British writer
Lee Hall
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Born
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1966-09-20
)
20 September 1966
(age 57)
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Occupation
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Spouse
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Lee Hall
(born 20 September 1966) is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the film
Billy Elliot
(2000) and the book and lyrics for its adaptation as
a stage musical
of the same name. In addition, he wrote the play
The Pitmen Painters
(2007), and the screenplays for the films
War Horse
and
Rocketman
(2019).
Early life
[
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]
Hall was born in 1966 in
Newcastle upon Tyne
, the son of a
house painter and decorator
and a housewife. He was educated at
Benfield School
in
Walkergate
. As a youth he went to Wallsend Young People's Theatre along with Deka Walmsley, Mark Scott
and Trevor Fox. Walmsley later appeared in two of Hall’s works,
Billy Elliot
and
The Pitmen Painters
.
Hall attended
Fitzwilliam College
,
Cambridge
, where he studied English literature and was taught by poet
Paul Muldoon
.
[1]
After leaving Cambridge, he first 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
.
[2]
Career
[
edit
]
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.
[3]
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
.
[4]
Initially a 2000 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 enjoyed 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
.
Also successful was
Spoonface Steinberg
, the tale of a young autistic Jewish girl who is dying of cancer. The last in a quartet of
radio plays
entitled
God's Country
, the monologue aroused an unprecedented listener response when it was broadcast in 1997 on
BBC Radio
. It was subsequently voted one of the ten best radio dramas of all time by readers of the magazine
Radio Times
.
Spoonface Steinberg
was adapted as a television play and into a
one woman show
starring 42-year-old actress
Kathryn Hunter
. The play opened in 1999 and later transferred to the West End.
Hall had more limited success with his comedy
Cooking with Elvis
, the protagonist of which is an
Elvis Presley impersonator
who has been paralyzed in a car crash. It was originally a 1995 radio play but it became a stage play in 1999. Hall's fondness for moving from one medium to another can also be seen in his work
I Luv You Jimmy Spud
, which began as a 1995 radio play and was later adapted by Hall into a stage play and a film,
Gabriel and Me
, starring
Billy Connolly
and
Iain Glen
.
He has also translated plays by
Carlo Goldoni
,
Bertolt Brecht
and
Herman Heijermans
and co-written the screenplays for adaptations of
Jane Austen
's
Pride & Prejudice
and
Kenneth Grahame
's
The Wind in the Willows
.
Hall's play,
The Pitmen Painters
, inspired by art critic
William Feaver
's book on the
Ashington Group
, premiered at the refurbished
Live Theatre
in
Newcastle upon Tyne
in 2007. It tells of a group of miners from
Ashington
,
Northumberland
, who decide to learn about art and begin to paint. The production later transferred to the
National Theatre
in London and opened on Broadway in September 2010. It won the 2008
Evening Standard Award for Best Play
.
In 2011, controversy arose over a children's opera that Hall had written, called
Beached
. The opera was commissioned by
Opera North
and was to have been performed by children from Bay Primary School in
Bridlington
,
East Riding of Yorkshire
. The story is about a gay retired painter, a single father who tries to spend a quiet day at the seaside with his son, but who is interrupted by children on a school trip, dogs, a landscape painter, an amateur dramatic society and others. After rehearsals had been going on for six months, the school threatened to pull the children out of the production if changes were not made to the libretto. Hall changed some words to accommodate their requests, but school officials, supported by Opera North, insisted on the removal of the words "I'm queer" and "I prefer a lad to a lass," and other references to the character being gay.
[5]
The school eventually agreed to let the children perform if Hall changed "queer" to "gay."
[6]
Hall was the original writer on the screenplay for a film adaptation of
Michael Morpurgo
's
War Horse
; he shares credit on the finished film with
Richard Curtis
, who was brought in by
Steven Spielberg
.
[7]
His most recent TV work is an adaptation of
Nigel Slater
's Autobiography
Toast
, starring
Helena Bonham Carter
and
Freddie Highmore
and set in
Wolverhampton
, West Midlands. First broadcast on
BBC One
in December 2010,
Toast
received a gala at the 2011
Berlin Film Festival
and was released in cinemas on 11 August 2011. He also worked on the screenplay for the yet-to-release
Working Title
film
Hippie Hippie Shake
, based on
Richard Neville
's memoir
Hippie Hippie Shake: The Dreams, the Trips, the Trials, the Love-ins, the Screw Ups: The Sixties
.
Hall's other projects include a
biopic
of
Elton John
,
Rocketman
,
[8]
released in May 2019, a stage musical adaptation of
Pink Floyd
's
The Wall
,
[9]
and a film adaptation of
George Orwell
's 1933 memoir
Down and Out in Paris and London
.
[10]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Hall married film director
Beeban Kidron
(Baroness Kidron) in 2003.
[11]
Kidron is a child rights advocate who has played a determinative role in establishing standards for online safety and privacy across the world.
[12]
Works
[
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]
- Plays
- Screenplays
- Musicals
- Operas
- Translations
Awards and nominations
[
edit
]
- Awards
- Nominations
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
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]
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Films
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Musicals / opera
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Plays
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Awards for Lee Hall
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1970?1975
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1976?2000
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2001?present
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1980s
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1990s
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- Daniel Waters
, James Cappe, and
David Arnott
?
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane
(1990)
- Steven E. de Souza
,
Daniel Waters
,
Bruce Willis
, and
Robert Kraft
?
Hudson Hawk
(1991)
- Blake Snyder
,
William Osborne
, and
William Davies
?
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
(1992)
- Amy Holden Jones
?
Indecent Proposal
(1993)
- Tom S. Parker,
Jim Jennewein
,
Steven E. de Souza
, and
various others
?
The Flintstones
(1994)
- Joe Eszterhas
?
Showgirls
(1995)
- Andrew Bergman
?
Striptease
(1996)
- Eric Roth
and
Brian Helgeland
?
The Postman
(1997)
- Joe Eszterhas
?
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn
(1998)
- Jim Thomas
,
John Thomas
,
S. S. Wilson
,
Brent Maddock
,
Jeffrey Price, and Peter S. Seaman
?
Wild Wild West
(1999)
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2000s
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2010s
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- M. Night Shyamalan
?
The Last Airbender
(2010)
- Steve Koren
,
Adam Sandler
, and Ben Zook ?
Jack and Jill
(2011)
- David Caspe
?
That's My Boy
(2012)
- Steve Baker,
Ricky Blitt
, Will Carlough, Tobias Carlson, Jacob Fleisher, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham,
James Gunn
, Claes Kjellstrom, Jack Kukoda,
Bob Odenkirk
, Bill O'Malley, Matthew Alec Portenoy,
Greg Pritikin
, Rocky Russo,
Olle Sarri
, Elizabeth Wright Shapiro,
Jeremy Sosenko
, Jonathan van Tulleken, and Jonas Wittenmark ?
Movie 43
(2013)
- Darren Doane
and Cheston Hervey ?
Saving Christmas
(2014)
- Kelly Marcel
?
Fifty Shades of Grey
(2015)
- Chris Terrio
and
David S. Goyer
?
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
(2016)
- Tony Leondis
, Eric Siegel, and
Mike White
?
The Emoji Movie
(2017)
- Niall Leonard ?
Fifty Shades Freed
(2018)
- Lee Hall
and
Tom Hooper
?
Cats
(2019)
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2020s
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1950?1975
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1976?2000
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2001?present
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International
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National
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Academics
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Artists
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People
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Other
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