London — Stephen DALDRY has long maintained that he tries never to repeat himself. Anyone who has met and interviewed Daldry over the years is likely to have heard his mantra: "It's good to change."
Though he was Oscar-nominated for directing his first two feature films, "Billy Elliot" (2000) and "The Hours" (2002), it came as no surprise that he chose not to follow up this one-two punch by directing another film. Indeed, he received flattering, lucrative offers from Hollywood to do just that. Instead Daldry, 44, one of Britain's most celebrated stage directors in the 1990s, has returned to the theater. What is a surprise is that in doing so he's repeating himself -- not once but three times.
The film "Billy Elliot" -- starring Jamie Bell as a preteen boy from a beleaguered working-class mining village in the north of England who tries to escape the limitations and prejudices of his background by becoming a ballet dancer -- is now a stage musical that opened here Thursday.
Daldry directs once again, while Lee Hall, the film's screenwriter, has written the book for the show as well as lyrics to songs by Elton John.
"Effectively, this is three shows on top of one another," says an exhausted-looking Daldry, sipping a beer in a Chelsea pub after a long day's rehearsal nearby. What he means is that there are three boys who play Billy on different nights; British child-labor laws limit the amount of time an underage actor can spend on stage. Thus James Lomas, 15, George Maguire, 14, and Liam Mower, 12, all take turns in the starring role.
"Their vocal range is different and their dance character is different," Daldry says. "One kid is much more ballet-based, another's much more contemporary. So the music's slightly different for each one, the choreography's different. And it's impossible for any of them to do more than three shows a week. They get totally exhausted.
"And it's not just the three Billys. There are 17 kids in this show, so that's three teams of 17." The normally ebullient Daldry sighs deeply, his fatigue self-evident.
"It's been quite a stretch for all of us."
An hour earlier, in a high, wide, long room with huge windows, housed in what was once a military barrack, the youngest Billy, Liam, is going through his paces. Choreographer Peter Darling has suggested a dance break be inserted into a song called "Electricity." Darling's assistant, Ellen Kane, gives Liam direct instructions, while Daldry, in a tracksuit top and jeans, sits languidly on a windowsill, feet up on a radiator, observing quietly.
