Everybody's Talking About Jamie

BMCDS (Barnstaple Musical Comedy & Dramatic Society)

EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE

As seen by Matthew Heaton, NODA SW Regional Councillor on Friday 21ST March 2025 for Katie Jones, NODA SW District 7 Interim Representative

Directed by: Shannon Edwards

Musically Directed by: Graham Ruhleman

Choreographed by: Anthony Sawlbury

Assistant Director: Eowyn Faulkner

Assistant Choreographer: Liv Edwards

 

The Venue, Barnstaple

This was my first time ever visiting BMCDS and ‘The Venue,’ which is a quite unique but very impressive and effective performing space. Your excellent reputation as a Society proceeds you and I am very pleased to say first of all that it is extremely well-founded!

To start with some context of the show itself, Everybody's Talking About Jamie is a stage musical centred around a coming-of-age story, with score by Dan Gillespie Sells and book and lyrics by Tom MacRae. The musical is inspired by the 2011 BBC3 documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16 - the true-life coming-of-age story of 16-year-old British schoolboy Jamie Campbell, as he overcomes prejudice and bullying to step out of the darkness and become a drag queen in Sheffield. The musical received generally positive reviews upon its 2017 launch: “funny, outrageous, courageous, exuberant, joyous and touching” being some the words used by the combined UK press. Its limited release for amateurs has seen it as one of the most popular shows in UK Amateur Theatre at the moment. This was my 2nd Jamie visit in a fortnight!

The Venue itself uses a floor-based stage area to perform to tiered seating, with almost a proscenium type arch above and to the side it to create some valuable wing space, side flats to mask entry points and some cover the lighting bars. The back of the stage housed what I was shown as a new permanent staging structure, on which all the band could comfortably sit and high enough to allow a full doorway through underneath. This arrangement worked really well. The setting of the show followed the format often seen for fast-paced, multi-scene shows like Jamie, with a standard plain stage, which was continually added to and removed from. The desks and chairs for the classroom scene at the start were very well used – particularly the slick re-configurations made throughout ‘Don’t Even Know It’. Other scenes were set confidently, using well-made and visually impressive trucks for Margaret’s Kitchen and the School Toilet cubicle, and the clothes rails for Victor’s Secret. These all worked superbly and the slick scene changes were a real stand-out, undertaken by both cast and crew and working expertly to keep the pace and audience interest. This is all the more impressive knowing the cast dressing rooms are not even in the same building! The setting of Jamie’s exit to stage at the end of Act 1 worked really well without the availability of a curtain to bring in.

A real feature of this show was its integration – we’ve already covered cast and crew for scene changes, but the same integration was seen with the staging and the lighting. The flashing lights on the front of the staging supported not just the effects in the scenes, but also the scene transitions. I thought the show lighting was a real triumph, particularly considering the limitations of the venue, with very little options from ‘out-front’ and limited ceiling height for the on-stage area. There was a good use of the haze to provide the coloured beams for the up-tempo numbers and a generally well-controlled follow-spot for the more intimate moments.  Colours, single and combined were used to good effect to support the required moods. The red worked particularly well! Some movements in scenes were occasionally darker than probably desired, due to the fast-paced and energetic flow of the show and the bedside lamp was a nice touch and could have been even brighter to further enhance the effect. Overall, the lighting was a real feature of the production – well done.

I’m sure sound is very difficult in the venue and with running so many radio microphones but overall is worked successfully Levels between singers and the band were generally well-controlled, which is no easy task with this type of production and performing space. The opening school scenes in Act 1 and 2 in this show are notoriously difficult to set and cue with so many characters speaking in quick succession and some of this was missed, but it was faultless for the important Prom Song and Finale scenes. Vocal harmonies used to support on-stage solos and duets was very well managed. Overall, I thought the sound was handled with strong control.

Costumes were very nicely done. The show is largely contemporary but had a real range, starting with the school uniforms, which looked ideal and fitted well, as did the clothing for Mum, Ray and Miss Hedge. The Prom dresses and suits all looked great too (the Fatima / Pritti dress joke works best if they are completely identical). Loco Chanelle’s outfits and with the other drag queens were suitably outlandish at the right time and worked well for the characters and actors involved. You’d clearly put a lot of time and thought into Jamie’s clothing – the shoes were a triumph and the suitably over-the-top Mimi Me modified dress was perfect and a great contrast to the stylish blue Prom dress used.  Make-up was well used and you’d had great fun creating the drag-queen effects too. Props were where they should be at the right time (right down to the tits box!) and were in keeping with the setting.

The overall stage direction was very strong  – there was a good use made of the limited space available, characters were established and believable relationship. In terms of the principal performances:

Jamie New. You’d made the character so large at the start that I didn’t know if you’d have been able to keep it going and carry it off. How wrong I was!  From comedy to tenderness, anger and fear, you were able to supply the full range of emotions that this character required. Your performance of Ugly in this Ugly World was both moving and memorable. You formed so many great relationships in this performance – with Ray, Pritti, Loco and your Mum in particular. Your take-downs of Dean will live long in the memory too! Outstanding performance.

Margaret New). This was a lovely portrayal of Jamie’s Mum and her own struggles and doubts. You formed a great and believable relationship with Jamie and your songs, If I Met Myself Again and He’s My Boy were both powerful and poignant. Excellent!

Pritti Pasha. You played the role really well, which isn’t easy as she is a character that is both focused and driven, but yet quite vulnerable herself at times. You formed a lovely relationship with Jamie (the toilet cubicle scene was such fun) and your rendition of It Means Beautiful, was just that. Very well done.

Loco Chanelle / Hugo Battersby. You were clearly having such fun with this role and you performed it really well, going from the strength and power of Loco, right through to the softer moments as chief-encourager for Jamie. Great work in Over The Top.

Miss Hedge. You gave a great performance as the class careers teacher, trying to keep it real. You sang well – particularly in Work of Art, though you were occasionally drowned out here by the band here, which was a shame. Well done regardless!

Ray. You formed lovely relationships with both Margaret and Jamie and delivered your one-liners well as the comedy foil. Nice work.

The Ensemble were quite excellent in supporting the production. Class mates all had their own characters and really kept both these and the energy up in the production. I though Dean played his class-bully piece really well.  Dad too was suitably distant and bigoted. I could not fail to mention the sterling support work from the three other drag queens – Tray Sophisticay, Laika Virgin and Sandra Bollock. Vert well done!

The choreography was a real feature of this production also. It was strong, together, pacy and clean – Don’t Even Know it was a terrific opening and the whole movement around, on and with the desks worked really well. I liked the lifts used with the desks for The Wall in my Head (though was unsure if there was any significance on who was supporting Jamie in the lifts here). Work of Art was stand-out too – slick, powerful, high-quality and integrated with the sound and lighting (integration again!). The contemporary dance in If I Met Myself Again was nicely executed and didn’t overpower the song as I’ve seen in some productions. The Legend of Loco-Chanelle was well-acted and choreographed too, providing a nice contrast in styles. Really well done.

Musically, the show was very well sung by the Principals and the Company. Good harmonies were evident where needed and balanced, particularly in Spotlight and when suppled from off-stage. The band was sympathetic to this and played very well – the sound balance was generally very good here (just got a little over-powering briefly in Limited Edition and Work of Art) but overall the music worked really well.

The show had a fitting finale and end tableau and ovation from the audience. You’d made the show exactly what it needed to be successful:  “funny, outrageous, courageous, exuberant, joyous and touching.” Congratulations to everyone involved both on and off-stage. We both had a great evening - it was worth the 4 hours it took to get down and then getting home at 1.30am afterwards!  Thanks to Sue, Graham and Julie for looking after us so well

PLEASE NOTE:

Any observation made by the reviewer can only be based on what he sees at the performance in question.  The reviewer may have received information in advance of the performance and it is inevitable that his assessment will be effected by that knowledge.

The N.O.D.A. Representative’s intention is to give an objective critique of the overall production and in particular the performance viewed.  It should be remembered that any review of this nature can only be objective as far as the techniques used during the performance observed.  Any criticisms expressed may not have been valid at other performances, and are only made to encourage higher standards in Amateur Theatre.

It is hoped that the audience’s appreciation of your efforts will have given everyone a lift and encouraged you to greater achievements in the future and that the observations made by the reviewer will prove helpful in improving future productions.

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