Anna-Jane Casey joins cast of Billy Elliot, from 13 May

Billy Elliot stays in the news this week, after Margaret Thatcher’s death, but this time for more standard production reasons, with new principal cast members announced. Anna-Jane Casey and Howard Crossley will join the West End production at the Victoria Palace Theatre, playing Mrs Wilkinson and George respectively, from 13 May 2013.
Also joining the principal line-up will be Kevin Wathen as Billy’s brother Tony, and Alexander Loxton as Older Billy. Ann Emery, Deka Walmsley, Kay Milbourne and Simon Ray Harvey remain in the cast.
Billy Elliot follows a young aspiring dancer who pursues his dream behind his family’s back during the 1984-85 miners’ strike in the North East of England. Based on the Oscar nominated film, Lee Hall’s stage adaptation features music by Elton John and is directed by Stephen Daldry with choreography by Peter Darling. Award-winning Anna-Jane Casey was just seen on the West End stage in Monty Python’s Spamalot at the Playhouse Theatre. Her other theatre credits include Company, Piaf and Sweet Charity (Sheffield Crucible), The Comedy of Errors (Open Air Theatre), Sunday in the Park with George (Menier Chocolate Factory), Chicago, Cats, Children of Eden and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (West End).Howard Crossley’s stage credits include Camino Real, The Virtuoso, A Woman Killed with Kindness, Merry Wives of Windsor, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus and Hamlet (RSC), Comedians, Can’t Pay Won’t Pay and Waiting for Godot (Young Vic). He played the role of Pumbaa in The Lion King from 2001-2007.
The cast will also be joined by new ensemble members Claudia Bradley, Lee Hoy, Dean Maynard, Alan Mehdizadeh, Ryan O’Gorman, Charlotte Riby and Edmund Shaw.Billy Elliot is currently booking until 21 December 2013.