Veteran takes leap of faith and lands role in ‘Billy Elliot’

Hawaii actor J. Kamamo Bailon has been getting consistent acclaim for his work at Kumu Kahua ever since his debut performance as a “dim-bulb carnival worker” in “Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers” 20 years ago. His resume since then includes an assortment of roles — most of them comical or “dumbfounded” characters like the carnival worker, but in one show he played a man three times his age.

No one would be surprised if Bailon spent the rest of his career doing “plays for Hawaii’s people” at Kumu Kahua. Instead, he opens this weekend in “Billy Elliot the Musical,” a 2008 Broadway hit, at Diamond Head Theatre.

“It was something I always wanted to do,” Bailon said, referring to his decision to audition for a role doing mainstream musical theater at Hawaii’s biggest community theater company. “I thought, I don’t know anything about ‘Billy Elliot,’ and it shouldn’t matter. I should just go and audition anyway.

“It seemed like a fun show. … I prepared a song and I went in. They used terminology that was foreign language to me — both the music section and the dance section — but everybody was very polite and understanding, and they helped me through each section of the audition.”

Bailon, who says that he isn’t a singer or dancer by training, went home convinced that he’d failed the audition and determined to go back and do better next time. Instead he got the call every actor hopes for: He’d passed, and there was a role waiting for him.

Audiences will see him in a speaking role, as the pit supervisor at the mine employing most of the workers in Billy Elliot’s community; he also sings and dances in the ensemble.

“I’ve been having a blast,” he said. “I’ve been learning how to tap dance and do ballet movements, and singing and dancing at the same time.”

Bailon’s successful leap of faith is almost unheard of in Hawaii theater, where most actors align themselves with a certain theatrical genre or group. Directors naturally like to work with people they’ve worked with before. It can also be daunting for an actor to be “the new kid in school” when everyone else is an old-timer. Few go from Kumu Kahua to Diamond Head Theatre or Manoa Valley Theatre — or vice versa.

However, had things gone differently 20 years ago, Bailon might be a Diamond Head Theatre veteran. He auditioned for a 1996 production of “Scrooge,” the Frank De Lima version of “A Christmas Carol” that was Diamond Head Theatre’s Christmas season show for several years in the 1990s — and got a call back. However, by that time, he’d been cast in “Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers.”

“For me starting at Kumu Kahua felt very comfortable,” he said. “I’m born and raised in Hawaii. I could relate to the shows. …

“I think if I’d known what ‘Billy Elliot’ was about and saw some of the other productions, I would have been too intimidated to audition,” he said. “But getting through this has given me the confidence to say that I can try other things as well. I’m hoping other people will try it, too.”