Music The musical "Billy Elliot" now in Zurich after London and New York

The musical "Billy Elliot" celebrates its premiere in Zurich's Maag Hall on Friday. Following the success of the English-language original in London's West End and on Broadway in New York, the first German-language production is now being staged.

The story takes the audience to the mining region in the north of England in the mid-1980s. At the center is the boy Billy Elliot. He lives in modest circumstances with his father, brother and grandmother. The miners are on strike and money worries are the order of the day for the Elliots.

Father Elliot sends his son to boxing lessons. But he stumbles into ballet lessons by chance. Billy's talent for dance is revealed. Conflict with the family is inevitable. Unsurprisingly, Billy prevails and his life takes a completely new turn - and not just his, but that of his family and the entire village community.

Elton John's idea of a musical

This fairy tale was originally a film by British director Stephen Daldry. Billy Elliot" premiered in Cannes in 2000 and went through the roof worldwide. Then Sir Elton John came into the picture. He gave Daldry the idea of turning the film into a musical and also contributed 16 songs.

This laid the foundations for a hit musical. The premiere was in May 2005 in London's West End, followed by Broadway three years later. The musical ran on the West End for eleven years. It won a total of 83 awards worldwide. The production in London cost 5.5 million pounds (around 6.2 million francs today), while the Broadway production cost 18 million dollars (just under 16 million francs today).

Maag Music & Arts has secured the rights for German-speaking countries and has also brought West End director Mitch Sebastian on board. Sebastian, who has lived in Zurich for several years, has also taken over the direction here. However, there were specifications for the German-language production: word-for-word translation of the original English-language texts, dance steps as in the original and no room for interpretation. Maag Music & Arts is spending five million francs on the German-language production.

Needle found in a haystack

Preparations have been underway for two years. The biggest hurdle was casting the children's roles, Maag Music & Arts writes in the documents. The main roles are for the boy Billy and his friend Michael. Finding boys "who could do classical dance, tap dance, acting and singing was like finding a needle in a haystack".

In addition, the children's roles had to be cast three times because six performances a week are planned over several months and the children therefore have to take turns. They found what they were looking for with 12-year-old Moritz Fischli from Lucerne, 13-year-old Leo Lemmerich from Frauenfeld and 12-year-old Nevio Reymond from Basel for the role of Billy. Michael will be played by 13-year-old Justin Périer from Zurich in rotation with 12-year-old Oscar Wittek and 13-year-old Charlie Bänziger, both from Basel.

In the leading adult roles, Sabine Martin (Maria Wartberg in "Ich war noch niemals in New York", Thunerseespiele) plays the grandmother, Pasquale Aleardi (Inspector Dupin) the father and Isabella Flachsmann (Soulgirl in "Jesus Christ Superstar" at Theater Basel) the ballet teacher Mrs. Wilkinson. Elton John's music is played live by an orchestra of nine musicians.

After the premiere on Friday evening, at least 90 performances are planned until March 23 next year.

SDA