Joey was a pupil at the Billy Elliot Academy

Joey Phillips will star as Billy's best friend Michael in the musical, playing at the Victoria Palace Theatre.

Leon Cooke, 14, from Newcastle in Staffordshire, is sharing the role of the main character with the original Billys, Liam Mower and George Maguire.

The musical tells the story of a schoolboy who keeps his new-found love of ballet secret.

Opening in March, it has been one of the West End's biggest success stories, playing to more than 250,000 people.

Leon and Joey are graduates of the Billy Elliot Academy in Leeds, which was set up by the original film's director Stephen Daldry.