Everybody's Talking about Jamie – overcoming being othered and cast as outsiders (Alfie Boe James Huish Academy of Theatre Arts at The MAC until Saturday 26 July)

The opening scene of Everybody’s Talking about Jamie gets the majority of the 30-strong youthful cast on stage with teacher Miss Hedge (a formidable Tiffany McGowan) handing out career advice to the 16-year-old Year 11 students who will soon be sitting their final exams and leaving the Sheffield school.

Miss Hedge scolds the wannabe celebrities and reality TV stars in her midst and suggests they consider “a proper career”. Pritti (Rebecca Murray), a Muslim girl – culturally burdened with a Hindi name – who cheerfully wears her hijab in school, is ridiculed by classmates for studying hard and setting her sights on becoming a doctor. Sitting at the back of the room, her friend Jamie (Dara Setanta) daydreams about wanting to be a drag artist. But that doesn’t match up to his careers teacher’s notion of ‘keeping it real’.

Class bully Dean (James Hutchinson) picks on every moving target in class, and a subplot deals with how Jamie’s father (Angus McIntyre) has rejected his son, and the attempts by Jamie’s supportive mother Margaret (Shirley Adair) to mask this pain and protect her young lad. His mum’s best friend Ray (Leah McLoughlin), almost a godmother figure to Jamie, is another ally who wants the best for mother and son.

After getting to grips with the lead role of Tony in last summer’s BYMT show All Growed Up, McNaughton is on fire this summer as Jamie. He sings, he dances, he struts around in high heels, and he shifts from a diffident, shy Jamie to one that for a while seems to crave only being the centre of attention before lashing out in anger and gaining some perspective.

Director James Huish succeeds in getting the cast to display meaningful emotion. The sweetest moments are between Jamie and Pritti with It Means Beautiful, a moving showcase of the pair’s deep friendship (and also showcasing McNaughton and Murray’s vocal talent under the musical direction of Andrew Robinson).

Adair portrays Margaret’s maternal struggle and delivers a gorgeous rendition of If I Met Myself Again alongside Mya Jansen van Rensburg’s interpretive dance. Meanwhile McLoughlin makes Ray someone that you’d always want on your side, fighting for you.

Drag dress shop owner Hugo (aka Loco Chanelle, played by Michael Payer) is played way over the top at first, but mellows after the interval and settles down into a less stereotyped character. Hutchinson really impresses as bully Dean, never letting up with his character’s aggressive persona whenever he’s on stage.

With both acts running for over an hour, and only two weeks of rehearsal time, Everybody’s Talking about Jamie was an ambitious choice for the Alfie Boe James Huish Academy of Theatre Arts summer show. Tom MacRae’s book and lyrics (backed by Dan Gillespie Sells’ music) adapts a real-life story to examine choices and regrets, being othered in a number of different ways, overcoming being cast an outsider, and challenging incidents of harassment.

The show really comes alive during the first big number – And You Don't Even Know It – and Gemma Greene works with the actors, tables and chairs throughout much of the first half to choreographs some lovely ensemble pieces. The embroidered ABJH shield design on the cast’s school blazers is a lovely touch (added after the production shots were taken).

A longer rehearsal period and an extra day of tech might have tightened up some shakiness around the edges of later ensemble dances and ironed out some of the sound balance and lighting design niggles that are outside the cast’s ambit. But the promise was obvious on opening night and the show should firmly bed in over the four public performances.

LED video walls can be flashy, but in this case, the split wall serves the production well, providing an excellent backdrop that is decorated with some forced perspective images (though the cloud/moon animation would be less distracting if it was made to ‘boomerang’ rather than simply looping).

Everybody’s Talking about Jamie continues its run at The MAC on Saturday 26 July. The story told has a generous sprinkling of theatrical stardust, don’t expect anyone to get their comeuppance: performed in the week of Belfast Pride, other events and talks and people will serve as reminders that real life is much more painful and complex. But it’s a rare chance to see the musical in Belfast [update - I’d forgotten a UK tour that passed through in 2022!] and an opportunity to see some talented young performers pulling off challenging roles in a show that many theatre groups would shy away from producing.

Photo credit: Gorgeous Photography NI 

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