Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, UK tour

I went to see this yesterday afternoon at Wimbledon. Unusually the bulk of the audience weren’t pensioners! Equally unusually loads of people took drinks in with them! I think that helped the atmosphere, 😂😂.  The audience was almost screaming at the start, it was that enthusiastic, and went completely nuts at the end. For me, this is no Cage aux Folles, but very enjoyable.  I was surprised though because I knew it was about a lad of 16 who wanted to leave school and become a drag queen so I thought it would follow that arc. But in fact the main thrust of the story is that he wants to attend his school prom in a dress, and really he only interacts with the drag queens when he tries to find his drag persona. And although he does this, becoming Mimi Me and doing a successful turn at a club, you don’t actually see that act. So it is much more about identity, getting on with your peers and acceptance etc. I found it closer to that David Walliams story about the boy in a dress.

We saw Adam Taylor playing Jamie and he filled the role very well. Even better were Amy Ellen Richardson as his mother (who had a very strong voice and sounded as if she belonged in Blood Brothers) and Sharon Phull playing Jamie’s Muslim best friend. Shane Richie was very good indeed as Hugo aka Loco Chanelle, and the school bully was played by George Sampson who I think won BGT.

The dance routines were all well done, the staging was nifty. Most of the audience went wild for it, and it was certainly very well done. I quite enjoy a drag queen though and there wasn’t enough of that for me.