They thought it couldn't be done, but an emotional plea from Elton John was enough to persuade the team behind the hit North-East movie Billy Elliot to turn it into a stage musical. Steve Pratt talks to the creators of the show.

Producer Jon Finn thought it was "a really bad idea". Writer Lee Hall was "a bit worried" by the thought. But Elton John was insistent that hit British movie Billy Elliot could be turned into a successful stage musical.

"I couldn't imagine how it could work," says Finn, who produced the North-East set film about a miner's son who dreams of being a ballet dancer in a drama set against the 1980s miners' strike.

Newcastle-born writer Hall was equally sceptical. "It had worked well in one medium, but you're always reluctant to mess about with something that works," he recalls. "But Elton was so convincing it should be a stage work. And with his record of The Lion King, who am I to argue?"

John doesn't seem the most likely person to champion a show with deep Northern roots set in a time of social unrest, but attending the first public screening at the Cannes Film Festival five years ago made a big impact on him.

"I had to be helped sobbing from my seat," he says. "It affected me very much because of the relationship with Billy's father and Billy, and my father and myself. It was a very moving story. It had so many things that seemed to be parallel with my life."

His emotional reaction led him to propose a musical version at the post-screening party in Cannes. Shortly after, Hall and director Stephen Daldry flew over to New York to discuss the suggestion with the singer-songwriter. Five years, countless auditions, months of rehearsal and £6m later, the idea is becoming reality as Billy Elliot The Musical is set for a first night at London's Victoria Palace Theatre later this month after weeks of previews.

Many of the team behind the movie have reunited for the musical - director Daldry, writer Hall, producer Finn and choreographer Peter Darling. Even the publicist from the film is working on the theatre show.

'I don't think any of us would have done it if we all hadn't decided to do it," says Hall.

Finn, who comes from Gateshead, acknowledges it wouldn't have happened without Elton. "He was the driving force in turning it into a musical," he says. "I don't think without him any of us would have had the impetus. He's really passionate about it. He started writing the musical and we decided we would do a workshop to see how it worked. I was really sceptical until seeing that."

The show is a considerably bigger project than Hall's last West End play, the transfer of Live Theatre's production of his comedy, Cooking With Elvis. As well as writing the book for the musical, he's supplied the lyrics for Elton John's music. Again, it was the singer's suggestion.

His touring schedule meant they wrote some songs while in different countries. "Elton was in Atlanta and I faxed the first set of lyrics to him there. Then at 12 at night, he would play the songs down the phone to me, which was surreal really," says Hall.

"The second lot of songs we did in London. I took the lyrics into a studio because he always writes in a studio with a band. I discovered with the first lot that we had a kind of rapport and he understood what I needed from the music.

"I don't think we changed even one word in the lyrics. It was a very remarkable relationship because I hadn't written lyrics before. It could have gone awfully wrong. I thought if that happened we could've called up Bernie Taupin, who's written with Elton before."

Finn sees parts of Billy Elliot the film, including scenes of the youngster dancing down the streets of Easington, as reminiscent of a musical. But Hall had never been drawn to the big musical theatre tradition, although most of his previous plays contained music is some way or another and he'd considered writing a play with integral music. Embarking on Billy Elliot The Musical, he realised that a lot of the work that inspired him early on, such as Joan Littlewood's Stratford East productions, had musical associations.

"That is quite different to the American tradition of the musical. When I realised that sort of musical hadn't been done for quite some time, it was a challenge to make something that would appeal to everyone.

"But it's about people's lives and ideas that we recognise. I hope it's a good night out in terms of the story as well as the music. There was a challenge to make a musical on a big scale that's particularly British.

"It's quite important that people know the film and what they are getting, so we've been careful not to disappoint anyone. We wouldn't be involved if we weren't trying to do something that's better than the film."

Finn echoes that feeling: "We all decided we weren't going to do it unless it worked in its own right as a musical."

Those involved in putting Billy Elliot on stage agree that the musical is a much harder, more political show than the film. A musical whose second act opens with a song about Maggie Thatcher is clearly not going to be in the Andrew Lloyd Webber mould.

'You can do things in a musical you can't do in a film," explains Hall. "It's such an emotional relationship when the music comes in and people sing. It's very different to film. What was demanded from me was straightforward, the hardest part is the technical side of a musical."

Finn can appreciate that. A £6m musical takes a lot of planning and preparation, especially with 45 youngsters involved. Tim Healy plays Billy's dad, with Haydn Gwynne as his dancing teacher, but the production stands or falls on Billy. The demands of the role, coupled with laws covering child performers, means the show has three Billy Elliots, who'll play the role for six months. Three youngsters have been cast for each of the children's roles.

Just like with the film, the project was almost abandoned because of the difficulty of finding a youngster who could sing, dance and act. The team was lucky enough to find Jamie Bell, from Billington, to play Billy on screen. Auditions for the musical failed to find a North-East youngster for the role. The first trio, aged between 12 and 14, come from Sheffield, Hull and Stanford-le-Hope in Essex.

"The show is unusual because the emphasis is on the kids. It's not like Mary Poppins where the kids are decoration," says Hall. "Billy is the most important character. He leads the whole drama. To create a show around kids has meant a lot of hard work. What's really moving is that the three boys we have now, and some of the boys in the second cast, are the most talented kids of their age at what they do. We hoped to get North-East kids but had to go with those with the unique skills that the kids have to have.

"I suppose I've spent eight years working on Billy Elliot. The good thing about a musical is that it's something that, hopefully, will last a long time."

Finn reckons it's taken twice as long and cost twice as much to stage the musical as it did to make the movie. His only regret is that they weren't able to preview the show at Newcastle Tyne Theatre and Opera House last year before moving to London's West End. Changes in the operation of the theatre meant Billy Elliot The Musical was unable to be staged there as planned.

"That was a real shame as I wanted to open the show in Newcastle. If we ever tour, we will start it there," he says.

* Billy Elliot is previewing at Victoria Palace Theatre in London before its mid-May opening night. Box office 0870 895 5577.

* The Billy Elliot School - see tomorrow's Northern Echo.