Everybody’s Talking About Jamie Archives

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Sheffield Lyceum

11Apr

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Sheffield Lyceum

Seven years after its Premiere at the Crucible Theatre in February 2017, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie returns to its hometown of Sheffield this week. With endless Sheffield references the story can’t fail to be a hit here… and it hits the bullseye! Based on the 2011 Firecracker documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, the true story of Jamie Campbell follows the struggles of his teen years in light of societal bigotry, as he becomes who he was born to be. A boy in a dress and more shockingly at his Prom! Jamie’s journey to acceptance through his tumultuous school years is heightened by the knowledge he is different and doesn’t fit the social norms of the day. His birth father sees him as ‘disgusting’ but amongst all this, Jamie has his supporters none more so than his single Mother, Mau...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Wolverhampton Grand

24Jan

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Wolverhampton Grand

Everybody’s Talking About Finton! Rarely do you get the chance to witness an understudy triumph in a role, but tonight at the Grand was once such moment. Finton Flynn slipped into the title role with big heels to fill which he did with aplomb. A joyous, buoyant comic performance tempered with a well judged dash of poignancy made this performance in equal parts outstanding and endearing. He exploded with assured confidence and squeezed every drop out of line and every lyric. Certainly, a performer to look out for. Elsewhere Rebecca McGinnis more than held her own as Jamie’s long-suffering mother nailing a beautiful ballad in act two. She forms a great comic partnership with Shobna Gulati whose comic heritage is well-known. And Talia Palamathanan is a total delight as Priti and nails ...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Winter Gardens, Blackpool

22Nov

By Damian RiverolNo Comments

North West

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Winter Gardens, Blackpool

Blackpool Winter Gardens welcomes West End hit musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie as part if it’s UK tour. Based on the true story of 16-year-old Jamie Campbell, the boy who wanted to go to prom in a dress, Tom Macrae and Dan Gillespie Sells have created a beautiful story with real heart, and songs that make you smile from ear to ear, to ones that have you crying from emotion. Lead by Ivano Turco as Jamie New, we are treated to a spectacular show, with stunning choreography (Kate Prince), an incredible and multifunctional set and beautiful costumes (Anna Fleischle), and fantastic direction (Matt Ryan and resident director Georgina Hagen). The story revolves around a group of teens ready to face their GCSEs and the more important after exams event, school prom. This is where ...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – The Lowry

13Sep

By Scot CunninghamNo Comments

North West

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – The Lowry

Since 2017, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie has opened up minds and hearts with an extended West End run, feature film adaptation and now a second UK tour. Inspired by the documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, this feel-good musical tells the story of a secondary school leaver who decides to live out his fantasy of being a performer by attending prom in a dress. The legend of Jamie New (Ivano Turco) is spangled with playful physical comedy, sassy put-downs and hysterical punchlines, all courtesy of Tom MacRae’s snappy book and lyrics. Music by Dan Gillespie Sells provides a seriously catchy soundtrack of pop bops and moving solos for Jamie’s relevant- and turbulent- journey to self-expression. ‘And You Don’t Even Know It’ is a tone-setting party anthem of an opening number that sees ...

14Apr

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Sheffield Lyceum

Back in its original home and setting of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, everybody left the theatre last night Talking About Jamie! After the shows premier of 19 performances at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in 2017, it then moved to the Apollo Theatre London in November 2017 and by May 2021 had racked up its 1000th performance. Everybody’s Talking about Jamie - The Movie premiered in September 2021 and there have been performances and future planned performances in Japan, Los Angeles, Australia, New Zealand and Italy. With awards in abundance, everybody is talking about the meteoric rise of the story of Jamie Campbell, a boy who had a dream to attend his 2011 Prom in a dress and ultimately become a drag queen. Conceived; from the Firecracker documentary ‘Jamie: Drag Queen at 16’ on BBC H...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – New Wimbledon Theatre

6Apr

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – New Wimbledon Theatre

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 an...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Hull New Theatre

30Nov

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Hull New Theatre

It’s not surprising everybody is talking about Jamie. I’ll be talking about him for a long time, to anyone who’ll listen. Well, not Jamie exactly, but the show Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which came to the Hull New Theatre on Monday night. Based on a true story, it recounts the trials and tribulations of 16-year-old Sheffield schoolboy, Jamie New (Layton Williams), who has always liked to dress up in women’s clothes and who decides to wear a dress to his school’s prom. Disowned by his dad, who once caught him in his mum’s dress at the age of eight and ridiculing and bullying by some of his school pals, doesn’t deter the young teen from fulfilling his dream of becoming a drag queen when he leaves school. Luckily for Jamie, his mum, Margaret (Amy Ellen Richardson), embraces...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Liverpool Empire

24Nov

By Codie WrightNo Comments

North West

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Liverpool Empire

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, and at this particular performance they were also taking selfies with the real-life Jamie who happened to be sat next to us at the Empire. That said, we can’t guarantee this will be your experience (in fact, chances are it won’t be…), so what did we think of the actual show? Well, despite the show being everywhere right now thanks to the movie adaptation, I had deliberately avoided as much about it as possible, so I could see the musical without any preconceptions and I’m so glad I did. What a wonderful, heartfelt, motivational a piece of theatre. Broadway musicals have all the glitz and glamour but there is something about the witty writing of a British musical that just feels like a warm hug in a mug of Yorkshire tea. But I’m getting ahead of mysel...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Leeds Grand

4Nov

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Leeds Grand

The performing arts often attracts outsiders looking for a safe haven, so it is hardly surprising many musicals are about the plucky outsider finding their true selves against what seem like insurmountable odds. That’s true of this big-hearted musical that started life just down the road in Sheffield, before becoming a West End hit, and is loosely based on the real story of working class gay teenager Jamie Campbell who decided that only did he want to be a drag artist when he left school, but he was going to his prom in a dress. Here our Jamie New, supported by Muslim best mate Pritti, wants to do the same despite the school bullies, but is up against a bigoted teacher determined he will turn up to the big night in ’normal’ attire, provoking an unexpected response from his schoolmat...

Layton Williams comes back north in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at Leeds Grand

29Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Layton Williams comes back north in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at Leeds Grand

Bury lad Layton Williams kicked off his stage career travelling down the M62 to join the Billy Elliott training academy in Leeds before graduating aged 12 to take on the lead role in the West End. He went onto play young Michael Jackson in Thriller – Live and as an adult won critical acclaim playing Angel in the 20th anniversary tour of Rent. Now he’s back up north at Leeds Grand Theatre playing Jamie New in uplifting musical Everyone’s Talking About Jamie which has just been made into an Amazon Prime movie. For people who are new to Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, how would you sum up the storyline? Jamie is based on a real character who was the subject of a documentary on BBC Three. I remember watching it years ago and it was about him wanting to be a drag queen and wanting...