Lee Hall (playwright)
| Lee Hall | |
|---|---|
| Born |
20 September 1966 Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England, UK |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Spouse(s) | Beeban Kidron (m. 2003) |
Lee Hall (born 20 September 1966) is an English playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the 2000 film Billy Elliot.
Hall was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, in 1966, the son of a house painter and decorator and a housewife. He was educated at Benfield Comprehensive School. As a youth he went to Wallsend Young People's Theatre along with Deka Walmsley and Trevor Fox who later appeared in both Billy Elliott and The Pitmen Painters. He went to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he studied English literature and was taught by the poet Paul Muldoon. After leaving Cambridge, he worked as a youth theatre fundraiser in Newcastle and at the Gate Theatre in London. In 1997, his playwriting career was launched with the broadcast of his radio play, Spoonface Steinberg, on BBC Radio 4.
Hall's most commercially successful work is Billy Elliot, the story of a North Eastern English boy who, in the face of opposition from his family and community, aspires to be a ballet dancer. The inspiration for the screenplay was drawn, in part, from the A. J. Cronin novel The Stars Look Down, which is also set in an English coal mining community during a strike, and similarly tells the story of a miner's son who goes against the grain. The character Billy was also partly inspired by the renowned baritone Sir Thomas Allen who came from a similar background, having been born in the North East's County Durham. Initially a 1999 film directed by Stephen Daldry, for which Hall wrote the screenplay, and for which he received an Academy Award nomination, Billy Elliot was later turned into a stage musical, with music by Elton John and lyrics by Hall. It is enjoying a long run in the West End and opened on Broadway in 2008. It won Hall the 2009 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical.
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