Billy Elliot Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

BBC Strictly Come Dancing stars Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin have spoken about 'making a difference' and proving 'unfair' criticism wrong. Last Saturday night, the Bury-born actor and his dance partner delivered a stunning samba to Cuban anthem Quimbara, earning them a whopping 39 out of 40 points from the judges.This is a feat that hasn't been achieved in week five of the competition in 13 years.

Strictly Come Dancing star Johannes Radebe is ready to take the stage and star as the main character in the musical Kinky Boots.The 36 year old dancer - who has been on the hit BBC show since 2018 and has been partnered up with the likes of Catherine Tyldesley and Ellie Taylor - announced that he will be taking on the central role of Lola the drag queen for his musical debut in the play. Led by former Billy Elliot director, Nikolai Foster, the show is inspired by Cyndi Lauper's iconic music and Johannes will perform in venues dotted around the country from February until July 2025.

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, who is black, will play Juliet opposite Holland’s white Romeo has elicited a barrage of hate-filled messages on social media since it was announced a week ago. The play is scheduled to open in London next month — and will reportedly head to Broadway after selling out in “in a ticket frenzy,” according to the Mirror.The show’s producers, the Jamie Lloyd Company, posted a message on Instagram speaking out against the “deplorable racial abuse .

Naman Ramachandran Vanessa Williams will take on the role of queen of fashion Miranda Priestly in the London West End stage adaptation of “The Devil Wears Prada.” “The Devil Wears Prada” is a new musical based on the hit 2006 film and bestselling 2003 novel. It features an original score by Olivier and Tony Award winner Elton John (“Tammy Faye,” “Billy Elliot: The Musical,” “The Lion King”), direction and choreography by three-time Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell (“Kinky Boots,” “Legally Blonde,” “Pretty Woman,” “Hairspray”), lyrics by singer-songwriter Shaina Taub (“Suffs”) and book by Kate Wetherhead (“Ever After,” “Submissions Only”), The story follows fresh out of college, aspiring journalist Andy who scores a job at the prestigious Runway magazine working for fashion’s most powerful and terrifying icon – editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly.

Thousands of Tom Holland fans hoping to witness the actor’s West End return might be wondering where for art all the tickets went.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Bill Nighy and “Jojo Rabbit” breakout Roman Griffin Davis are lined up to star in “500 Miles,” directed by BAFTA winner Morgan Matthews. Beta Cinema has acquired international sales rights to the film, and will launch sales at next week’s European Film Market.

Academy Award nominee Bill Nighy and rising teen actor Roman Griffin Davis are set to co-star in road movie 500 Miles from BAFTA Award-winning director Morgan Matthews.

Billy Elliot, revealing he found its depiction of the working class “offensive”.The actor, who is well-known for appearing in Doctor Who and is currently starring in True Detective: Night Country, said he was offered the role of the father in the 2000 film, which tells the story of a working-class boy who discovers a passion for ballet.Speaking to The Independent, Eccleston said he didn’t like the portrayal of Billy’s parents as being against his artistic ambitions, revealing his own parents – a forklift driver and a cleaner – were very supportive of his own aspirations.“[I’m] tired of seeing working-class parents portrayed as being vehemently against their kids going into the arts,” he said. “What was that fucking ballet film everyone went mad for?”“I was offered a meeting to play the father,” Eccleston went on to recall.

Alex Ritman Signature Entertainment has acquired the U.K. and Irish rights to “Unicorns,” the romance drama co-directed by BAFTA nominee Sally El Hosaini (“The Swimmers”) and her long-standing collaborator James Krishna Floyd, who starred in both “The Swimmers” and her directorial debut “My Brother the Devil.” From a script written by Floyd, “Unicorns” is described as a “visually daring and heartfelt portrayal of modern masculinity” and follows a queer South Asian club performer living a double life who meets a straight, single-father mechanic, with whom unexpected sparks begin to fly.

Spare a moment for the degree of difficulty encountered by Jamie Bell as he grappled with the character director Andrew Haigh had written for him on the pages of All of Us Strangers. How does a 37-year-old actor, best known to audiences for his role as a preteen ballet prodigy, wrap his head around playing a father to the 47-year-old Andrew Scott, resurrected from an era before Bell was born? And how does he navigate not only paternal responsibility, but also the complication of being, impossibly, a generation younger than his own son?

EXCLUSIVE: The Stranger Things stage show, an unbelievably brilliant new blueprint for theatricality that premieres in London’s West End tonight, will be the first instalment in a trilogy exploring the dark underbelly of Hawkins, Indiana.

Netflix’s Stranger Things debuted in London’s West End this year – check out below for information on how to get tickets.Previews for Stranger Things: The First Shadow began in November at London’s Phoenix Theatre, with the show set to run officially from December until August 25, 2024.Set in Hawkins in 1959, the show serves as a prequel to the Netflix series and follows young versions of Jim Hopper, Bob Newby, Joyce Maldonado and Henry Creel, who later becomes Vecna.The play is directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Reader), from an original story by Stranger Things creators The Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne and Kate Trefry.Tickets for all shows at the Phoenix Theatre until August 25, 2024 are available to be purchased here. Prices range from £20-£225 depending on your seat.Alternatively, there’s a lottery each week via app TodayTix where you can win up to two tickets, which could be placed on the front row, priced at £19.59.

Andrew Scott, Nicole Scherzinger and writer Jack Thorne were among the winners at last night’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards in London.

Stranger Things stage spin off, Stranger Things: The First Shadow.The theatre prequel, which is being staged at London’s Phoenix Theatre, is set to start on December 14, with previews having begun this week (November 17).Netflix and Sonia Friedman Productions have shared a production still, featuring a young Henry Creel (played by Louis McCartney) facing down a Demogorgon in a richly coloured, misty setting under a swirling cloud of bats. See the image below.Stranger Things: The First Shadow is set in 1959 and will follow young versions of Jim Hopper, Bob Newby and Henry Creel.

Ellise Shafer Netflix’s “Stranger Things” may be heading into its final season, but fans of the sci-fi phenomenon needn’t despair. A new Hawkins-set adventure, “The First Shadow,” is just beginning on London’s West End. “The First Shadow” takes fans back in time to Hawkins High in 1959, before Jim Hopper (Oscar Lloyd) took in a strange child called Eleven, Joyce Maldonado’s (Isabella Pappas) son went missing and Bob Newby (Christopher Buckley) was, well, mauled to death by Demodogs.

Netflix has dropped a video preview of the upcoming stage play “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” which begins performances this month in London.“We were in the middle of breaking Season 4 with our writers, and we started going, ‘OK, well, there’s definitely more story to tell here,’” says Ross Duffer, who co-created the sci-fi series with his brother, Matt, in the featurette. “We wanted to tell an original story set in the ‘Stranger Things’ universe.”The all-new tale, written by series writer Kate Trefry, will be a prequel — so don’t come looking for Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas or Eleven — partly about young Hopper and Joyce, played on the streaming show by David Harbour and Winona Ryder, respectively.Those roles will be taken on at the Phoenix Theatre by Oscar Lloyd and Isabella Pappas.

Strictly Come Dancing star Layton Williams has spoken about how his nerves have got the better of him despite getting a standing ovation for his most recent performance with dance partner Nikita Kuzman.

Strictly Come Dancing contestant Layton Williams has broken hit out at rude comments from online trolls since he joined the BBC competition in an all-male partnership.

Taking to the Strictly dance floor in front of millions last Saturday night, Bury-born actor Layton Williams and his dance partner Nikita Kuzmin delivered a mesmerising samba which received huge praise from the judges.

Aw! Kristen Stewart had her first-ever kiss on camera!

Strictly Come Dancing star Layton Williams has said he deserves to be on the show after speaking out about the criticism from some viewers about his involvement in the competition.

to the BBC, her agent said, “It is with great sadness we are sharing with you that, following her recent diagnosis with cancer, the star of stage and screen Haydn Gwynne died in hospital in the small hours of Friday 20 October, surrounded by her beloved sons, close family and friends. We would like to thank the staff and teams at the Royal Marsden and Brompton Hospitals for their wonderful care over the last few weeks.”Born in West Sussex, England, Gwynne rose to prominence in the 1980s with the drama “Nice Work” before going on to star in other British series including “Peak Practice,” “Merseybeat” “Sherlock” and the BBC series “Rome.”In her career, she played a wide range of notable public figures, including Queen Camilla and Margaret Thatcher.

Actress Haydn Gwynne died today following a recent cancer diagnosis. She was 66.

K.J. Yossman Haydn Gwynne, a stage and screen actor who starred in royal comedy “The Windsors” and also appeared in “The Crown,” died on Friday of cancer, the BBC reports.

Diana, Princess of Wales was the chief prankster of the family, often doing cheeky things or buying naughty gifts for her sons. Several stories about Diana’s mischievous antics have been made public, from a funny tradition where she gifted her godchildren the noisiest presents to irritate her friends to the time she pranked Prince William with three famous supermodels, the royal was certainly very cheeky. But it would appear that the late princess's naughty tricks didn't stop with her children as she also liked to do cause trouble with other members of her family.

It's finally that time of the year when we'll get to watch a bunch of famous faces strut their stuff on the dancefloor which can only mean Strictly Come Dancing is back.

It wouldn't be Coronation Street without David Platt and it won't be long before Jack P Shepherd will be celebrating a quarter of a century playing the much-loved character.

Angela Scanlon has performed all over the world with the O'Shea Irish Dance Company it's been revealed, which raises the question: does she have an advantage in this year's Strictly Come Dancing? BBC One's golden goose is set to return to our screens very soon, with the likes of Angela Rippon, Amanda Abbington, Layton Williams, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Adam Thomas, Zara McDermott, Eddie Kadi and Nikita Kanda all confirmed to be competing in the ballroom competition as well. Layton, 28, whose role as Stephen Carmichael in Bad Education catapulted him to TV fame, isn't without some invaluable dance experience either, having appeared in hit musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie and Billy Elliot across his career.

BBC Strictly Come Dancing has announced its first wave of contestants who will be taking part in the show, which begins next month.

There’s been a lot of intrigue surrounding Dance Brothers, the first original Finnish series ordered at Netflix.

EXCLUSIVE: WME has signed emerging British actor, writer and stage performer Layton Williams for U.S. representation.

Netflix has announced an animated series set in the Stranger Things universe is in development.On Monday (April 10), Stranger Things creators The Duffer Brothers revealed they were working on the untitled spin-off project (via Tudum), which is described as being in “the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons” they grew up with.“We’ve always dreamed of an animated Stranger Things in the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons that we grew up loving, and to see this dream realised has been absolutely thrilling,” Matt and Ross Duffer shared in a statement.The animated spin-off is executive produced by The Duffer Brothers under their Upside Down Pictures production company, alongside Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen and Eric Robles from Flying Bark Productions.The Duffer Brothers added: “We couldn’t be more blown away by what Eric Robles and his team have come up with – the scripts and artwork are incredible, and we can’t wait to share more with you! The adventure continues…”This is the third Stranger Things spin-off known to be in development, following a live-action project described as being “1000 per cent different” to the main series and a stage play directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Reader).

Coronation Street spoilers see Ruthie Henshall make her guest debut next week as Estelle. It was revealed earlier this month that Ruthie, 56, would be swapping the stage for the cobbles and will be playing Estelle, an old friend of Glenda Shuttleworth, who is played by fellow stage star Jodie Prenger. And spoilers for next week see Estelle have a run-in with Glenda's brother, George Shuttleworth, about the cost of her mother’s funeral.

EXCLUSIVE: Black Bear International has launched international sales on Fred & Ginger, the musical about the passionate and explosive relationship between Hollywood dance legends, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Brian Tufano, the veteran British cinematographer who lensed films such as Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, and Billy Elliot, has died. He was 83.

EXCLUSIVE: We understand that Disney has commissioned an original musical feature from Bend It Like Beckham filmmaker Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges, inspired by a dynamic princess from Indian history.