SYNDICATE INTERVIEW - LEE HALL ON BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL, WORKING-CLASS ROOTS AND THE POWER OF DANCE

Lee Hall Billy Elliot interview

Few musicals have struck a chord quite like Billy Elliot. Set against the 1984–85 miners’ strike, Lee Hall’s story of a working-class boy who dares to dream beyond his circumstances has become a modern classic. As the original production returns for a UK and Ireland tour and a limited London season, writer Lee Hall reflects on the show's enduring appeal, its North East roots and why its message of acceptance remains so relevant. In this Lee Hall Billy Elliot interview, he shares his thoughts on the production's return and the themes at the heart of the story.

Billy Elliot is returning to stages across the UK and Ireland. What are you most excited for audiences to rediscover?

I think it’s always about the kids. It’s more than twenty years since we started looking for the original kids, and because of the success of Billy Elliot, young boys now are doing ballet in a way that they didn’t before. They’re also starting younger, so the standard of the kids has amazed us all. The great thing about Billy Elliot is that you’re watching real kids, they’re doing the same thing as the story, they’re learning and surpassing anything that you could have imagined, so that’s fantastically exciting. You are watching pure talent emerge and that’s a thrilling thing for anyone.

The North East is at the heart of Billy Elliot. How much did your own upbringing shape the story, and what did you most want to capture about the people and the place?

I call it a sort of fantasy autobiography. I grew up at that time in the North East, but I couldn’t dance to save my life, I was terrible. I suppose my dancing was writing. It’s really about my relationship with my dad and thwarting his expectations of what I’d do as a living. It wasn’t easy; going into the arts was a world that he couldn’t begin to think about, I may as well have wanted to go to Mars as far as he was concerned.

Billy Elliot is about family and the strength and culture of the community that I grew up in. As much as I wanted to be in this other world, having been involved in theatre and writing, I realised how rich the culture of the North East and the working class was. It’s a love letter to that, and it’s a thank you to all those people who saw life in a different way. Underneath it all it’s a story about universal resilience and what it’s like to live in difficult times, because now it’s not just the miners and heavy industry at stake, with AI a lot of people are worried about their future and their jobs.

Billy challenges expectations, and traditional ideas of masculinity, by pursuing ballet. Why was it important to tell the story of a working-class boy who dares to go against the grain?

With the musical we got to show more about the community and the challenges, not only for Billy, but for the people around him, of what it’s like to allow somebody to be different. it’s a show about acceptance and learning how to understand a different point of view, but it’s also about how you need a village to raise a child. It’s about tolerance, having the courage to be yourself and know your own route, and taking other people on the journey with you. I think it has become harder for people who come from an ordinary background like I did, to go and do what I’ve done. Being creative is something that everyone has in them, and you just have to foster that.

Was there a reason why you chose dance as the creative medium for Billy and not an interest in writing like yourself?

I thought it would be quite boring to have a musical about a boy sitting at their desk like I do. What I realised was that the physical prowess and the physical courage, and ultimately how hard it is to be a dancer, are weirdly things that the male culture of the working-class usually celebrate, yet they couldn’t associate that ballet would demand all those things. There seemed to be an interesting tension that a lot of prejudices people have, about say ballet and masculinity, had to be challenged if the artistic expression was dance, because it was so misunderstood.

How have attitudes towards boys in dance changed since you first wrote Billy Elliot?

I think it has changed hugely, because of Billy Elliot, but also because of all sorts of other things in the culture. Dance, in all different forms, not just ballet, has become much more normal and central to people’s understanding and entertainment. With that has changed a lot of views about masculinity and how it’s possible to be a man. I think we’re much broader minded now in what your son might get up to, certainly more so than in the 1980s.

Billy Elliot started as a film before you adapted it for the stage with Elton John. What did the transition to a musical add to the story?

The main thing for me and Elton, and Stephen Daldry (director), was that we could give a voice to more characters, so that it wasn’t just about Billy it was about the whole community and what they’re going through. When you’ve got a worldclass songwriter like Elton John being able to get into the soul of the characters using music, it’s something that you just can’t do in straight drama. I think that’s why it has been so successful over the last twenty years, because it’s emotional and Elton understood, right from the first day he saw the film, that there was another layer that he could add with his music. It’s supercharging the story!

How did you find the voice of the characters through the lyrics, and did the music ever take the story in an unexpected direction?

It allowed us to get into the mind of each individual character. Quite often in a film you’re just seeing the scene, but you go into their heads when they start singing. In the film they may be more minor characters, but with Michael for example, with his interactions and songs, the character becomes vivid. Also, Dad being able to sing – in the film he doesn’t say very much, and finds expressing himself quite difficult, but in the musical, I was able to really investigate his inner-world where he’s much more complicated than he presents, because you could get into his heart. I think that’s why the musical has lasted, because you get a much deeper sense of what problems he was going through and what upsets he had.

The story is rooted in a very specific time and place, yet it has resonated around the world. Why do you think it has such universal appeal, and have international audiences ever surprised you with their response?

I am always amazed, especially when I’ve seen the show in places that have a completely different culture. One of the most remarkable ones was the Japanese production. It was the same show, but it had been interpreted in a completely different style and theatrical culture than we have. It’s always surprised me that there’s something universal about the story. People who don’t have mining as part of their culture or economy have seen this other thing underneath it. It’s incredibly moving to me that somehow, I’ve stumbled onto this thing, not really knowing that it would affect people in all these different places many years later. You just try and tell your specific story, and make it as true to you as you can, and that’s the magic of art and theatre, especially musicals.

Billy Elliot is about families, loss, change, aspiration and ordinary people living through hard times, and the struggle also to be yourself and express yourself, and I think that’s a universal thing. Whether its dancing, or sexuality, or aspiration for doing some different kind of work, I think everyone has struggled with that at some time. The struggle is often with your community as well as your family, and yourself.

So many young boys have played Billy around the world. What’s it been like to watch so many young performers make the role their own?

It’s always a joy to have people come together to make something creative, but the fact that these kids are so young when we meet them, and we watch them change and develop, and their skills are amazing, there’s nothing I can compare it with. The fact so many kids have had this experience is wonderful, and it’s so powerful to see them.

The idea that Liam Mower (an original Billy in the West End, now playing ‘Older Billy’ on the tour) has come back and is such a magnificent performer and person, there’s a real life in what you’re watching. Of course, you’re watching these brilliant performers who do this for a living, but you’re also seeing the kids and it’s not a job, it’s their real life. It’s a unique experience.

Do you think working-class lives and regional communities are still underrepresented in British theatre and film? What needs to change?

I think it has become harder for working class young people to engage with the arts because the infrastructure has gone. I think you must start early, which is kind of what Billy Elliot is about, and you have to have provisions at school. There were youth theatres that I went to that were funded by the local council, but they don’t have money to do that anymore. It’s now private, so if you do want to pursue it you have to pay, and not everybody has the chance to do that. I’ve seen that fewer people from my background are going into the arts, so therefore are less represented, but I think it’s going to be much harder unless the government rethink the whole thing; rethink that creativity is central to everybody’s lives. We are denying wonderful things being made and wonderful performers who could amaze and thrill us and be the pride of our nations. They’re not going to be able to do that unless we really understand that creativity is central to everybody.

After all these years, what do you hope audiences take away from Billy Elliot?

The first thing is that I want audiences to be entertained – I know that people will come out of the theatre being amazed by the cast, the kids and the performance. It’s a musical with dance at the centre, which is thrilling to see happen in front of you.

But I think I’d also want people to take away the idea of being kinder and more supportive of the people around you, even those that you might not understand or share their understanding of the world. It’s only possible for us to thrive individually if we are supported.

Syndicate interview supplied for publication. For more information, visit billyelliotthemusical.com.