11-Year-Old M.O.T. Gets Role in Hot Tour of "Billy Elliot" at the Ordway

Kylend Hetherington (Billy) and Patrick Wetzel (Mr. Braithwaite) in “Billy Elliot the Musical.” Photo Credit: Kyle Froman

An 11-year-old M.O.T. Samantha Blaire Cutler is ready to dance!
And no, we’re talking about just The Macarena or The Electric Slide (wow! Apparently, I’ve pulled a “Quantum Leap” and have gone back in time 17 years).
We’re talking Ballet. More specifically, we’re talking about the Broadway tour of “Billy Elliot,” (playing at the Ordway Theater in St. Paul from Oct. 9 – 14) the white-hot popular musical that Miss Cutler has a major role in.
Cutler will be playing Debbie, a gal who has a sweet-tooth for Master Elliott, the boy who would be Ballet King.
The musical itself is based on the 2000 film of the same name.
Within the last few weeks, I had the opportunity to speak with Cutler and, might I say, she is quite the adorable one. There didn’t seem to be one ounce of artifice in her graciousness and humility.
I also spoke with her mother who expressed how she couldn’t be prouder of her daughter and was still trying to make sense of the whole situation.
Not having seen the musical, at the time of this writing, I don’t know if the two characters end up together (they are, after all, 11…so my guess is that, if anything, there might be some winking and, perhaps, a “My Girl”-style peck).
The movie, however, I have seen (though, it’s been a while). It is rated R, so Samantha has yet to view the original source material.
But then, why should she have to?
After all, why look at the past, when you’ve got such a bright future ahead of you?