Prepare for nostalgia, it’s Jackie the musical
Arlene Phillips brushes up Seventies pop moves for a show inspired by the iconic teen magazine
IN ITS heyday, it was the big sister everybody needed: bursting with fashion tips, pop song lyrics and wise advice columns about navigating the teenage years.
Decades on, the incomparable Jackie magazine has inspired its own musical, as it brings the innocent days of 1970s girlhood to a new generation.
The musical, based on the Jackie archives, has signed Arlene Phillips, star choreographer, for an all-singing, all-dancing take on being a teenager in a world before the internet, mobile phones and ubiquitous celebrity.
It will take material from genuine problem pages, advice and storylines from the 1970s and 1980s to recreate an era still beloved by a generation of women, who bought 600,000 copies a week at the height of Jackie’s powers. And it will feature the music of the era’s favourite pop idols such as Donny Osmond, David Cassidy and Marc Bolan.
The musical, which will begin a 20week tour of the UK next year, will tell the story of a modern-day fiftysomething woman who is down on her luck after a divorce. Disillusioned with the world of 2015, she turns to a stack of her old Jackie magazines to reminisce, before going back to relearn the lessons they offered her first time round.
She will turn to the wisdom of Cathy and Claire, the magazine’s iconic agony aunts, and the much-loved photo casebooks navigating her dilemmas.
The musical will draw on the knowledge of Nina Myskow, a former editor of the magazine, and will have full access to a treasure trove of material still held by its publishers.
It comes a year after the magazine celebrated its 50th anniversary, and will introduce its wide-eyed wisdom to a new generation after it finally closed in 1993.
Written by Mike James and directed by Anna Linstrum, the musical began with a two-week run of a pilot version in Dundee in 2013, which proved such an unexpected hit with audiences that producers realised they must do more.
This expanded version will now travel all over the UK from March to July next year.
It will be co-produced by Sally Wood, the wife of Rolling Stone Ronnie. As its choreographer, Phillips is already
known for her work on musicals such
as Saturday Night Fever, Starlight Express, Flashdance and Grease, as well as
her time as a judge on Strictly Come
Dancing.
Phillips told The Sunday Telegraph she was preparing to break out her best 1970s dance moves for the show, with “big, bright” numbers set to the music
Jackie fans adored. Janet Dibley will star in the lead role – a woman of a certain age who comes home despondent after too much pros- ecco with a well-meaning friend, who tries to set her up on an internet date. In the musical she will travel back in time to meet her 15-year-old self, and learn to find happiness through the pages of Jackie.
Among the advice drawn straight from the archives are tips on how to kiss without bumping noses, how to tell whether a boy likes you and, critically, how to tell when he is lying. Myskow will interview famous
Jackie fans for an accompanying web- site, after hearing from devotees including Fiona Bruce, who once modelled for the magazine, Anthea Turner and Emma Thompson.
“It was a different era, when teenagers barely had a voice,” Myskow said. “They had no televisions in their rooms, no internet, no mobiles. Their phone was probably in the hall and they had to ask permission to use it.
“Jackie was something they felt was absolutely their own and it was a lifeline to what life could be like. It was kind of like having a big sister who didn’t judge you, but was there for you. It wasn’t goody-goody, it was great fun, and it had an absolute connection with its readers.”
In its heyday the magazine would receive 500 letters a week from young readers asking advice on everything from school friends to rows with parents and fledgling romances.
Phillips also modelled for magazine photo casebooks as a young woman in London, joking that she was “always the girl who didn’t get the boy”. “As soon as I heard it was about
Jackie, I said yes,” she said. “I know this is going to reach a whole era of women who lived through Jackie magazine.
“It was a completely different way of life then, where you could fancy a boy for weeks without being able to just swipe on your phone to meet them, or plaster your walls with posters of pop stars without reading their every thought on social media.”
The show will tour major UK regional theatres in 2016. Tickets go on sale on Wednesday.