What is the casting director looking for in the Billys?

[chocchipcookie26]

George Maycock also seems to be a greaaat singing Michael
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[johnnyc]

George Maycock also seems to be a greaaat singing Michael
x

As was David Bologna.

[Todd]

I second that . .. . about Brad Kavanagh and David Bologna having excellent singing voices. I thought Brad's performance really enhanced "Express Yourself" on the OCR.

While there may be some disagreement over how important singing should be in casting the Billys, I think everyone would agree that the X-factor which might be hardest to pinpoint is whether the child has that certain quality to "become" Billy. I suppose "charisma" might be another word for it, but they definitely need to have the personality or the stage presence or whatever you want to call it to carry the show and be believable in the role of Billy. In my opinion, the production team is scoring pretty much a 100% accuracy on this ! Pretty impressive when you figure this might be the hardest part of their performance to gauge until you actually see them in the show.

By my count, I've seen 15 different kids play the part of Billy in London and New York combined. A couple of times I came away from the show thinking, "This kid will probably be really good eventually, but right now he seems a little young for the part." A couple of other times, I've come away thinking, "This kid's probably gotten a bit too old for the part." But only once have I seen a show where I came away thinking, "That kid just didn't seem right for the part." He just wasn't able to become Billy for me. He might have been having an off night when I saw him, or it might have just been my lone opinion - as I think I'm the only person who I've ever heard who felt that way about this particular kid (sorry, no names !)

But that's one of the parts of the show that makes it so much fun to see again and again. With different personalities, different takes on the role, different strengths, etc., each kid who plays Billy brings something fresh to the show which makes each performance seem new again. And every one of them are among the most talented kids I've ever had the privilege of seeing perform.

[ERinVA]

Charisma and looks. When I say "looks," I don't mean that a kid has to be the most gorgeous looking one on the planet, and thankfully it is rare to see someone who is truly homely at that age, but I expect that even if a kid was a great dancer, but not reasonably good looking, he would not become a Billy.

Also, for a while there, the powers that be seemed to have the idea that Billy should be blond and Michael should have dark hair. We actually had a fair amount of discussion about it on the old forum, especially about why they seemed to feel it was necessary to lighten Billy's hair if he wasn't a blond (for example, Leon), but after a while they seem to have caught on to the fact that not every kid destined to be Billy would look good as a blond. Nevertheless, they still do lighten some Billys' hair.

[Todd]

Also, I feel like they've got some kind of predilection for choosing Billies that have some type of ethnic heritage- no idea why. I honestly don't notice ethnic background on stage, like it doesn't even come up in my mind. Just when you think about it from the outside, there's a bit of a trend going. It's not a bad thing, of course! It's cool!

At the risk of opening up a can of worms on a potentially sensitive topic, it is interesting that there have been quite a few non-caucasion actors who have been chosen to play Billy, even though the actors who have played Dad, Dead Mum, Grandma and Tony have all been white. I've always assumed this was because it's so difficult finding kids who are able to handle the demanding role of Billy that they're not able to be picky and say that the kid has to look a certain way or have a certain background.

On the old forum, there were a few discussions - especially when Layton Williams joined the cast - about whether audience members would be confused or be able to deal with a Billy who was a different ethnicity than the actors who played his family in the show. Sadly, there were apparently some ticket-buyers who made some insensitive comments when calling the Victoria Palace box office to inquire about when a particular Billy would or would not be performing.

My personal experience has been that while I may notice the difference in appearances at the beginning of the show, I quickly get caught up in the story and the performance to where I don't notice whether the actors look like they could be from the same family or not. Suspending disbelief - up to a point - is required for musical theater in the first place, right ? And typically, the actor who plays Billy is so dynamic and talented that I focus more on those qualities and enjoy the show for that reason, not because of what he looks like.

Having said all that, I do remember being a bit confused by a comment Elton John (or maybe it was Stephen Daldry) made one time that was something to the effect of, "It's important that we always have different ethnic backgrounds when casting the Billys." My question to that would be: why ? It seems to me the more important question should be finding the best kid to play the part. If that means that they're all white, or all hispanic, or whatever, then so be it. If he meant that there should be equal opportunity for color-blind casting when kids audition for the part, then I'm all for it. But saying that there should be one Billy of this background and one of that background smacks of political correctness run amok, and could be detrimental to the success of the show in the long run if that sort of thing ever becomes a higher priority than finding the most talented kids to play Billy.

[billyforlife]

Also, I feel like they've got some kind of predilection for choosing Billies that have some type of ethnic heritage- no idea why. I honestly don't notice ethnic background on stage, like it doesn't even come up in my mind. Just when you think about it from the outside, there's a bit of a trend going. It's not a bad thing, of course! It's cool!

My personal experience has been that while I may notice the difference in appearances at the beginning of the show, I quickly get caught up in the story and the performance to where I don't notice whether the actors look like they could be from the same family or not. Suspending disbelief - up to a point - is required for musical theater in the first place, right ? And typically, the actor who plays Billy is so dynamic and talented that I focus more on those qualities and enjoy the show for that reason, not because of what he looks like.

Having said all that, I do remember being a bit confused by a comment Elton John (or maybe it was Stephen Daldry) made one time that was something to the effect of, "It's important that we always have different ethnic backgrounds when casting the Billys." My question to that would be: why ? It seems to me the more important question should be finding the best kid to play the part. If that means that they're all white, or all hispanic, or whatever, then so be it. If he meant that there should be equal opportunity for color-blind casting when kids audition for the part, then I'm all for it. But saying that there should be one Billy of this background and one of that background smacks of political correctness run amok, and could be detrimental to the success of the show in the long run if that sort of thing ever becomes a higher priority than finding the most talented kids to play Billy.

I completely agree - for me, it does not matter what the background or looks of the Billy are, and equal opportunity is of course important, but to make a big deal out of the fact that they do have different ethnic backgrounds (for example, the first Broadway press meeting where they introduced Trent, David and Kiril and asked them where they were from, saying that Kiril is Ukranian when he said California) does make me wonder whether this was taken into account rather than just finding the most suited boy to play the part. Of course I do not wish that any of the boys who were chosen were not as they are all brilliant, but I still wonder if the company was very careful to be "politically correct" and show that they were not biased towards a specific look...

[ERinVA]

Have moved this topic to General Chat. Even though it is Billy related, it applies to all productions of the show, so there really isn't a good place for it except in General Chat.

[Muppet]

I suspect that they are looking for potential. I think having a certain charisma is also a necessity.

It's rare indeed when they find a kid who already is the "complete package," as was Colin Bates. Colin had already "paid his dues" and was a professional entertainer. So he was able to go on stage as Billy after something like a two month training period in London.

"The complete package"
I totally agree...he certainly was!!

I don't know what they are looking for....it confuses me sometimes!! There are definite similarities between some of the lads in my opinion (Colin, Trav, Liam, Leon, James, George, Corey, Tanner, etc) but others are like COMPLETELY different!!

[elliot1]

Just found this video - Sally Powell talking about Billy Elliot auditions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO5NUIFPeiw