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Author’s Note:  The profiles contained in this article are continually updated to stay current with the most up-to-date information. Last update: 3/19/2010

In this article, we profile the four young men who will be portraying Billy in Billy Elliot the Musical -- Chicago.  The show in the Windy City began previews on March 18, 2010. Appearing on a rotating basis at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts at the Oriental Theatre, in the title role, are Tommy Batchelor, Giuseppe Bausilio, Cesar Corrales and J.P. Viernes.

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Tommy Batchelor

Born on August 23, 1995, 14 year old Tommy Batchelor is from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He was the 4th boy to play Billy Elliot on Broadway and is an originating Billy for the national tour of the show, beginning in Chicago.

When he was three years old, Tommy saw a television biography about the legendary tap dancer, Bill Bojangles, and promptly informed his family that he wanted to do that. So he began dance training at the age of four - at a studio called The Dance Factory - when his family lived in Minnesota. He has moved a couple of times since then, but Tommy kept acquiring dance skills wherever he lived.

Once in Florida, he really began to apply himself. For three years, he took dance classes at Palm Beach Ballet Center in Lake Park four days a week. One of his dance teachers, Stacey Downs, said that Tommy was so eager to dance that she had to order him to stop some days. “He’s like a racehorse, he just goes,” said Downs. “He has a great heart, he’s very emotional, very expressive. And I’ve never met such a quick study.”

All the hard work began to pay off when he earned a starring role in the 2006 Miami City Ballet production of The Nutcracker.  Then, at age 12, Tommy danced in the final rounds of the international ballet competition YAGP (Youth America Grand Prix) in New York City. A video of his performance in that 2008 competition can be found here:  2008 Junior Men’s YAGP

It was while at that competition that Tommy learned that he had won a role in Billy Elliot the Musical on Broadway, for which he had auditioned after being spotted by a talent scout in 2007 at a ballet competition in Orlando.

Like many of the other Billys, Tommy’s family has made numerous sacrifices to support his love of dance and theater. When he got the role on Broadway, Tommy and his mom, Rebecca, moved from Florida into a fourth-floor walk-up in upper Manhattan. They rode subways downtown to the Imperial Theater. Tommy’s dad, Ed, who is a high school teacher in FL, and his older brother, Eddie, visited NYC when they could.  And, of course,recently he and his mom moved again — this time to the Windy City — where he is currently in rehearsals with the Chicago cast.

An original Broadway cast member when the show opened in November of 2008, Tommy was at first the understudy for Billy and for the role of Tall Boy/Posh Boy. Then, in March of 2009, Tommy joined the rotation as the 4th full-fledged Billy.

A video produced by the Billy Elliot the Musical creative staff,  in their  ”Meet the Billys” series, introduced Tommy as Billy:

Though he was a full-fledged Billy for over nine months, because of the notoriety of the three original Broadway Billys (David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish), who were involved in all the pre-Opening Night publicity for the show and then won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical, while on Broadway Tommy was sometimes the “forgotten Billy” — often not included in photo opportunities and interviews with the others.  A rare exception was at the Broadway Bears charity event at which Tommy did appear with his fellow Billys.

But then, on September 10, 2009,  three boys who would play Billy Elliot in Chicago were announced (a fourth would be announced later). Tommy is the anchor of the group as he is the eldest and has experience in the role.  With all the pre opening Chicago publicity, Tommy has finally emerged from the shadow of the originating Broadway Billys and has gotten a spotlight of his own.  Here’s a video about this latest version of Billy Elliot the Musical, featuring an interview with director Stephen Daldry and a performance by Tommy Batchelor dancing to Elton John’s “Electricity” from the show:

Tommy’s last Broadway performance as Billy was on December 11, 2009. After a short holiday break, he went into rehearsals full-time with the rest of the Billy Elliot the Musical Chicago cast. Though the Chicago Billys did some training in New York prior to Christmas, the entire cast rehearsal process has been taking place at the Oriental Theater and other locations in Chicago since early January.

In a March, 2010  interview a week before the show opened in Chicago, for the website the Chicagoist, Tommy talked about the luxury of the larger Oriental Theater compared to what he was used to on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre in NYC, “The theater in New York [City] is so much smaller than this one. The Oriental Theater is a lot bigger, and the backstage is humongous!”

Long before the Broadway show opened, in an interview with his hometown paper in Florida, The Palm Beach Post, Tommy related that a dance teacher once predicted he would one day be on Broadway. “But she thought I would be at least 20,” said Tommy, laughing.  So far in his young life, the resourceful teen has consistently beaten goals set by others for him — by plenty. With his talent, expect that trend to continue.

For more information about Tommy Batchelor visit these websites:

Billy Elliot the Musical -- Chicago,  Billy Elliot the Forum and  Friends of Billy Elliot Forum

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Photo Credit: Amy Boyle

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Giuseppe Bausilio

Twelve year old Giuseppe Bausilio was born in Bern, the capital of Switzerland, where he continues to reside. It’s not surprising that he has such excellent dancing skills --he comes from a family of dancers (his parents and his brother are all ballet dancers) and Giuseppe started dancing at the age of four. He says while he started taking ballet for fun, it’s become his passion.  He has also studied other styles of dance including jazz, flamenco, hip hop, and tap.

Giuseppe’s mom, Sonia Milo, runs a ballet school in their hometown of Bern. She claims he even danced before he was born because ”I danced when I was pregnant with him.”

Recently his ballet training has come mainly from the AS Ballet Schule in Boll, Switzerland.  But he has also recently received training from attendance at the Young Dancer Summer Intensive Program at American Ballet Theater and at  the Billy Elliot Broadway Summer Camp.

He has performed in “Coppelia” with the the State Theatre of Bern and has appeared in the operas “Mazzepa” and “Falstaff”.

Giuseppe has competed and won awards around the world including in his native Switzerland, in France, Italy and the United States. In 2008, Giuseppe, along with dance partner Aurora Di Rocco, placed second while performing Pas de Deux from Harlequinade at the 2008 YAGP Semifinals in Ravenna, Italy. Their performance was captured on this video:

In April of 2009, Giuseppe competed in the YAGP New York City finals, winning the Bronze medal in the Junior Men’s Division and a scholarship for the Summer Intensive program at the American Ballet Theater, which he attended this past summer in New York. While he was in New York for the YAGP, he also was invited to audition for Billy Elliot the Musical and as a result  won the Chicago role. Here’s a look at Giuseppe’s individual ballet technique:

On September 10, 2009,  three Chicago Billys were announced to the world in the Windy City (a 4th Billy would be announced later).  Pictures of their visit are scattered throughout this article.   They were given a worldwind tour of the city they would call their home for several months beginning after Christmas, 2009.  While visiting Chicago, Giuseppe even found time to stop at the Russian Pointe Dance Boutique, one of the city’s leading shops which caters to dancers, to try on a new pair of dance shoes. And that’s a commodity he’ll need plenty of in his near future -- he’ll be wearing out lots of them in the weeks leading up to his debut as Billy.

The boys went to New York and, up until Christmas, worked with the Billy Elliot creative team and other Billys-to-be who will appear on Broadway in the future.  It was long days filled with the intense training and rehearsals needed to build the skills and stamina necessary to perform the strenuous role of Billy Elliot in the almost three hour show.

Other Billys have said that one of the toughest parts of the role is learning to speak the unique northern England Geordi accent. But for Giuseppe, who by the age of 12 has mastered five languages, that’s one aspect of his training that  figures to be a piece of cake!

Just after Thanksgiving, 2009, Giuseppe was interviewed on Chicago’s local Channel abc7 news:

All in all Giuseppe can’t believe his good fortune saying,  “I can’t believe I get to be Billy -- it’s a dream come true!”

Credit: Chicago Tribune Photo

For more information about Giuseppe Bausilio visit these websites:

Billy Elliot the Musical -- Chicago, Billy Elliot the Forum, and the Friends of Billy Elliot forum

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 Cesar Corrales

 Cesar Corrales was born in Mexico, but currently resides in Montreal, Canada.  Like his fellow Chicago Billy, Giuseppe Bausilio, 13 year old Cesar’s mom and dad are also dancers.

Along with Broadway Billy, Liam Redhead, Cesar is a student of Canada’s National Ballet School, having joined that prestigious institution in 2008.

Despite the fact that he will be making his debut in musical theater with Billy Elliot, Cesar is no stranger to the big stage and large audiences.  Beginning at the early age of four, he performed with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in “Madama Butterfly”.  He later also appeared in that organization’s production of  “Anna Karenina”.  Cesar has also danced the Nutcracker with both the National Ballet of Canada and Les Grands Ballet Canadiens.

Cesar also has the distinction of having a movie credit on his resume. Released in 2004, when he was just 8 years old, Cesar appeared in the Richard Gere/Jennifer Lopez film  “Shall We Dance?” as… what else?…  a dancer.  And, ironically, the movie was partially filmed in Chicago.

And as far as the acrobatic requirements for the role of Billy, Cesar won’t need to start from scratch there either.  He’s a member of the Club IMCO Gymnastique (a gymastics club in Montreal) and has taken part in various gymnastics competitions, including winning first place at the Coupe Quebec in 2008.

In this brief video, Cesar’s abilities in ballet, street dance/modern dance and acrobatics can be seen:

In June, 2009, Cesar attended an open audition in Toronto for BETM, along with several others from the National Ballet School and a variety of other boys from Canada and the northern United States.  After several callbacks, Cesar was offered the role.

In September, when the Chicago Billys were introduced to the city, it was evident right from the start  that the three boys will get along well together.  They toured the city and even got the chance to visit the Oriental Theater where Billy Elliot the Musical will be staged beginning in March, 2010.  They stood on the stage and gazed out at the empty seats and imagined what they will look like filled on Opening Night.

 Photo Credit: Amy Boyle

Cesar and Giuseppe began the intense training and rehearsing to prepare them for the role in the late Fall, working with the show’s creative team in New York. After his final appearance as Billy on Broadway and a brief Christmas break, Tommy joined them and the rest of the Chicago cast. Cast rehearsals moved full time to that Oriental Theater stage and to other rehearsal halls  in early January.

 In his bio in the cast section of the official Billy Elliot the Musical -- Chicago website, Cesar says “I can’t wait to be Billy!”   There are many Chicagoans and others who can’t wait to see him and his fellow Billys on that big stage at the Oriental Theater, filled with sets and actors.

Photo Credit: Amy Boyle

For more information about Cesar Corrales visit these websites:

Billy Elliot the Musical -- Chicago, Billy Elliot the Forum and the Friends of Billy Elliot forum

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Photo Credit: Anna Knott

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J.P. Viernes

The Oriental Theatre stage will be graced by the considerable dancing talents of 13 year old John Peter Viernes, who hails from Half Moon Bay, near San Francisco, CA. He’s universally known to friends and family as “J.P.”

J.P.’s dance skills have been developed and honed by the Shely Pack Dancers, a school he has attended since the age of seven. The school is affliated with the highly regarded Dance Masters of America program. School owner Shely Pack-Manning, in an interview with J.P.’s hometown newspaper, the Half Moon Bay Review, says that right from the start “I could see he had a wonderful sense of rhythm. In the past two years I’ve seen him develop into a strong dancer, a very flexible dancer. But one of his main assets is he can connect with his music.”

As has been the case with many of the boys who have portrayed Billy, dancing runs in his family.  His older sister, Lexi, also attends the Shely Pack Dancers program and has won several competitions.

At the age of nine, J.P. won the title of Master Dance of California, a state-wide competition for boys aged 9 and 10. In July of 2008, J.P. danced in the national Dance Masters of America competition in Orlando, FL, winning the title of Jr. Mr. Dance of America (for boys aged 10-12).  His winning performance, choreographed by Pack-Manning,  was danced to the Elvis Presley ballad “In the Ghetto”.  Viernes characterizes the music for his performance as “…really sad, but it has a lot of emotional content.” He said he “described”  the music through movement that included big jumps and snappy turns. “It felt like I was telling the story to the audience, but with my body instead of my words.”  After holding his title for a year, during which he danced at Dance Masters events in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, J.P. surrendered it in July of 2009, at the Dance Masters annual convention, celebrating its 125 years of existence, in Washington, D.C.

J.P.’ s road to playing Billy has been very long and arduous.  In March of 2007,  he first auditioned for Billy Elliot the Musical in San Francisco.  In May of that year, he was asked to attend a second audition in Los Angeles.  After that, over a year went by with no word and J.P. and his family naturally thought he hadn’t gotten the part.  But then, in October of 2008, he received a call offering to bring him to New York for another audition, which was again followed by a period of silence from the creative team. Still another callback occurred in April, 2009.  Over two years had passed since J.P. initially auditioned to be Billy. It became clear to the family that J.P. was under serious consideration for the role when he was asked to attend the “Billy Camp” during which boys under consideration for the role learn the various dance routines so it can be seen how they’d look in the show.

Finally, in August of 2009, J.P. was offered the role of Billy in the Chicago production.  His contract also calls for him to understudy the roles of Tall Boy/Posh Boy.  Beginning in November of 2009, J.P., along with other Billys-to-be for the Chicago and New York productions, began an intensive five weeks of rehearsals in New York. After a short break for the holidays, it was then on to Chicago to there resume rehearsals for the show.

In a publicity photo/video shoot outside the Imperial Theatre in New York, J.P. and his fellow Chicago Billys were captured in this brief video:

Credit: Video by applexcore0

His initial contract runs through September, 2010.  However, J.P. says, “I’ll be in it as long as my voice doesn’t change, or I don’t grow.”

When asked if he’s looking forward to the opening of the show beginning with previews in March, J.P. said “I’m really excited, that’s for sure.”   He added, “I’m kinda nervous — No, not really. It’s just a big thing.”  Yes, it is a big thing and his many fans say J.P. will be one of the main reasons why Billy Elliot the Musical takes the city of Chicago by storm.

For more information about J.P. Viernes visit:

Billy Elliot the Forum, Friends of Billy Elliot forum

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Here’s just a taste of what’s in store for Chicago beginning in March, in this promotional video:

Credit: Video by ChooseChicago

In the final days before the show opened in previews on March 18, the boys are worked to increase their technique and their strength with ballet teacher Finis Jhung, who has worked with all the New York Billys as well.  This video shows him working with Giuseppe, Cesar and JP.

Credit: Video by jlocarro (Suspension Productions)

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The Ford Center for the Performing Arts at the Oriental Theatre:

Home of Billy Elliot the Musical -- Chicago

Photo Credit:  aacomiskey

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In other articles in the Billy Elliot the Musical section of this blog, see profiles of all the other Billys currently performing the role world-wide.  Profiles of those in New York can be found in Billy Elliot the Musical: Meet the Billys -- Broadway.  The boys playing Billy in the UK are profiled in Billy Elliot the Musical: Meet the Billys -- London’s West End.  Appearing in the first non-English version of the show in Korea, profiles of the four boys starring as Billy can be found at Billy Elliot the Musical: Meet the Billys -- Korea. There are also profiles of Billys of the recent past, who have left the show since September, 2009, in Billy Elliot the Musical: Meet the Billys -- Profiles Archive.

Note:  If you have found these profiles enjoyable to read and/or useful, your comments (below) would be very appreciated.

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Get your tickets for Billy Elliot the Musical at :

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 Tommy Batchelor Audio Profile: Play Now | Play in Popup

 

 Giuseppe Bausilio Audio Profile: Play Now | Play in Popup

 

 J.P. Viernes Audio Profile: Play Now | Play in Popup

 

 Cesar Corrales audio Profile: Play Now | Play in Popup