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[title]Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace will stage the first Chicago-area production of Billy Elliot the Musical next spring, the theater announced today. Rachel Rockwell, whose revival of Brigadoon is now in previews at the Goodman Theatre, is set to direct.
The 2005 stage musical, with music by Elton John and book and lyrics by Lee Hall, was adapted from the British film about a working-class English boy who trades his boxing gloves for ballet slippers against the backdrop of the Thatcher-era miners' strike. It was the winner of 10 Tony Awards in 2009—including, somewhat controversially, best actor in a musical for the three boys who alternated in the title role on Broadway.
Rockwell is known as a director with a rapport with child performers, which will be necessary for a show which requires multiples of Billy, his best friend Michael and an army of tiny ballerinas. Billy Elliot will run April 9–June 7, 2015.