Stephen Hanna on Broadway

Deborah sent me a link to the casting for the upcoming Broadway production of BILLY ELLIOT and the name that jumps out is New York City Ballet principal Stephen Hanna who will be playing Billy's older self in the musical. It's also to be noted that Stephen is no longer listed on the roster of NYC Ballet at their website. It seems to me that the face of our Company is changing on a daily basis!  (Stephen & Ellen Bar in TCHAIKOVSKY SUITE #3, a Paul Kolnik photo).

Comments

[Laura]

Congrats to Stephen as he embarks on this new endeavor!

[Philip]

So now three principal men have left in a row: Nikolaj, Damian and Stephen.

[Deborah]

As I mentioned to Philip, I saw "Billy Elliott" in London when it first opened, and it's a whole lot of fun. Stephen Hanna's role will be at the very end of the show (literally) and is a (shirtless) ballet solo (5-7 minutes, if I'm remembering correctly). This one number should get people running to the NYCB, ABT, and ballet companies' box offices across the country (lots of tourists will see this show) -- it's that impressive. Plus, Stephen is a great fit for this roll; he is sure to get a rave in every review. When I saw it, a member of the Royal Ballet (on loan) danced the part (and they continue to get "real" ballet dancers even now). Time to promote Tyler Angle to Principal and Adrian Danchig-Waring (finally) to Soloist. We need to keep our great men
before any more leave.

[Laura]

Good point, Deborah! We don't want to lose Adrian to another great ballet company because he is not being given the promotion he deserves....hopefully those in the know will step up to the plate soon and grant some promotions!!

[Philip]

Another soloist who seems on the brink of promotion is Robert Fairchild.

[Laura]

Robbie Fairchild was in the Corps less than a year when he was promoted to Soloist....I have never seen a male dancer promoted so quickly. Few female dancers are even promoted that fast. Do you think he will get Principal so soon, too??

[Philip]

I think Rob and Tyler are the most likely male soloists to be promoted; they've both been doing principal roles.

[Sean]

Hi, fan of Billy Elliot here and seeing the show on the first night of Previews 10/1. No, the part is not shirtless as far as I can recall because young Billy dances with him and they are meant to be the same person, same outfit. In the movie version the adult Billy was shirtless because he played the Swan in Swan Lake. But YES, the show will be extremely popular, well attended, break records and any other praise you can imagine, so BIG congrats to him for landing the job. It WILL catapult his career forward! =)

[Deborah]

You're right, Sean. It's not shirtless. I recently saw the movie again (thus the confusion), but saw the play three years ago. I wasn't planning on seeing it again here, but since Stephen is in it, I may just go. It'll also be interesting to see if they are going to cut out any of the Britishisms in the play. I'm guessing they are going to tone down the accent a bit too. I recall some folks -- in the very British audience -- complaining (during the interval) that they couldn't get some of the words. The
London program had a dictionary of some of the local slang. I wonder if Stephen will get "the" billing, "and Stephen Hanna" at the end? Wouldn't that be great!