For Aaron Ostroff Magee recent days have begun at 6 a.m. with breakfast at his home and have concluded at 10:30 p.m. with dress rehearsals for “Billy Elliot the Musical,” at Diamond Head Theatre.

Magee, who just turned 14 last week, feels some pressure as the star of “Billy Elliot,” which opens at the theater tonight.

“I am somewhat nervous but I am super excited for all of it to be pieced together,” he said in an interview on Sunday morning. “With this role, everything sits on my shoulders.”

This is Magee’s first theater role, but he brings years of dance experience to his role as Billy Elliot, an 11-year-old who would rather be at dance lessons than in the boxing ring. To dance, Billy must buck the expectations of the men in his life — his father and brother, Tony — and rise above the societal pressures in his working-class town, where most men work in the local mines. The musical is set in mid-1980s Northern England, when cultural and economic conditions were on the brink of change.

Magee doesn’t take performing lightly. He shows up early to rehearsals and does his school homework during breaks at the theater. He brings a cerebral, focused energy to his role as Billy, who, like Magee, would rather be dancing than doing much of anything else.

Magee started dancing at age 7, as a student at the Hono­lulu Dance Studio.

“I would sit around and watch my mom for hours and wonder why does she like it so much?” he recalled. He started off with hip-hop before eventually adding jazz, ballet and contemporary dance to his repertoire.

“The only punishment for Aaron would be to take away dance from him,” said his mother, Diane Ostroff. “Aaron loved to dance in the kitchen and on the patio as a young kid. While Billy is not supported by his family, Aaron always had the support of his family.”

Magee learned tap dancing for his role as Billy, but otherwise brought a solid dance background with him when he signed on with the nearly 40-member cast.

At Monday’s dress rehearsal, director John Rampage’s soft-spoken voice could be heard occasionally as he gave guidance to the set dressers, dressed in black, as they moved props and furniture. Musicians who only began working with actors during rehearsal the day before talked and laughed softly between songs. Kids and other crew members were dressed in the simple, brightly colored clothing of the mid-1980s.

“We normally incorporate the lighting, orchestra and costumes one-by-one the weekend before the play, but with this one being so complex, we’re doing it all at once,” explained Rampage.

Rampage said “Billy Elliot” is his favorite musical of the last 20 years. He has seen the Broadway version four times and when the license for the off-Broadway production became available, he was eager to put it on at Diamond Head Theatre.

First, however, he needed to find a local Billy.

“There have been occasions when a professional Billy was used off-Broadway,” said Rampage. “But because an actor has to be young, that also means bringing in his parents for 12, 13, 14 weeks.”

During a break Monday at Diamond Head Theatre, Rampage said he spotted Magee for the role after noting the teen’s dance performance last year in a Kids for a Cause special. He didn’t know Magee’s name at the time, though.

“I was late and didn’t have a program,” Rampage said. “I got there during the second act and I saw this young man dancing by himself. I filed away the impression for the future.”

In fact, Magee’s mother was a student of Rampage’s years ago; she even once sent Rampage a video of Magee, asking for the director’s opinion of her son’s abilities.

Rampage figured out who Magee was, and contacted the boy back in January, suggesting he might be right for the role of Billy despite his lack of singing or acting experience.

“I told them to think about it for a while,” Rampage said of Magee and his mother. “I wanted them to know what they were getting into, since this is such a complex play.”

Magee expressed interest. So Rampage enlisted Larry Paxton, a professor of music at the University of Hawaii- Manoa who is deeply involved in the Diamond Head Theatre community, to work with Magee in private vocal lessons.

Magee had the pitch and the acting talent required to carry the role, the director said. And most importantly, he had the ability to portray a boy in love with dance.

“Like Billy, Aaron has a special gift for ballet,” Rampage said. “He is just such a joy to work with, and Aaron is the most relaxed when he is dancing. I feel like this was meant to be.”

Diamond Head Theatre caught up with Magee just in time. In another year, he would likely have aged out of playing young Billy, said Rampage.

In fact, both Magee and another cast member, Matias Durkin, who plays Billy’s good friend, Michael, experienced growth spurts over the summer.

‘We were real worried about that,” Rampage said with a laugh.