'Billy Elliot' boys are the fifth team to compete for a single Tonys nom
It's not the first time that multiple people share a single acting nomination at the Tony Awards. This year the three boys who portray the title star of "Billy Elliot" on different nights on a rotating basis — David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, Kiril Kulish — compete for best actor in a musical. There are four previous examples in Tonys history.
The first instance of spreading the wealth around is also the oddest. In 1960, Lauri Peters — playing Liesl in "The Sound of Music" — shared her supporting actress nod with the other six Von Trapp children, including the two boys!
This singing septet lost to costar Patricia Neway, who played the Reverend Mother and trilled the show-stopping "Climb Every Mountain." (By the way, that role was played in the 1965 Oscar-winning best picture by Peggy Wood, who lost her supporting actress bid to Shelley Winters for "A Patch of Blue.")
The other three times that a nom was shared were just between a pair of performers. In 1966, Donal Donnelly and Patrick Bedford — who played the private and public Gar in "Philadelphia Here I Come" — lost their joint best actor in a play bid to Hal Holbrook for his one-man show "Mark Twain Tonight." In 1975, John Kani and Winston Ntshona won best actor in a play for "Sizwe Banzi Is Dead" and "The Island," two one-acts in which they appeared together. And in 1998, Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley earned a best actress in a musical nod for playing real-life Siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton in "Side Show," but lost to Natasha Richardson for the revival of "Cabaret."
Photos: BillyElliotBroadway.com
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The boy on the poster is actually George Maguire - one of the three original London Billy Elliots. He's sort of become the "face" of Billy Elliot, and I believe that poster is used everywhere internationally.
In Iris - Kate and Judi played the younger and older Iris, respectively.
Here, the boys share the lead role - they all play Billy Elliot at age 12. I think it'd be unfair to compare each Billy Elliot to the other and say one performs better than the others. If you see the show, you'll know that all the boys playing Billy are brilliant, and each have their own strengths and weaknesses.
The have more than one boy in the role due to child laws.
I think the number of boys who have played or are playing Billy Elliot internationally is over 30 now, as the boys grow up and move on from the role.
Posted by: Su | May 06, 2009 at 01:43 PM
The "Billy" on the posters is pretty much a "generic" Billy. I think the head may belong to one of the UK Billys, but not sure it's even his body. That may be from a body model. Since by the very nature of the role, Billys eventually outgrow the role, why go to the bother of printing up new posters for every "Billy" who comes along? The posters have absolutely nothing to do with the Tony nominations. The poster is to advertise the show, end of story.
As far as the Billys currently on Broadway, I would say that the show's PR department does a pretty good job of promoting these boys.
Posted by: Maya | May 06, 2009 at 08:18 AM
I find it doubly interesting that none of these three boys are being featured on the advertising posters bedecking the NYC subways these days. Instead, the kid portraying Billy Elliott looks like Jamie Bell, from the movie. Why is THAT? It's the sort of thing that makes one suspect of the nomination, that's for sure, though I feel certain each of these boys is superb. But is it really fair to nominate three people for one role? Would we have felt good, for instance, if Judi Dench and Kate Winslet had been nominated at the Oscars together for "Iris"? I know I'm talking about another medium here but, really, what's the difference?
Posted by: Dean Treadway | May 06, 2009 at 04:12 AM
The difference here, of course, is that those performers all appeared in the show every night, meaning that Tony voters got to actually see the performances for which they were voting. The three Billys are being judged on the basis of the role that has been created for them, not the performances they are giving. I feel a little uneasy about it, actually.
Posted by: Kristoffer Diaz | May 05, 2009 at 08:06 AM