Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Lyrics and book: Tom Macrae Music: Dan Gillespie Sells Director: Jonathan Butterell Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1 (0330-333 4809) Until 21 April Running time: 2hrs 40mins (including interval)
Damn right everybody’s talking about Jamie, said Paul Taylor in The Independent. This “wonderfully funny and moving” new British musical – which has won a hatful of awards since its Sheffield premiere in February – is completely “irresistible”. Jamie is the “joyous, lifeaffirming” tale of a Sheffield 16-year-old whose careers adviser has pencilled in “forklift truck driver”, but whose heart is set on “drag queen”. Director Jonathan Butterell had the idea for this “fizzing” show after seeing a BBC documentary about a young drag performer, said Ann Treneman in The Times. And what he has come up with is touched by “magic”. John Mccrea “lights up the stage” as Jamie – “gawky, vulnerable and magnetic”. It’s the “real deal, this one”.
The Billy Elliot- type plot could probably do with more “grit”, said Sarah Hemming in the FT. But overall, this “glorious” show “sweeps you away on a tide of mischief, warmth and exuberance”. The production is a “high-impact blaze of colour”, said Tom Wicker in Time Out, “combining video projections with seamless scene changes”. The music, by Dan Gillespie Sells of soft-rockers The Feeling, is a “deft mix of irresistibly catchy, pop-honed foot-tappers” and “truthful, heart-wrenching numbers”. The lyrics and script by Tom Macrae are witty and sprightly. The choreography by Zoonation’s Kate Prince is “pulse-racingly” brilliant. And Mccrea is starmakingly fabulous as Jamie, the “queen-in-waiting”.
To judge from the audience’s response, said Tim Auld in The Daily Telegraph, this is destined to become a cult classic. And it’s not just Mccrea who shines, said David Jays in The Sunday Times. Lucie Shorthouse sparkles as his best friend, Pritti, and Josie Walker is stunningly powerful as Jamie’s mother. The love between teenager and mother is “the show’s vast beating heart”: it has moments of such sweet sincerity that “I’m filling up as I type, soft lad that I am”. This pair, and this show, deserve all the awards coming their way. “I laughed. I cried. I’m still humming the songs. It’s a chuffing marvellous British musical.”