Everybody's Talking About Jamie - Sheffield Crucible/Apollo

This is a discussion forum, not a fanzone, or a place to promote vested interests.

In fact, I did say that I found the publicity misleading, so that is a constructive criticism to suggest that the publicity should be more clear in future. Now that the show has had its run in Sheffield and there's wider public knowledge of it, I expect that future showings will be publicised less coyly and more clearly.

Take a look back at the publicity and you'll see it was advertised perfectly clearly.  The publicity stated "Jamie has a secret".  I fail to see how this is at all misleading

Which image? Show us. 

That really suggests nothing about the character being transgender... 

I agree that the image of Jamie, a 16-year-old "he", doesn't specify either transgender or cross-dressing or just playing around or a part-time drag persona, which I understand from other people's posts about the musical is in fact his "secret".

I was unaware that there's apparently now a big teenage drag scene, as someone explained upthread. I tend to think of drag as a past historical aberration, as a coping mechanism at times when sexualities had to be hidden. Whereas transgender has become very prominent in the media, in the arts and entertainment and in society in recent years.

So I never considered a part-time drag persona as a possibility. For me, transgender seemed the only likely possibility. That is why I assumed from this publicity that Jamie's secret was that she was a transgender female. I felt that the publicity didn't specify his secret, and I have explained why I thought that. I accept that the information was sufficient for you to correctly identify his secret. Congratulations! That doesn't alter the fact that it made me expect something that turned out to be wrong.

Could have Googled it perhaps?  I'm sure if you were genuinely interested then you would have. There are articles from Nov/Dec time last year that outline the inspirations for the story. 

I think the root of the issue here is that you want to kick up a fuss and gain attention on a public forum.  Your posts in other threads lean this way too...

Not really. I think HG s just trying to swerve the focus of the discussion away from his earlier comments. Understandably! Let's move on eh

No, because I'm not complaining about being misled. So it's completely irrelevant.

HG - Nobody scoffed at your interpretation. The 'conflict' arose from your vocal disappointment of the show not being about what you thought it was. Instead of shrugging your shoulders and getting on with life you bemoaned this on a public message board and are now unhappy with the attention and responses that this has received.

BB - You are a moderator on said message board and as such should not be quite so 'stick pointy'. Riling people up will of course encourage people to bite. I hope you have learnt from this and can improve your moderation skills accordingly.

Dan - Has stated some facts and has in fact seen the show.



This, to me, is a quick summary of what's going on here. Nobody has died, nobody has been profaned and nothing of any consequence has occurred. Time to step away Gentlemen. (nearly put a gag here about assuming you were all gentlemen based on the publicity but thought better of it).


It is tiring and frustrating to read threads like this that go on and on. The answer is not 'well don't read them then'. The answer is 'well don't create them then'. God knows there is enough intolerance in the world about things that actually matter!

Absolutely no thanks neccessary Burly. I'm quite sure you'd already taken yourself away for some self admonishment! Y'know the kids look up to you.

We loved it too when we saw the final Friday show.  But we all thought the same thing: it's quality production values and staging make it seem destined for London, but the story takes too much from other hits shows: Priscilla is there, Billy Elliot is there, Wicked is there, La Cage is there, Kinky Boots is there, and so many others.  It's like a mash up of a cliched musical, even though, in performance, and with the great atmosphere in that theatre it felt anything but a cliche of musical theatre.    For these reasons it should be a bone fide hit transfer.  But these are the reasons also why it won't transfer or be a hit.  A shame, as we really loved it.

Some friends of mine saw a school production of Billy Elliott last week and it was complete with ALL of the language which surprised me.