Bury native Layton Williams has announced a major new nationwide tour, LAYTON LIVE, marking the upcoming 20th anniversary of his professional stage debut. The announcement comes just over a year after he won an Olivier Award for his role in the musical parody Titaníque.
From Billy Elliot to Strictly
Williams, now 31, began his professional career at just 12 years old in the title role of Billy Elliot in the West End. He gained wider fame as Stephen Carmichael in Jack Whitehall's BBC comedy Bad Education and impressed audiences on the 2023 series of Strictly Come Dancing, where he and partner Nikita Kuzmin received four perfect scores of 40 and reached the final.
They finished as joint runners-up alongside Bobby Brazier and Dianne Buswell, with Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola taking the Glitterball trophy. Since then, Williams has continued to build an impressive career in theatre.
Olivier Award Success
Last year, Williams won Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical at the Olivier Awards for his performance as the iceberg in Titaníque, a jukebox musical parody of James Cameron's Titanic, told from the perspective of Celine Dion. The show also won the Olivier for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play.
LAYTON LIVE Tour Details
The tour, announced on Monday morning (August 10), is described as a 'spectacular evening of music, dance and storytelling celebrating his extraordinary career on stage and screen'. The synopsis reads: “Marking the upcoming 20th anniversary of his professional stage debut, LAYTON LIVE takes audiences on a whistle-stop musical journey through Layton's remarkable career. From his breakout performance in Billy Elliot to his acclaimed turn in Titanique, with stops at Cabaret, Hairspray, Everybody's Talking About Jamie, the Bad Education classroom and even the Strictly Come Dancing ballroom.”
The tour runs from February 23 to April 4, 2027, visiting more than 20 towns and cities including Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff and Sheffield. It culminates in a major London performance at the Adelphi Theatre.
The show will feature behind-the-scenes stories, powerhouse vocals, spectacular choreography, and many of the iconic songs and moments from Williams's career. Tickets are already on pre-sale, with general sale opening on Tuesday (August 11) via www.laytonlive.co.uk.
