The full cast is today announced for new British musical Billie the Kid, with music and lyrics by Gez Mercer, book by Conway McDermott and Gez Mercer, directed by Kerry Kyriacos Michael.
It is being semi-staged in front of a live audience for the first time in the West End at the Vaudeville Theatre on Monday 13 November & Monday 20 November at 7.30pm.
Seventeen-year-old Billie Belle is a girl used to having the odds stacked against her. Born in a Bible Belt town to a delinquent mother, Billie spent her childhood saving discount-store coupons and working night shifts to keep the lights on in her grandma’s tiny trailer. Through it all, Billie has had one person by her side: her childhood sweetheart, Brody Benson. Brody’s a redneck with a heart of gold and they have spent years planning their future together, all pinned on Billie’s hopes for a full-ride scholarship to Charleston City College. But their plans are thrown into chaos when Billie discovers Brody has been trading dirty DMs with David Francis – the school queer punk rocker.
Torn between the pain of this betrayal and her love for her boyfriend, Billie reaches out to David and his gang of misfits. While Billie has put all her energy into thriving within the system, they’ve gone the other way, determined to be wild and joyful outsiders with no fear of offending! Inspired by and united with her new friends, Billie finds herself at the heart of a new kind of love story, one where her happily ever after is with herself in her fight for justice and equality; and the chance to ride out into the sunset on her terms.
The cast is Natasha J Barnes (‘Hex’, National Theatre, ‘Funny Girl’, Savoy, title role in ‘Cinderella’, London Palladium), Kymberley Cochrane (won the prestigious BBC Norman Beaton Fellowship in 2022 and went on to be a member of the 2023 BBC Radio Drama Company), Harvey Ebbage (Cagelle in ‘La Cage Aux Folles’, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, ‘Dreamgirls’, UK Tour), Ki Griffin (TV debut was playing the first non-binary character, Ripley Lennox, in ‘Hollyoaks’), Beth Hinton-Lever (‘Hadestown’, ‘The Doncastrian Chalk Circle’, ‘As You Like It’, ‘Dick Whittington’, all at the National Theatre), Tony Jayawardena (‘The Father and the Assassin’, ‘England People Very Nice’, both at National Theatre), Rob Kershaw (making his professional debut), Ryan Kopel (‘Newsies’, Troubadour Theatre, ‘The Book Of Mormon’, Prince of Wales), Phoebe-Loveday Raymond (‘NewsRevue’ London and Edinburgh), Aharon Rayner (‘Miss Saigon’, Sheffield Crucible, Hassan in ‘The Great British Bake Off the Musical’, Noël Coward Theatre, ‘Hex’, National Theatre), Olivia Saunders (‘Hex’, National Theatre), ‘Kinky Boots in Concert’, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, ‘Trompe L’oeil, The Other Palace Studio) Jodie Steele (Blanche Barrow in ‘Bonnie and Clyde’, Garrick, Heather Chandler in ‘Heathers’, West End/The Other Palace, Beth Boscombe in ‘Rehab the Musical’, Playground Theatre), Yuki Sutton (2023 Offie Winner Best Supporting Performer in a Musical, ‘Ride: The Musical’, Charing Cross Theatre), Hannah Victoria (Gloria the Hippo in ‘Madagascar – The Musical’, Ronnette in ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, Gary Coleman in ‘Avenue Q’, Maggie Hill in ‘Peaky Blinders: The Rise’) and Yasmin Wilde (Azra in BBC Radio’s ‘The Archers’).
