Kevin Clifton Archives - North West End UK

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Bradford Alhambra

3Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Bradford Alhambra

When I was at school in the less enlightened 1970s the mere hint of being different would have earned you a beating, so turning up to an end of year disco in a dress would have been inviting real trouble. So when in our more liberal times Sheffield teenager Jamie New announces he wants to wear a dress to his prom you’d think no-one would care. Sadly, as in most musicals, the road to true self expression is never an easy one as he battles to overcome prejudice and his own insecurities to achieve his dream. Openly gay Jamie doesn’t want to be a forklift driver that his career teacher thinks is his destiny, instead he wants to be a drag queen like the real life character who Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MaCrae based their lively musical on. It helps that Jamie has the support of his sin...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Hull New Theatre

18Jun

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Hull New Theatre

This week Hull New Theatre plays host to the hit musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, a production inspired by the 2011 TV documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16 which features County Durham lad, Jamie Campbell, who, from a young age, liked to dress in girls’ clothes. The theatre was packed on Monday evening; would everybody be talking about Jamie at the show’s end? Sixteen-year-old Jamie New (the super talented Ivano Turco) lives on a Sheffield council estate with his mum Margaret (a passionate performance from Rebecca McKinnis). Single mum Margaret’s best friend is bargain-loving Ray (the amusing, sassy and protective Sejal Keshwala). The opening scene shows Jamie and his classmates with patient teacher, Miss Hedge (the irrepressible Sam Bailey), discussing their career asp...

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...

22Jun

By Jenn McKeanNo Comments

North West

Singin’ in the Rain – Liverpool Empire

Don’t you know everyone wants to laugh? The stage production of what is arguably one of Gene Kelly’s most famous films, Singin’ in the Rain, is once again making its way around the UK once more and is continuing to entertain audiences, just as it did in the 1950s. With such a famous score, including the titular track, ‘Good Morning’, ‘Moses Supposes’ and ‘Make ‘Em Laugh’, to name but a few, the musical really does make the film come to life right in front of your eyes. In 1927, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are at the height of their fame as silent movie stars. Their latest movie is a massive smash hit, and they are about to start working on the next film, when news reaches them, about Warner Brothers’ next film – a talking picture. What can they do to maintain their stardom and what...

Dianne Buswell is ready to Burn The Floor this summer

7Jun

By Leanne RushtonNo Comments

Interviews

Dianne Buswell is ready to Burn The Floor this summer

The original Broadway production of Jason Gilkison’s BURN THE FLOOR is being recreated for a strictly limited tour in July 2022. THE REUNION features some of the most celebrated alumni of Burn the Floor including Strictly Come Dancing’s Aljaž Škorjanec, Kevin Clifton, Janette Manrara, Karen Hauer, Dianne Buswell, Joanne Clifton, Luba Mushtuk, Kai Widdrington & Robin Windsor, plus more cast just announced. Ahead of the tour hitting the road next month we sat down with one of its stars Dianne Buswell to talk all things dance. What is your favourite dance of the show? Although they’ve not started rehearsals Dianne said she’d been in the show for 8 years before Strictly! She said she really hopes that ‘Ballroom Beat’ is in the show again though as she says the music and choreography...

Kevin Clifton: Burn the Floor – Bridgewater Hall

15Feb

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Kevin Clifton: Burn the Floor – Bridgewater Hall

On a wet and windy night in Manchester, former Strictly Come Dancing champion Kevin Clifton is trying to raise the temperature with the delayed revival of Ballroom dancing phenomenon, Burn the Floor. The show is a riotous celebration of dance, fusing traditional waltzes with fiery Latin Tangos; Quicksteps and Rumbas and some good old Rock and Roll to boot. It’s been a two-year wait for tonight’s performance – with Clifton joking at what proved an ill-timed decision for him to quit Strictly for a life in the theatre, just weeks before stages went dark and Covid stole the spotlight. But the show itself has been thrilling audiences for longer than some of tonight’s dancers have been alive, conceived 25 years ago at a birthday bash for Elton John. There’s a slightly contrived star...

7Oct

By Anne PritchardNo Comments

North West

Rock of Ages – Manchester Opera House

We were asked for proof of COVID vaccinations as we entered the theatre; those who couldn’t produce them were asked to take a temperature check at the side entrance. All theatre staff were wearing masks. The theatre was two thirds full: mostly with a 23-35 year old age group with a sprinkling of older theatre-goers. There was an air of anticipation as we waited for the curtain to go up. Once it did, two lone guitarists appeared beneath projected images of USA; the set was a nightclub, The Bourbon Room, with a small stage and a bar with tables and chairs. Rock of Ages doesn’t have much of a story, but for what there is, it is a typical love story, well three love stories really but the main story concerns a small town girl, Sherrie (Rhiannon Chesterman), who relocat...

16Sep

By Jan MellorNo Comments

North West

Rock of Ages – Liverpool Empire

Theatre! Theatre! Theatre! So good they said it thrice! How absolutely wonderful to be back in the theatre watching live performances once again! This was my first visit to the theatre in 18 months (as it probably was for a lot of people here at the grand Liverpool Empire this evening) and I was to see a show that, although I have seen before, I was gasping for breath to see. I needed a laugh, some upliftment and an escape from the fear and dreariness of the last year or so and I was hoping that ‘Rock of Ages’ could do this. So, on entering the theatre, I wasn’t that surprised that the auditorium was half empty, people are still cautious, I appreciate that – although I must add that there are safety measures in place at the Empire (evidence of negative lateral flow test or proof ...

13Sep

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

West Midlands

Rock of Ages – Alexandra Theatre

Part rock gig, part romp down memory lane, the new tour of Rock of Ages has landed, ready to make the UK ‘feel the noize’ and indulge in some heavy metal headbanging. Tonight, we’ve been transported from the centre of Birmingham to the heart of Los Angeles, the Sunset Strip. We meet the regulars of the Bourbon Bar; an insalubrious rock joint being faced with extinction as a villainous German duo look to demolish and develop the gritty Strip into a gleaming European vision of modernity. Underneath this shadow we meet barback Drew who is instantly smitten with the wholesome new girl in town Sherrie, and the show follows their budding ‘will they, won’t they’ relationship as they navigate the standard fare of missed opportunities and misunderstandings as well as their attempts to make i...

25th Anniversary – BURN THE FLOOR – The Reunion

3Sep

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

25th Anniversary – BURN THE FLOOR – The Reunion

Strictly MEGASTARS join forces for reunion performances… The original Broadway production of Jason Gilkison’s BURN THE FLOOR is being recreated for a strictly limited tour in July 2022. “This Burn the Floor 25th anniversary will be such a one-time event for us - all our stars back on stage together again where they all began!” Jason Gilkison THE REUNION features some of the most celebrated alumni of Burn the Floor including Strictly Come Dancing’s Aljaž Škorjanec, Kevin Clifton, Janette Manrara, Karen Hauer, Dianne Buswell, Joanne Clifton, Luba Mushtuk, Kai Widdrington and Robin Windsor, plus more names to be announced. “To get this ‘dream team' back together on stage for a Burn the Floor reunion will be an event not to be missed.” Jason Gilkison BURN THE FLOOR is a breatht...