From the age of four, Dion Bilios was a performer. He would dance and sing in front of his yiayia and pappou, just to entertain them. Being of Greek background, as Dion says, we are all entertainers.

“This is what you want to do when you are performing – you want to be in the best possible shows, and this is it really. It’s amazing to go out on stage, all these costumes that we get to wear, and the lights and the scenes, the sets, everything, it works so well together. Sometimes I even catch myself on stage just looking around and going ‘Wow, this is amazing!’,”

With his parents’ support, since then Dion became involved in stage and performance, training in all aspects of performing arts. His early stage credits include the roles of Gavroche in Les Miserables at just 11, Sammy in Jolson and Captain in Oliver.

“I just wanted to entertain everyone. As Greeks, we all want to make people smile and laugh. I started dancing and training in pretty much every dance technique you could think of, singing and acting; because in this industry you have to be good at everything. It just took off from there,” Dion tells Neos Kosmos.

In 2008, Dion toured with the Australian production of Altar Boys and then went on to be part of the original cast in the award winning Australian production of Mary Poppins. During this course, he has worked with some of Australia’s finest choreographers.

“It’s a triple threat as they call it, doing a bit of everything. It’s about singing while you are dancing, being on the scene, and putting it all together to create realistic performance. It kind of works out perfectly for me. I love it,” Dion says passionately.

But the world of performing that looks so perfect from the audience perspective, that gets to see only the impeccable product, is not all smiles and music behind the stage. It’s much more hard work, especially if you star in one of the biggest Broadway blockbusters ever, like the musical Wicked, that is returning to its original Australian home, the Regent Theatre, on 7 May.

The award-winning musical theatre show, and one of the most successful shows in Broadway history, Wicked 2014 Melbourne season is part of its 10th anniversary world tour. In ten years, the musical has attracted over 39 million people worldwide, and has been Broadway’s number one show for ten consecutive years, repeatedly breaking box office records.

The untold story of the witches of Oz, Wicked features two friends – one, born with emerald green skin, fiery and misunderstood; the other, beautiful and very popular. Wicked tells their story as they grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good – all this through a visual feast with a lot of glitz, glamour and spell-binding spectacle.
The recent Philippines tour has received euphoric response from sell-out audiences in Manila, where the Australian Wicked cast broke all box office records.
Dion, who is part of the Wicked ensemble, says the Australian production is the exact same production from Broadway. Dion joined the Wicked cast last year, performing in it with his fiancée Danielle Cook, who is also a member of the ensemble.
With 34 cast members in the show, 350 costumes per show worth over US$3 million, this Sydneysider says it’s amazing to be part of a production as spectacular as Wicked.
“This is what you want to do when you are performing – you want to be in the best possible shows, and this is it really. It’s amazing to go out on stage, all these costumes that we get to wear, and the lights and the scenes, the sets, everything, it works so well together. Sometimes I even catch myself on stage just looking around and going ‘Wow, this is amazing!’,” he says with passion.

“It’s the biggest Broadway show, and you don’t understand it until you are sitting in this amazing Melbourne’s Regent Theatre – which was actually the first theatre where Wicked performed the very first time it came to Australia.”

But spending your working life on stage has many challenges as well, in Dion’s experience.

And the tough part of it is – how do you keep the show that you have been performing five nights a week for the last three months fresh and new? The cast, the creative musicians, director, everyone does their best to keep the show brand new for each performance. But then it’s up to audience feedback to give extra fuel for some more adrenalin.

“You have to keep it fresh; we do the same show forever. But at the same time every show is so different, because the audience is so different, they may give off something new to every show.

“At the end, it does feel like every show is an opening night. There is a paying audience there every night and we want them to have the best possible time,” Dion tells Neos Kosmos.

“You have to see it because it’s one of the biggest Broadway musicals ever, and it’s coming straight to Australia. The costumes, the set, the music, the characters – you’ll just fall in love with it. It’s been loved by over 30 million people worldwide, so you can’t go wrong.”

Wicked opens in Melbourne’s The Regent Theatre on 7 May. Following the Melbourne season, Wicked will make its way to Sydney’s Capitol Theatre, from 20 September, and to Brisbane, in early 2015. For more information and bookings, visit www.wickedthemusical.com.au