Everybody’s Talking About Jamie has begun its tour and taken a stop at New Wimbledon Theatre. As with musical theatre fans, the energy in the audience is always high and excited so arriving into that really leaped me into the piece.
This evening’s performance was led by the Jamie understudy, Adam Taylor who was fantastic with really beautiful vocals and a great confidence in the character. As well as this shining performance, Sharan Phull playing Pritti Pasha truly stole so many hearts in their emotion and passion. The story itself is famous for inspiring so many young people in their passion to be different during school and to see the journey for these kids is heart-warming and done so well.
However, it was unfortunate that to no fault of the performers the speakers were faulty and beginning to blow out when hitting the high notes so couldn’t enjoy that to the point I would have liked to.
The beginning started rather slow although holding the most enjoyable and famous song, the pace seemed to be slow in setting up however I believe that is more in the writing rather than the performance. I was slightly confused by the stakes of the piece and as a Northerner would like to question some of the slang or more so the amount of slang that was used in the text. I feel like we understand that this is not set in London very soon in, but just to be sure let’s throw in lots and lots of slang in one sentence. That being said, the performers are great with the accent and maybe are native- I really couldn’t tell and that’s a great skill.
I thought the piece itself was great and tied together brilliantly, it’s always inspiring to see stories that wouldn’t have been told 10 years ago do so fantastically and tour to areas where stories like this may be vital to the audience viewing it. I have some questions regarding celebrity casting and the necessity of it, particularly in the role of a drag queen as we have so many brilliant artists out there with the knowledge behind them however that is a question that will forever spark a discussion. Just one to think about.
This is a great story and fantastic to be bringing it to light with the tour. Continues until 9th April, https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/everybodys-talking-about-jamie/new-wimbledon-theatre/
Reviewer: Alice Rose
Reviewed: 6th April 2022
North West End UK Rating: ★★★