Elton's key change to West End stage
Musician commissions play based on Queen's intruder ordeal as Old Vic welcomes Billy Elliot. By
Fiachra Gibbons for The Guardian.


The singer Elton John has commissioned a play about Michael Fagan, the drug addict who climbed over the railings of Buckingham Palace and managed to sneak into the Queen's bedroom.
Fagan spent 45 minutes at foot of the Queen's bed bemoaning his lot, and threatening to slash his wrists with a broken ashtray in July 1982, before palace security staff finally twigged that something was amiss.

John, who has written the songs for a new musical version of the hit film Billy Elliot, said he hoped the play would eventually be staged at the Old Vic in London, whose production company is also behind the musical.

Scroll down to half way for the Billy Elliott discussion.

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Boys jump for a chance of fame
By Laura Peek for The Independent


These two lads a-leaping, Matthew Low (right) and Tyler Catt, are just two of the hundreds of young hopefuls who queued in London’s driving rain and hail yesterday to audition for a stage version of the hit film Billy Elliot.

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Hunt for Billy Elliot stage stars
From the BBC website



Billy Elliot - The Musical is expected to reach the stage this autumn
The search for the next Billy Elliot is on, with producers looking for boys to star in a stage version of the film.
The movie's director Stephen Daldry will direct the theatre musical, and is hunting for three boys to follow in the footsteps of the film star Jamie Bell.

Daldry told BBC Breakfast: "They've got to be exceptional children." Sir Elton John has written the show's music.

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