Billy Elliot leads the Brit charge at the Tony Awards

After a British-made film Slumdog Millionaire dominated the Oscars, a British-made musical is set for similar success at next month's Tony Awards, America's top theatre honours. Billy Elliot, the story of a boy who confounds social stereotypes to leave his mining community and become a ballet dancer in strike-ridden 1980s Britain, has picked up a record-equalling 15 nominations, the same number achieved by the 2001 runaway hit, The Producers.
 
The musical, which went to Broadway after a successful run in London, is directed by Stephen Daldry, who also made the 2000 film starring Jamie Bell from which the stage production was adapted. It is nominated for best musical, best original score (by Elton John) and, unusually, a shared best actor award for David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish, who all play Billy.

The US production received rave reviews when it opened at the Imperial Theatre on 45th Street last November, with the New York Times critic Ben Brantley describing how it sent audiences into a "mass swoon" and praising the "intoxicating fleet-footed flashes of art and big knock-'em-dead sequences."

The nominations were announced in New York today. Another musical, Next to Normal, about a suburban woman battling depression, ranked second in the most-nominated list, with 11.

Two other UK imports, the revivals of Mary Stuart and The Norman Conquest, both received seven nominations. But there was disappointment that The Seagull, a British production starring Kristin Scott Thomas, has not been included in the nominations. Also notably absent from the acting nominations are Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths who both missed out despite their critically acclaimed performances in Equus.
 
Also nominated for gongs at the 63rd Tony Awards, which will take place on June 7, are veteran actress Jane Fonda who appeared recently on Broadway for the first time in 45 years in 33 Variations and country singer Dolly Parton, for her score for the musical 9 to 5, based on the 1980 movie starring Parton, Lili Tomlin and, indeed, Fonda.

The full list of nominees can be found at tonyawards.com ·