ELTON JOHN Music He’s a songwriter, humanitarian, Grammy, Oscar, Tony and BRIT award winner, Broadway champion, football benefactor, a knight of the realm, a superstar and yet still a man of the people. With more than 200 million album sales, Elton John is the most enduring successful singer/songwriter of his own, or any other, generation, and also the most decorated. On the business side, Elton remains the most educated of musicians. He champions up-and-coming artists, devotedly, and has seen one of those talented, James Blunt, become one of the best selling artists of the decade. Elton’s charitable endeavours include his Elton John AIDS foundation, which to date has raised over $100 million. Theatrically, Elton has also created the music for new musical, The Devil Wears Prada. His film work includes his collaboration with lyricist Tim Rice on music for Disney’s The Lion King, winning him not only a Grammy, but his first Academy award, after which he collaborated with Rice again on the Broadway smash Aida. Along with partner David Furnish, Elton has produced It’s a Boy/Girl Thing, with Rocket Pictures, and also written songs for their animated movie, Gnomeo and Juliet. But for all of these commitments, he would never disrespect his day job of close to 40 years. Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, he is an ever thankful student of the Royal Academy of Music. Lyricist Bernie Taupin’s melody man from 1966 to this day, he recreated himself as Elton John in ‘68, and has been shining in the global spotlight since a life changing performance at LA’s Troubadour in the summer of 1970. Elton’s multi platinum body of work includes such groundbreaking hits as Rocket Man, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Bennie and the Jets, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Tiny Dancer, and Your Song. Until recently Elton, with all his characteristic bravura, has played internationally time and time again to record-breaking audiences at every legendary venue. His stadium shows around the world remain one of the “must see” events for any music fan. LEE HALL Book and Lyrics Playwright Lee Hall was born in Newcastle in 1966. His acclaimed play Spoonface Steinberg (1997), a monologue for a nine-year-old autistic girl dying of cancer, was first broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 1997. He subsequently adapted the play for television in 1998 and for the stage in 2000. He was appointed Writer in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1999/2000 under the Pearson Playwrights Scheme Award. Cooking with Elvis (2000), adapted from the play he wrote for the BBC Radio ‘God’s Country’ series that included Spoonface Steinberg, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 2000 and transferred to London’s West End in a production starring the comedian Frank Skinner. His adaptation of Goldoni’s The Servant with Two Masters was first staged at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford in 1999. He has translated two plays by Bertolt Brecht: Mr Puntilla and His Man Matti, written for The Right Size/Almeida Theatre, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1998; and Mother Courage, staged by Shared Experience theatre company in 2000. His adaptation of the Dutch play The Good Hope (2001) by Herman Heijermans opened at the Royal National Theatre in 2001. He also wrote the screenplay to the film Billy Elliot (1999), directed by Stephen Daldry for Tiger/BBC Films/WT2, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. He adapted his own play, I Luv You Jimmy Spud (1997), as a feature film starring Billy Connolly in 2000. Lee Hall co-wrote the screenplay for the film, Pride and Prejudice, in 2005, and adapted The Wind in the Willows for television, in 2006. The Pitmen Painters (2008) premiered at the Live Theatre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 2007. In 2014, Hall wrote the script for Shakespeare in Love, adapted from the film of the same title, which was performed at the Noel Coward Theatre in London. His 2015 adaptation of Alan Warner’s novel The Sopranos is entitled Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour. 16
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI3ODI1