 2015), adapted from Stephen Daldry's 2000 movie. Set against England's 1984 miner's strike, the musical, by Elton John and screenwriter Lee Hall, is about a working-class boy who dreams of studying dance at the Royal Ballet School.

That's followed by Ira Levin's suspense thriller "Deathtrap" (June 24-August 16, 2015), about a fading Broadway playwright turned college instructor desperate for a hit who decides to pass off a student's play as one of his own.

Artistic director William Osetek, 2014 Jeff Award-winning director of Drury Lane's "Next to Normal," helms the theater's production of the Tony Award-winning "Peter and the Starcatcher" (Aug. 27-Oct. 18, 2015). Based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson and adapted by Rick Elice, "Peter and the Starcatcher" is a prequel to J.M Barrie's "Peter Pan" and explains how Peter became the boy who never grew up.

For its holiday offering, Drury Lane revives "White Christmas," the Irving Berlin musical about a couple of soldiers turned song-and-dance men who enlist a pair of singing sisters to help their former general save his Vermont inn. Osetek directs the production, which is choreographed by Matthew Crowle ("Singin' in the Rain"). Previews begin Oct. 30, 2015, and the musical runs through Jan. 3, 2016.

The theater concludes its 2015-2016 season with a revival of the 1963 musical "Bye Bye Birdie" (Jan. 14, 2016-March 20, 2016), about the frenzy among teenage girls that ensues after 1950s rock 'n' roll idol Conrad Birdie (a character inspired by Elvis Presley) is inducted into the army and his agent Albert arranges for him to kiss one lucky young lady live on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Jeff Award winner Tammy Mader directs and choreographs.

Season subscriptions begin at $140 per person. For more information or reservations, call Drury Lane's box office at (630) 530-0111 or see drurylane.com.