The story of the ballet-dancing Geordie boy, Billy Elliot, is one we all know and love.

From the big screen to the West End, the show is popular wherever it goes.

And next summer, Hull's Northern Theatre School will be one of the first schools in the country to stage the famous musical when it comes to Middleton Hall, University of Hull, on June 21, 2010, for one week.

The staging of the show is part of a national competition that may lead to the students performing an excerpt of the show in the West End at the Victoria Palace in July.

Although it will be the school's first time staging the production, its association with the play goes back many years.

"When auditions were being held for the film version of Billy Elliot, we were asked if we had any boys at Northern who would be suitable for the role of Billy," said Richard Green, principal of the Northern Theatre School.

"The casting director for the film has also worked on Sleepy Hollow, which one of our students, Marc Pickering, was in – that's how the contact was established.

"We sent a few boys up to Newcastle for the audition but the part was given to Jamie Bell."

Although none of the boys from Northern were successful, they had another encounter with the play a few years later.

"When the West End show of Billy Elliot was announced, I received a phone call from the producers," said Richard.

"They came down on a cold, February afternoon to see the boys – and that is when they met Liam Mower."

Liam, who hails from east Hull, went through a long audition process and eventually landed the part of Billy in the musical.

He also made the cast recording and was on Sir Elton John's DVD Electricity.

Northern Theatre School will be holding open auditions for the part of Billy on Wednesday, December 30 although rehearsals will take place at a specially-created musical theatre class on a Monday evening.

And Richard attended Billy Elliot workshops in London a few weeks ago, to see exactly how the producers would like the school's show to be.

"After going down to the workshops, I know what we want the show to be like," said Richard.

"For the part of Billy, we are looking for someone who has potential and not necessarily someone who can ballet dance right away.

"We will also need someone who can perform with a north east accent. We have someone lined up to coach this, too, as it's quite a difficult accent to do."

Students auditioning will have to be between 10 and 19-years-old on March 1, 2010.

Aside from the main character Billy, the school will also be holding auditions for the roles of Billy's father, brother, grandma, dance teacher, his friend Michael and all the other characters in the show, as well as the chorus. These will be held on Sunday, January 3.

All those auditioning should be prepared to go down to London on the weekend of Saturday, July 10 for the performance at the Victoria Palace.

For more information, call the Northern Theatre School on: (01482) 218006.