Sir Elton John at Tuesday's Wrigley Field press conference Photo: Kara Verkennis

Chicago’s arts and entertainment journalists got invited today to an unusual venue for a theater-related press conference. Ahead of Elton John’s second Wrigley Field show with Billy Joel this evening, Broadway in Chicago assembled us in a Wrigley VIP suite for the announcement that Billy Elliot, the dance musical with a score by Sir Elton and based on the 2000 British film, would launch its U.S. national tour here next March.

But it’s more than a tour. After last month’s Tony Awards, I suggested to friends that Billy could be the next musical to have Wicked or Jersey Boys stamina here; Billy’s producers have similar thoughts. “The decision we’ve made is to start a Chicago show. Not start a tour here—do a Chicago show,” said producer Eric Fellner today. The idea is presumably to launch the tour here, then leave a second company behind, as Wicked did in 2005; if audiences take to Billy, the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre would have another long-term tenant.

Trent Kowalik in New York cast Photo: Alastair Muir

The story of a boy who wants to dance, set against a miners’ strike in Thatcher-era northern England, is deeply British, but Sir Elton is confident it’ll play to midwesterners as well as it has in London, Australia and New York. “It’s very rooted in the miners’ struggle,” he said, but “the story itself is a classic story of success, of beating the odds.” John spoke of his love for Chicago, saying he got sober here 19 years ago. “I also have happy memories of doing Aida here, which was at the [Cadillac] Palace” in its 1999 pre-Broadway run, directed by Robert Falls. “That was a huge success for me.”

Jon Finn, Elton John and Eric Fellner at Tuesday's Wrigley Field press conference Photo: Kara Verkennis

Casting work begins now, especially the search for the title lad(s). The New York run began with three alternating Billys, who shared the Tony for Best Actor. (Their understudy is now a regular in the rotation as well, though he didn’t get a piece of the medallion.) Producer Jon Finn noted that 2,000 boys were seen when casting the New York production; now that work begins anew. “[Director] Stephen [Daldry] always likens it to running a marathon while playing Hamlet,” said Finn.