Lee Hall (playwright)

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Lee Hall (born 1966) is an English playwright and screenplay writer.

Hall's most commercially successful work is Billy Elliot, the story of a young boy in the north of England who, in the face of opposition from his family and community, aspires to be and ultimately becomes a ballet dancer. Initially a film (1999) directed by Stephen Daldry for which Hall wrote the screenplay, and for which he received an Oscar nomination, Billy Elliot was later turned into a stage musical. With music by Elton John and book and lyrics by Hall, the musical has enjoyed a long run in the West End of London.

Also successful in its own genre was Spoonface Steinberg, the tale of a young autistic Jewish girl who is dying of cancer. This monologue aroused unprecedented listener response when it was broadcast in 1997 on BBC radio and was subsequently voted one of the ten best radio dramas of all time by readers of the magazine Radio Times. A stage version, with a 42-year-old actress Kathryn Hunter playing the title role, opened in 1999 and later transfered to the West End.

Hall had more limited success with his comedy Cooking with Elvis, whose protagonist is an Elvis Presley impersonator paralyzed in a car crash. Also originally a radio play (1995), a stage version opened in 1999, later being presented on the West End stage.

Hall's fondness for moving from one medium to another can be seen in his work I Love You Jimmy Spud. This too began as a radio play (1995), later being adapted by Hall into a stage play and a film script.

He has also translated plays, notably by Carlo Goldoni (A Servant of Two Masters) and Bertolt Brecht (Mother Courage and Her Children) and co-wrote the screenplay for a film version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (2005) directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley.

His most recent work was a TV adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, broadcast in December 2006.