![](https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/uk-tour-6-scaled-1.jpg)
Show: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Society: New Victoria Theatre (professional productions)
Venue: New Victoria Theatre. The Ambassadors, The Peacocks Centre, Woking, Surrey GU21 6GQ
Credits: By Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom Macrae, from an original idea by Jonathan Butterell. Produced by Nicca Burns, Ian Oaborne and TC Beech Ltd. The Sheffield Theatres Production.
Type: Sardines
Performance Date: 15/03/2022
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
One of the biggest touring theatre shows ever has got to be Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. It stars Layton Williams and Shane Richie and is every bit as good as the West End production which they both starred in prior to the pandemic. This week, Woking’s New Victoria Theatre gets to play host to the modern musical machine and, on press night, the theatre was packed to the rafters.
The masterstroke is in the casting of Williams and Richie because the audience appeared to be full of teenage girls – presumably there to see Layton Williams, star of Bad Education – or older women – presumably with a crush on Richie’s Alfie ‘EastEnders’ Moon.
In addition the show is popular and extremely relevant with its LGBTQ+ themes and banished old-fashioned view-points, from both adults and Jamie’s peers. When you sell out your shows you can afford to pay the big bucks, hence Williams and Richie. But that’s not all. George Sampson, Britain’s Got Talent’s second-ever winner (remember him) adds some cool moves as he takes on school bully, Dean Caxton. Sampson needs to watch out for the type-casting dragon as this role follows a similar character in three seasons with the BBC’s Waterloo Road and then making his musical theatre debut playing skinhead and bad-boy, Reecie, in the UK tour of Our House.
The story is based on the drag exploits of real-life teenager, Jamie Campbell, and has also enjoyed a BBC documentary and feature film of the show. No wonder it’s so popular! But it is very good.
Dan Gillespie-Sells excels as the show’s composer who has turned out twenty strong tunes with lyricist, Tom Macrae. Ben Atkinson’s seven-piece band – high up at the back of the stage – do the score justice without drowning out the performers. But it is those performers who steal this show.
The energy of Williams is infectious as he takes on the role of Jamie ‘New’. He couldn’t resist a high kick close to the end either, just to show us he can. The voice, the lithe athleticism and those dance moves. Amazing! In contrast Richie’s brilliant comic-timing is called upon time and time again in the role of Hugo / Coco Channelle… an ex-drag queen himself, a role that may surprise one or two fans who have come to see their favourite Albert Square hero.
Huge support surfaces in the roles of Jamie’s mum, Margaret (Amy Ellen Richardson) and friend, Ray (Sasha Latoya). Lara Denning also gives her heart and soul to the role of Year 11’s Careers Teacher, Miss Hedge, who attempts to stamp out any dreams of stardom her class may possess (you can imagine her reaction when Jamie says he wants to be a drag queen!). Perhaps the younger audience members like the fact that most of the roles they’re watching are troublesome school children their own age.
This brilliant show really is that good! How do I know? Simple; my aunt loved it, and I drove home humming the title song, which is very catchy. It’s modern, it’s ultra-relevant – Go see it!