Billy Elliot the Forum

Question: Is Kennedy still listed as TB in the Playbill? I noticed in the tracking Jack/Dillon (the Michaels) have been rotating the role in Toronto. This is interesting because usually one of the Billys fills in for TB.

Some told me that they have decided to use the standby Michael as the Tall Boy with the Billys as backup.

As was mentioned in another thread, Kennedy Ballard is no longer with the show as of November 28, 2010 - the last show in Chicago. Apparently the decision was made to go with the standby Michael to play the role of Tall Boy/Posh Boy in Toronto.

allthatsknown wrote:Ehem... Mr. Porchesrules, the closing date of Chicago was the 28th =P

Ooops. I knew that. Typo. And fixed. Thank you sir.

allthatsknown wrote: Sad to see him not listed, but I would love to see Dillons tall boy!! That would be a riot and a half!

I was just about to post the same thing!

Sorry to hear they don't have a separate actor to play tall boy. Had they done the same thing in New York or on the two US tours, we might have never had the pleasure of seeing such fine performers as Keean Johnson, Spencer Milford and Landon Harris.

Are they also only using one small boy? The pictures of the board that I've seen do not show who is playing Small Boy, which would seem to indicate that there is only one.

Todd wrote:Sorry to hear they don't have a separate actor to play tall boy. Had they done the same thing in New York or on the two US tours, we might have never had the pleasure of seeing such fine performers as Keean Johnson, Spencer Milford and Landon Harris.

Nor would we have the pleasure of seeing the superb Ben Cook do so much with such a small role.

Ali H wrote:Are they also only using one small boy? The pictures of the board that I've seen do not show who is playing Small Boy, which would seem to indicate that there is only one.

Yes. Gabriel Varga-Watt is the only Small Boy. As with the US National tour cast, they have one of the small ballet girls as u/s.

Billy Fanatic wrote:Nor would we have the pleasure of seeing the superb Ben Cook do so much with such a small role.

Oops. Sorry to have left Ben off my list. You're right, I saw him last summer in New York and he did a great job in his role - as well as being very friendly to visit with fans at the stage door afterwards.

It is too bad that the kids who play the tall boys - along with the girls who are cast in the ballet girl roles - don't have an opportunity to show their true dance talents at some point in the show. The ballet girls - while having some good stage time during "Shine" and "Solidarity" - are often supposed to be appearing to be beginners, and not the accomplished dancers that I'm sure many of them are.

Maybe during the Finale, it would be fun for those who perform in these roles to get a brief moment to shine. In the case of Keean Johnson and Landon Harris, they were both Billy finalists, so you know they must be pretty accomplished dancers if they got that far in the casting process. How cool would it be to see them do a series of pirouettes, leaps, or flips across the stage in the Finale, just to give them a moment - however brief - to show their talents ? I don't believe the tall boy does any dancing in the show - even in the Finale - but just shows up at the curtain call, right ?

I ran across this video showing Billy Camp from last spring, featuring current Billys Joseph Harrington and Kylend Hetherington. After watching it again, I realized the other boy with them is Landon Harris - showing that he is indeed a talented ballet dancer. Never knew who that other kid was, but recognized him after seeing him recently in the national tour. He shows up at the 35 second mark in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn_Gw5Qx ... re=related