Billy Elliot The Musical celebrated 10 years in the West End with a special anniversary performance.

The show, introduced by director Stephen Daldrey and writer Lee Hall, featured six Billy Elliots – four who currently play the 11-year-old and two who recently finished a run of shows.

The star-studded event at the Victoria Palace Theatre, central London, coincided with the announcement that the show’s run has been extended to December 2016 and it will start its first UK and Ireland tour in February next year.

Here are some facts and figures about the musical:

Previous Billy Elliots(Dominic Lipinski/PA)

The first performance of Billy Elliot The Musical took place on March 31, 2005 at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London. The official opening night took place on May 12, 2005, exactly 10 years before the anniversary performance.

Productions of Billy Elliot The Musical have been staged on Broadway, as well as in Sydney, Melbourne, Chicago, Toronto and Seoul, South Korea. The North American touring production, which began in 2010, finished its run in August 2013 with an engagement in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the first time Billy Elliot played in South America. The show began performances in the Netherlands in November last year.

The first foreign language production was staged in Seoul, South Korea at the LG Arts Centre in 2010 and 2011, winning three Korea Musical Awards.

More than 10 million people have seen the musical worldwide and it recently welcomed its five millionth visitor in the West End.

Dutch Billy Elliots and previous Billies(Jonathan Short/Invision/AP)

Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne and score writer, Elton John, have all made cameo appearances in the show.

The Queen, Hillary Clinton, Nicole Kidman, Bill Gates, Ben Stiller, Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, Victoria Beckham, Anna Wintour, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Hugh Jackman, Valentino, Helena Bonham Carter, Joe Biden, Kevin Spacey, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are just a few of the famous faces who have been to see the show over the years.

Young performers from Billy Elliot have performed at The White House and at Buckingham Palace and have visited Downing Street.

Since its world premiere, 40 boys have played Billy in London, 10 have played Billy in Australia and 29 boys have played Billy in North America. A total of 83 boys, including Jamie Bell who played Billy Elliot in the award-winning film, have now performed the title role around the world. The boys playing Billy have to date hailed from England, Ireland, Scotland, USA, Canada, Korea, France, Australia, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Actors aged six to 84 have performed in the show since its world premiere.

More than 500 children have now performed on the Victoria Palace Theatre stage in Billy Elliot the Musical and the company has pirouetted through almost 3,000 ballet shoes.

The musical has won more than 80 awards worldwide including the Laurence Olivier Best Musical Award (London), the Helpmann Award for Best Musical (Australia) and 10 2009 Tony Awards including Best Musical (Broadway), as well as multiple Dora Awards (Toronto), Korea Musical Awards and three Musical Awards (Netherlands).

The musical topped the UK and Ireland box office when it was broadcast live from West End on Sunday September 28, 2014 at 2pm in cinemas across the UK and around the world. In the UK the show was screened in 553 cinemas making it the widest ever live event cinema release, grossing a record-breaking £1.9m in a single day. For the special performance, the role of Older Billy was played by Liam Mower, the first boy to play Billy Elliot on stage while 25 former and current Billy Elliots united for an exclusive mash-up finale.

The Musical has had 4,216 performances at the Victoria Palace Theatre including the 10th anniversary performance.