Daldry delighted by ‘Elliot’ response

British director Stephen Daldry says he couldn’t be happier with the response his musical stage adaptation of the film Billy Elliot is getting in New York.

You never know, do you? When you put something out there, you don’t know how it’ll go down, Daldry told United Press International in New York recently while promoting his new movie The Reader.

We didn’t quite know how (‘Billy’) would go down in New York, said the filmmaker, who also directed the movie version of Billy and previously staged the theatrical production in London where it was an enormous hit. But, obviously, I’m amazed and delighted that it’s gone down so well. I think it is much better as a musical than it was as a movie. I think it’s found its natural home … Everybody involved in it comes from the theater rather than from movies. I think it being the same people who created the film as created the show, we are fantastically disrespectful of our work, which I think is a huge advantage. So, in terms of starting again and starting completely fresh, it was very easy.

Daldry also said there is now talk of bringing the stage version of Billy Elliot back onto the big screen as movie musical.