Billy Elliot’s Dad Loves the Show!
June 24, 2010
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With the Billy Elliot schedule extended a little longer for the Billy Elliot Chicago run, theatergoers, here’s a little glimpse into one of the people who are making Billy Elliot tickets sell so well. The Billy Elliot soundtrack by Elton John is as humorous as it is moving, and the emotions evoked by the story have propelled Billy Elliot tickets to the pinnacle of Broadway tickets sales. One of the central characters is Billy’s father, played by Gregory Jbara. Jbara has recently been honored for the way in which he plays a macho dad clutching for ways to deal with (the northern English tragedy of having) a son who likes to ballet dance. Jbara appeared on Broadway in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels several years ago, but he says his playing alongside the mercurial Billy has brought feelings out in him that he finds hard to disguise.
“It’s such a gift to surrender to my awe for this child and watch him dance,” says Jbara, who won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, one of Billy Elliot’s 10 Tonys. “It’s easy to get to that place. I get to take that ride every night and fall in love with that boy. I’m imbued with such amazing pride. I’m feeling it as an actor.” With sentiments like that, it’s no surprise that Billy Elliot tickets are among Broadway’s biggest sellers.
Jbara won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, and he is proud to have been the recipient of one of Billy Elliot’s 10 Tony Awards. Among the acting community is it known that whichever boy actor plays Billy, the inevitable breaking of the voice leads to that young man losing the role. It is a bittersweet commentary on life itself, and Jbara has now worked with 10 actors who have alternated as Billy. This includes the original three who won a Tony Award in 2009 for Best Actor in a Musical. The expressive-faced Jbara says one of his chief pleasures of performing this Broadway run is that he is often stopped on the street by men – not a common occurrence for a stage production. He puts this down to the fact that Billy Elliot is a powerful father-son story. “And, of course, happy endings are nice,” Jbara says, with a smile…get your Billy Elliot tickets now and experience this brilliant tale from the coal-pits of northeast England to the bright lights of London and Broadway!
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