THEATRE REVIEW: Everybody's Talking About Jamie - The Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield.

A strange sense of déjà vu swept over me last night as I was sitting in my seat waiting for the award-winning musical 'Everybody's Talking About Jamie' to start. Not because I’d been one of the lucky few to attend the first ever performance in February 2017 at the Public Dress Rehearsal (PDR) followed by being at the Press Night reviewing the following day. 

This cast (2020) had both Shane Ritchie and Layton Williams revive the roles of Hugo/Loco Chanelle and Jamie New retrospectively, from the West End production. Due to covid the tour was forced to come to a hiatus on 17th March 2020 and returned in 2022. The cast is the 2020 tour cast continuing their run, which is why it seemed unusual for it to be the same cast some two years' later.

Based on a true story, this musical is a story of not being afraid to show your true colours. Sixteen-year-old Jamie (Layton Williams) doesn’t fit in with his classmates; openly gay Jamie secretly daydreams of becoming an established Drag Queen and decides to face his fears and go public with this dream. From deciding to wear a dress to school prom against the Headteachers wishes, to putting on his first drag performance, Jamie is fearless and overcomes school bullies to follow his dreams.

The ensemble has always been what has made this musical so special for me. The slick choreography and the harmonies when singing as a group, along with Dan Gillespie Sells’s (The Feeling) catchy lyrics, has what’s made this musical incredibly addictive and uplifting. I absolutely adore Layton Williams as both an actor and singer, having seen him in other musicals including Rent (Angel), Kiss Me Kate (Paul) and Hairspray (Seaweed); however I struggled with him vocally in this role in the 2020 performance and had just put it down to him possibly feeling under the weather, as his voice was often too soft or hoarse in places, meaning that sometimes lyrics went unheard of misheard. Unfortunately the same thing can be said for tonight’s performance some two years later. Don’t get me wrong, he can hit all the right notes and has Jamie’s vulnerability down to a tee performance-wise but both myself and friend- plus those seated close by towards the back of the stalls, all said the same thing and had it not been for the fact that I know the soundtrack word for word, I’d have missed so much about what each song was about.

Also returning to a role at the Lyceum (until Saturday 16th April) is Britain's Got Talent winner George Sampson as school bully Dean Paxton. However for tonight’s performance we had understudy Ryan Hughes. Whilst Sampson definitely gave off the aggression and fear that is typical of a school bully in his 2020 performance in the role, I didn’t get that same sense of believable fear from Hughes's performance tonight.

I also struggled to warm to Shane Ritchie reprising the role of Hugo/Loco. Vocally I didn’t feel he was strong enough and like several other leading performers in this production, it all just felt a little flat. Maybe I’ve just overdone it with seeing it so many times, or maybe because I’ve not felt any previous casts (with two exceptions - Shobna Gulati taking over as Ray in the original tour cast and Amy Ellen Richardson taking over Josie Walker as Margaret New) have been anywhere as exceptional as the original Crucible cast, meaning for me, I’m no longer talking about Jamie, at least not with my original enthusiasm and love of the musical I felt in 2017.

Definitely worth a watch for the catchy lyrics and killer dance moves alone. The strong ensemble really are the glue that holds this tour together. A musical that will continue to be a firm audience favourite for decades to come.

Reviewer - Lottie Davis-Browne
on - 12.4.22