Lee Hall News

Twelve year old Harrison Dowzell from Nottinghamshire has become the thirtieth boy to play the title role of Billy Elliot in the West End. Check out the production photographs of Dowzell in action below. (more...)

ETOnline.com reports that superstar Elton John is recovering at home after suffering from "a serious respiratory infection" that forced him to cancel several of his upcoming Las Vegas performances. (more...)

CNN.com reports that superstar Elton John was hospitalized Wednesday, May 23 in Los Angeles with a serious respiratory infection. The 65-year-old entertainer became ill last weekend during a performance of his "Million Dollar Piano" show at Las Vegas' Caesars Palace. (more...)

Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Working Title Films, Old Vic Productions and NETworks Presentations, LLC bring the multi-award-winning Billy Elliot the Musical to the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center from June 19 to June 24. Based on the international smash-hit film and featuring music by Elton John, book and lyrics by Lee Hall, choreography by Peter Darling and direction by Stephen Daldry, Billy Elliot the Musical has earned critical acclaim around the world and was the winner of ten 2009 Tony Awards including Best Musical. (more...)

Manhattan Theatre Club will celebrate Artistic Director Lynne MeadowÂ’s 40th anniversary as the visionary and artistic leader of the organization with a special tribute on Monday, June 18. The event will begin at 6:30 PM with a VIP cocktail reception, followed by a 7:30 tribute event at the Samuel J. Friedman (261 West 47th Street). Immediately after the Friedman tribute event, a party will follow at Copacabana (268 West 47th Street). (more...)

Billy Elliot the Musical, now in its eighth year, will release a further 640,000 tickets this week, taking booking at the Victoria Palace Theatre to 21 December 2013. Check out the production photographs below. (more...)

Twelve year old Harrison Dowzell from Nottinghamshire is to become the thirtieth boy to play the title role of Billy Elliot in the West End. Harrison, who joins the cast of Billy Elliot the Musical today, 14 May 2012, will alternate the role of Billy with Harris Beattie (13 year old from Aberdeen, Scotland), Kaine Ward (13 years old from Hertfordshire), Ryan Collinson (13 years old from Southport) and Adam Vesperman (13 years old from Seattle, Washington, USA) He will be the 65th boy to play the role worldwide, including Jamie Bell who played Billy Elliot in the award-winning film. (more...)

Live Theatre and Soho Theatre have announced that following its critically acclaimed sell-out double run at Live Theatre, Newcastle and Soho Theatre, A WALK ON PART: THE FALL OF NEW LABOUR will transfer to the Arts Theatre in LondonÂ’s West End, with John Hodgkinson reprising his highly acclaimed role as Chris Mullin, from Tuesday 19 June to Saturday 14 July. Opening night is Tuesday 26 June, 7.30pm. (more...)

After sold out houses and 8 Helen Hayes nominations for Angels in America, Forum Theatre returns to the work of Tony Kushner with The Illusion (freely adapted from Pierre Corneille's L'illusion comique) from May 24 – June 16, 2012 with opening night on May 26. The show is directed by Mitchell Hébert. (more...)

Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Working Title Films Old Vic Productions and NETworks Presentations, LLC bring the multi-award-winning Billy Elliot the Musical to Milwaukee from July 17-22. Based on the international smash-hit film and featuring music by Elton John, book and lyrics by Lee Hall, choreography by Peter Darling and direction by Stephen Daldry, Billy Elliot the Musical has earned critical acclaim around the world and was the winner of ten 2009 Tony Awards including Best Musical. (more...)

Charming and unabashedly buoyant, BILLY ELLIOT--which danced away with 10 fairly well-deserved Tony Award wins including Best Musical back in 2009--is a smile-inducing, pleasingly-staged musical based on the 2000 film. The stage musical version's national tour has finally stopped in Los Angeles for a five-week engagement at the Pantages Theatre through May 13. (more...)

Art and class collide, as a group of Northern English miners unexpectedly ascend to the top of the art world in The Pitmen Painters at ACT – A Contemporary Theatre. Penned by playwright Lee Hall, author of the celebrated Billy Elliot, this critically acclaimed play from London and Broadway will receive its regional premiere in ACT’s dynamic in-the-round Allen Theatre directed by ACT’s Artistic Director Kurt Beattie this Friday, April 20. The official opening night is April 26, and the show is scheduled to run until May 20. Check out photos of Frank Lawler and Jason Marr in the production below! (more...)

In 1984 when Northern English coal miners went on strike in defiance of Margaret Thatcher's announcement to dissolve the unions, there was little hope for the future. Prospects were dim for kids like Billy Elliot who would be expected to enter the family business like his dad and his dad before him and on down the family lineage. Within 10 years, there would be no jobs, and where would Billy go, what would he do? Fortunately, this 11 year-old had unstoppable dreams that would perhaps take him far, if only he could defeat the tremendous odds and get his dad to agree to an audition in London for the Royal Academy - ballet. Since 2000, when the film Billy Elliot won the hearts of the entire world, there came a musical stage version - in 2005 on the West End and 2008 on Broadway, winning 10 Tony Awards. The stage version was as successful as the movie, mainly because the screenwriter Lee Hall and director Stephen Daldry stayed with the project. Billy Elliot has universal appeal for kids with artistic talent, and speaks to the young at heart in all of us. Finally Billy is in LA at the Pantages through May 13 only, with a sensational cast that will have you standing, cheering and singing its praises for years to come. (more...)

blurbThe U.S. National Tour of the 2009 Tony Award winning musical BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL officially opened in Los Angeles April 12, 2012 at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for a limited 5 week engagement through May 13. (more...)

Art and class collide, as a group of Northern English miners unexpectedly ascend to the top of the art world in The Pitmen Painters at ACT – A Contemporary Theatre. Penned by playwright Lee Hall, author of the celebrated Billy Elliot, this critically acclaimed play from London and Broadway will receive its regional premiere in ACT’s dynamic in-the-round Allen Theatre directed by ACT’s Artistic Director Kurt Beattie this Friday, April 20. The official opening night is April 26, and the show is scheduled to run until May 20. (more...)

MAD COW THEATRE is holding auditions by appointment only for its upcoming productions of THE PITMEN PAINTERS by Lee Hall, directed by Bobbie Bell and TWELVE ANGRY MEN by Reginald Rose, directed by Stephan Jones. (more...)

California Musical Theatre announces the 2012-13 Broadway Sacramento season at Community Center Theater, featuring Tony Award-winning new Broadway musicals as well as heart-warming family favorites. Memphis, which won four 2010 Tony Awards and is still playing on Broadway, kicks off the season, followed by Peter Pan, starring Cathy Rigby, Rock of Ages, DisneyÂ’s Beauty and the Beast, and multi-Tony Award winner Billy Elliot the Musical. The final show of the season is a Broadway Mega-Hit that canÂ’t be revealed until August due to contractual obligations. That show is a brand new production of one of the most beloved and popular Broadway musicals ever, and has been highly praised by critics and audiences alike throughout its wildly successful tour. (more...)

Broadway San Jose, A Nederlander Presentation in association with Team San Jose, has announced its 2012-2013 Season, which includes the Bay Area Premiere of the Tony Award Winning MEMPHIS! The season also includes South Bay debuts of ROCK OF AGES, Tony Award-Winning BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL and GREEN DAYÂ’S AMERICAN IDIOT. Also in the season are family favorites CATHY RIGBY as PETER PAN and BLUE MAN GROUP. Broadway San JoseÂ’s 2012-2013 Season begins October 23, 2012 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. (more...)

Classical Southern East Indian and contemporary dance meld together in a visual performance with Ragamala Dance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Lied Center for Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. April 11. World-class dancers and original music create an immersive cultural experience as Ragamala celebrates life as an eternal cycle in its new work, "Sacred Earth." (more...)

Broadway in Indianapolis announces its 2012-13 season. The season will leap into play with the 2009 Tony Award-winning Best Musical BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL, an inspirational story, with music by Elton John, of one boy's journey to make his dreams come true. Two other new titles join the series: SISTER ACT, a comedy with glorious music and even greater heart, and Green Day's AMERICAN IDIOT, which has boldly taken the American musical where it's never gone before. JERSEY BOYS will be making its way back to Indianapolis after an engagement in June of 2010, telling the tale of The Four Seasons' road to stardom. Finally, this series will conclude with WEST SIDE STORY, the story of forbidden love with the legendary score by Bernstein and Sondheim. (more...)