Everybody's Talking About Jamie! Without a doubt!

Go Jamie! (Louis Dutton) Photo by Martin Pulley.

Everybody's Talking About Jamie, at Rugby Theatre from 14 - 21 June. Directed by Kevin Bright. Book and lyrics by Tom Macrae, music by Dan Gillespie Sells from an idea by Jonathan Butterell.

Review by Ann Evans

Everyone will definitely be talking about Jamie after last night’s opening show at Rugby Theatre. The excellent cast gave a top-quality performance that would not have looked out of place on London’s West End.

The singing was excellent, the choreography packed a punch, full of energy and style with every one of the cast putting in one hundred percent effort into every move.  Their commitment to entertaining the audience was commendable. Loved the ballet duet when Jamie’s mum was looking back at how she fell for his dad.

Ray (Danielle Burrows, Jamie (Louis Dutton), Mum Margaret (Kim Arnold). Photo by Martin Pulley.

Mum Margaret (Kim Arnold) played her part as the loyal and loving mother, beautifully, great voice too and I thought a particularly lovely performance of ‘He’s My Boy’.  As for Jamie (Louis Dutton), he took on this challenging role brilliantly.

As a 16-year-old, his ambition is to become a drag queen artist and a gorgeous pair of red stiletto shoes is the starting point. And while he has the support of his mum and her best friend, fun loving Ray - great performance from Danielle Burrows, his dad (Sam Henshaw) sadly, totally disowns him. 

Excellent dancing from these guys. Photo by Martin Pulley.

Jamie does have the support of his best friend Pritti (Suriyah Mawee) another cast member with a gorgeous voice, and his classmates - all except Dean (Dexter Robinson). Must add that there's some fantastic dancing by the boys in this cast too.

Great performance also by their long suffering school teacher Miss Hedge (Natalie Van Spelde), and a compassionate performance by Hugo (Jon Andrews) a former drag star known in her day as Loco Chanelle, who helps Jamie achieve his dream.

Looking back. Photo by Martin Pulley.

Loved the ‘interludes’ by the young Loco Chanelle (Alar Allik) in flashback scenes, where she’s with her two drag queen friends, Laika Virgin (Adam Rowinski) and Sandra Bollock (Stephen Fordham) – raunchy, hilarious and just so brilliantly entertaining!

There’s not a dull moment in the show, a great live band provided the music for around 18 musical numbers that included solos, duets right up to the whole cast raising the roof. Well done to the production team, from Director Kevin Bright, Musical Director Jon Watson-Tate, Choreographer Jo Walker, Assistant Musical Director Matt Watson, Stage Manager Mark Rumsey, to everyone involved in the sound, lighting, costume, set designand behind the scenes people who all bring their magic and skill to make this such a resounding success.

Pritti (Suriyah Mawee) and Jamie (Louis Dutton) Photo by Martin Pulley.

The were a few sad poignant moments in the play but the thing that brought tears to my eyes was the standing ovation at the end.  As far as I could see, every single person was up on their feet applauding and cheering, and Jamie when he came to take his bow was clearly touched by the reception he and the cast were receiving, but perfectly in control as he softly quietened everyone down for the final section of the music.

Brilliant!

Visit: www.rugbytheatre.co.uk