Everybody's Talking About Jamie - Sheffield Crucible/Apollo

Didn’t say I didn’t like it or that it doesn’t have merit

Read carefully please

It’s just misplaced in the WE

At the prices they are trying to charge

Which people are not paying


Bringing it into a commercial house is actually a disservice to a New show particularly a musical

Showing something like this at the NT or YV

Would mean it actually gets more support from audiences and likely higher tickets sales

I really enjoyed it. I'm glad it wasn't what I expected it to be. The score is a bit samey, and Act 1 is way too long, and there is a scene or two that needs cutting down, the one in the drag queen shop really, well, dragged!

The guy playing lead was fantastic, and the girl playing his bestie had an amazing voice. Her song Beautiful moved me alot. And the guy playing the bully was fantastic. I didn't get the ending I wanted from him, but it is what it is.

Id recommend it. Its a great show, if slightly flawed. Go for the Act 1 finale moment alone, iconic!

The book writer does scripts in Hollywood. Maybe he knows/works with/wrote for ZE and invited him?

This musical cannot be accused of doing anything by half measures, the campness was pretty much full on, bit like Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, which didn’t do it for me, this show equally lays it on thick. But then whooosh in the second half the show became humane when the excellent Josie Walker sang ‘He’s My Boy,’ this was even my poignant because it came after a dreadful song called ‘Beautiful,’ which reminded me of ‘Glorious’ from Bend It Like Beckham, another song that comprised of just repetitive lyric, to make things worse they reprise ‘Beautiful’ straight afterwards, however even though the song was banal, it was sung “beautifully” by Lucie Shorthouse, who was very enjoyable. The end of act 1 - I thought was done excellently with the big projection and the song Over The Top is very enjoyable and sets up the second part.

Jamie reminded me all of Billy Elliot, Phantom, Les Mis, Hairspray, and Kinky Boots etc, by which I mean when you examine the heartbeat of the show and peel back the trimmings, it is a simple story with acceptance at the core, which has proven to be a proven successful formula in musical theatre, I found the ending to be unplausible and a bit whimsical.

I mentioned Josie Walker and Lucie Shorthouse earlier, I also found Tamsin Carroll and Mina Anwar gave very good support, but in truth this show really belonged to one actor and that was John McCrea who left me cold at the start but I really warmed to him, as he gave an assertive commanding performance, but also displayed real raw vulnerability and tenderness. He will be nominated for an Olivier next year and the musical should also get nominated despite not being the best score and the book being uneven in places, the later can be still doctored.

A nice size theatre for this show, that will give it a fighting chance to have a decent run.

I am torn as this show is too good for 3 stars, but not good enough for 4 stars, if the score was a tad better it would be worthy of 4 stars.

A shame to read that since the third preview they haven't "fixed" the ending and that it still just "ends"
This needs a big finish...

I think the marketing for this needs to change a bit too. Get those drag queens on the posters!

Oh dear -- I went with considerable hopes but it's pretty dreadful, alas, though lord knows its heart is in the right place, but that's the easy bit: art is the hard part. And for all that they bang on about this being a New Original British Musical as if gravity has just been reinvented, the show is startlingly unoriginal in just about every possible way: there's even a shamelessly FOLLIES-esque number where poor Josie Walker (a character who herself could be a kindred spirit to the beleaguered Mum in BLOOD BROTHERS) looks back on her younger self ..... yawn. Just as you half expect the three seen-it-all drag queens to launch into "You Gotta Get A Gimmick" from GYPSY. Frankly, the cast all play it with a lot more conviction than the hoary material deserves, and I suspect the critics will be kind only because the show is so relentlessly on the side of the angels that to pan it would be like being mean to a puppy or a kitten. A truly missed opportunity.

Yes! The guy playing Dean was really cute! I wanted more of him, I missed him when he wasn't on stage. There was another thing I had a slight issue with, which was Jamie when he kissed him in Act 2. I felt it was really inappropriate, it didn't sit right with me. I almost thought, if Dean punched him there and then, id would be totally on his side, because it is low level sexual harrassment, and I really didn't like it. It just didn't feel right to me.

According to Dan Gillespie Sells, this is the plan soon.

I wouldn't say it was horrible (in Sheffield, they have changed it since), but it was relatively plain, and I think there's a reason for that: the show is about Jamie learning to negotiate the space between embracing a combatively camp drag-queen persona and cross-dressing as himself. He isn't going to the prom as Mimi Me, he's going as Jamie New. There's no act there, and no artifice - and so no sequins or feathers.

Maybe it was based on the one Jamie actually wore?

The drag club dress is red here, but the one he wore to the Prom was this white thing.

Heres the thing. Its a tough show to label and that could be a detriment. Because I assumed it was just a drag show, but if you look at for example this and Kinky Boots, for alot of people (meaning general public ) they would naturally go Kinky Boots over this because its know, its already had a long run qnd it still gets great word of mouth and has a large fanbase. It needs to steer more toward the Billy Eliott crowd in order to really run. Which can only be done really through promo at this point in order to get em in. How is it selling, do we know?