Lee Hall (playwright)

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Lee Hall
Born (1966-09-20) 20 September 1966 (age 57)
Newcastle upon Tyne, England
OccupationWriter
Spouse
​
(m. 2003)​

Lee Hall (born 20 September 1966) is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the film

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

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

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

Hall's most commercially successful work is

Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical
.

Also successful was

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

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,

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

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

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

Plays
Screenplays
Musicals
Operas
  • Beached (2011)
Translations

Awards and nominations

Awards
Nominations

References

  1. ^ Profile "The poet at play", The Guardian, 12 May 2001, Accessed 2013-10-16
  2. ^ Johnson, Andrew (29 November 2009). "Lee Hall: 'Cambridge taught me I was short'". The Independent on Sunday. London. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
  3. ^ "Bill and Lee's excellent adventures". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. 2 January 2002. Archived from the original on 21 October 2007. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
  4. ^ Whitley, John (10 September 2007). "If Billy Elliot had been a painter..." The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
  5. ^ Hall, Lee (3 July 2011). "Lee Hall: 'I will fight this'". The Guardian. London.
  6. ^ "Homophobia row opera to go ahead". BBC News. 7 July 2011.
  7. ^ "War Horse - Empire". Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  8. ^ "Elton John's life to get big screen treatment". BBC News. 22 September 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  9. ^ "Roger Waters rebuilds The Wall". Herald Sun. 30 June 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  10. ^ "Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall adapts George Orwell". BBC News. 30 March 2012.
  11. ^ Barr, Gordon (15 October 2003). "Bridget's boys". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  12. ^ Scott, Mark (15 June 2023). "How a British baroness is shaping America's tech laws for kids". Politico.com. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  13. ^ "RAZZ NEWZ - The Razzies!". razzies.com.

External links

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