Billy Elliot The bus station, from where Billy leaves his father and brother for London, is the now-demolished Gallowgate Bus Station in Newcastle. The performance of "Swan Lake" takes place at the Theatre Royal in Haymarket, London. On 22 May 1999, it was announced that Jamie Bell would play the lead role in the film, while Adam Cooper and Julie Walters were in early talks to join the cast. On 3 June 1999 it was reported that Gary Lewis, Jamie Draven, Jean Heywood, Stuart Wells, Merryn Owen, Nicola Blackwell, Colin Maclachlan, Mike Elliott, Billy Fane, Janine Birkett, Charlie Hardwick, Matthew James Thomas
Billy Elliot been accepted, coinciding with the end of the miners' strike, and he leaves home to attend. In 1998, 25-year-old Billy takes the stage to perform the Swan in Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake", as Jackie, Tony, and Michael watch from the audience; his father is visibly moved by the performance. Lee Hall developed "Billy Elliot" from his play "Dancer", which premiered as a rehearsed reading in 1998 at the Live Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne. He was heavily influenced by photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's book "Step by Step", about a dancing school in nearby North Shields. Writing in 2009, Hall said that