The stage adaptation of Billy Elliot has dominated the shortlist for Broadway's glitziest theatre awards, the Tonys, which were announced earlier today.

The unlikely story of a coal miner's son from Newcastle who becomes a professional ballet dancer has – perhaps even more surprisingly – become one of Broadway's biggest success stories this season, picking up 15 nods, four more than any other show. It competes for best musical against Next to Normal, a piece about manic depression, the jukebox show Rock of Ages and the stage version of Disney animation Shrek.

The show's three young Billies, who perform the role in rotation, are also jointly up for best actor in a category otherwise crowded with film celebrities, including Jeff Daniels and James Gandolfini, who jointly appear in Yasmin Reza's God of Carnage, and Geoffrey Rush, who stars in a new production of Ionesco's Exit the King.

Elton John, nominated for Billy Elliot's score, told CBS that the production has "made an incredible impact" on his life, though he didn't reveal what it felt like to go head to head with Dolly Parton, who is nominated for Nine to Five: The Musical. While Next to Normal is this year's second biggest hitter – it has 11 nominations, including best actress and best direction in the musical categories – Yasmin Reza's God of Carnage, which travelled to Broadway from the Gielgud in London, has made even more waves, with the entire four-person cast (James Gandolfini, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden) given leading performer nominations and the play itself nominated for the best play award.

God of Carnage's run of luck also touched its British director Matthew Warchus, who manages to be shortlisted for best director twice, his other nomination being for Alan Ayckbourn's Norman Conquests.

In an unlikely historical irony, two Tudor queens, Mary Stuart – Janet McTeer as Mary, Queen of Scots, and Harriet Walter as Elizabeth I – battle against each other once more, this time for best actress gong.

The last slot in that category is filled by Jane Fonda, who portrays a dying musicologist in 33 Variations, a show also up for best play, squaring up against Neil La Bute's Reasons To Be Pretty and Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate.

The winners will be announced a ceremony on 7 June at New York's infamous Radio City Music Hall.

Tony awards: nominations in detail

Best play

Dividing the Estate

God of Carnage

Reasons to be Pretty

33 variations

Best musical

Billy Elliott, The Musical

Next to Normal

Rock of Ages

Shrek The Musical

Best revival of a play

Joe Turner's Come and Gone

Mary Stuart

The Norman Conquests

Waiting for Godot

Best performance by a leading actor in a play

Jeff Daniels, God of Carnage

Raul Esparza, Speed-the-Plow

James Gandolfini, God of Carnage

Geoffrey Rush, Exit the King

Thomas Sadoski, Reasons to be Pretty

Best performance by a leading actress in a play

Hope Davis, God of Carnage

Jane Fonda, 33 Variations

Marcia Gay Harden, God of Carnage

Janet McTeer, Mary Stuart

Harriet Walter, Mary Stuart

Best direction of a play

Phyllida Lloyd, Mary Stuart

Bartlett Sher, Joe Turner's Come and Gone

Matthew Warchus, God of Carnage

Matthew Warchus, The Norman Conquests

For a full list of nominations, see the official Tony awards website