The best plays of the decade are: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Billy Elliot

In the final and most scandalous result of our poll celebrating Arts Award's 10th birthday, your winner of best play of the decade is a tie between Billy Elliot and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

The best plays of the decade are: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Billy Elliot

Lengthy titles bear lengthy titles.

The Curious Incident represents contemporary children's theatre of the last few years. Billy Elliot represents a classic drama which is universally relative.

Back in 2005, Billy Elliot the Musical premiered on the West End by Lee Hall and Stephen Daldry based, of course, on the Oscar-nominated British indie starring Jamie Bell. It tells the infamous story of a Durham lad at ends with his family about pursuing his dream of becoming a ballet dancer.

In 2012, The Curious Incident premiered on the West End by Simon Stephens based, of course, on the Man Booker Prize nominated novel by Mark Haddon. It tells the story of a Swindon lad at ends with his family and his Autism spectrum condition about investigating the death of his dog.

Both Billy Elliot and The Curious Incident the plays capitalised on the immense success of their originals and went on to extend the worlds they created exponentially. Billy Elliot the Musical cost £5.5 million to make on the West End - £3 million more than the film did. On Broadway it cost more than three times the film's budget.

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Alex Sharp's Lead Actor Tony acceptance speech for The Curious Incident: collection from Fan-tastig on Tumblr

The Curious Incident was nominated for eight Olivier Awards in 2014 - the most of any play - and six Tony Awards in 2015. It won seven Oliviers and five Tonys including Best Play, Best Director, and Best Actor.

Billy Elliot was nominated for nine Oliviers in 2006 and another in 2013 for Most Popular Play of the year. It won five. In 2009, it was nominated for a staggering fifteen Tony Awards and won an equally staggering ten including Best Musical, Best Director, and Best Actor. It made a star of Tom Holland, who played Billy, and has since gone to Hollywood and starred in The Impossible in which his performance generated Oscar talk and is the next Spider-Man.

The Angry Dance from Billy Elliot: from LizWager

Billy Elliot's appeal lay in the strive to chase dreams when surrounded by adversity. The Curious Incident's lay in a meta-narrative treatment of a character account seen through its character's Autism spectrum eyes. Billy Elliot still goes strong and will premiere in Sweden in 2016 and The Curious Incident is still in its infancy and will premiere in South Korea - only its third territory - in 2016.

If you like Billy Elliot, you might enjoy

Fun Home

and Punk Rock

If you like The Curious Incident, you might enjoy

On The Shore Of The Wide World

and Sea Wall

Image composite courtesy of Flickr/Sarah_Ackerman and Flickr/Andy Roberts

Author

Bhavesh Jadva

Bhavesh Jadva Voice Team

Former Media Editor on Voice and former Arts Award Editor on AAoV covering film, TV, music and comedy.

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