After running in the West End for more than ten years, Billy Elliot the Musical is to tour nationally in 2016 and will play at Sunderland Empire from 6 to 30 April.
Written by Newcastle-based writer Lee Hall, whose latest play Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour opens at Live Theatre on 1 October, and set in a County Durham pit town during the Miners’ Strike of 1984/85, it was first a film directed by Stephen Daldry before transferring to the West End stage at the Victoria Palace in 2005.
It tells the story of 11-year-old pitman’s son Billy Elliot who gives up boxing for ballet and proves to have a tremendous talent. It has been seen by over 10.5m people all over the world and has won over 80 awards internationally, including ten Tony Awards and five Oliviers.
Tickets go on sale on 9 October.
Then just a month later (from 31 May to 1 June), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat arrives at the Sunderland theatre, starring South Shields X Factor winner Joe McElderry in his first ever theatrical role apart from a one-off West End gala performance as the lead in The Who's Tommy in 2012.
Prior to his TV win, McElderry was a waiter in the Green Room at the Customs House in South Shields and will be returning to the venue for a special Joe McElderry Live and Unplugged concert on 11 October.
Tickets for Joseph at the Empire are now on sale.