REVIEW: Jackie: The Musical: Theatre Royal

Jackie: The Musical at the Theatre Royal, Brighton on Tuesday, April 5.

Another jukebox musical, another week I sighed as I went into the Theatre Royal. Regular readers may know I’m not a great fan of these stuck together thinnest of plots excuses for a show; I waddled to my seat, past the buzzing excited throngs of slightly older women and expected the worse. There were very few men in the audience. Groan.

Then Jackie the Musical exploded across the stage, the audience took it up with whoops, sing-alongs, clapping, dancing and generally very enthusiastic audience participation in a wholehearted and good-natured way. I felt like the grumpy old uncle at the wild birthday party of a friend.

I have a confession; I used to read my sisters copy of Jackie, folded and hidden inside my copies of 2000AD (where else was i going to learn about boys….) so I felt connected with this emotive musical. I desperately tried to hide this and stay cool, but to no avail my tapping toes betrayed me.

At its peak in the late 1970’s Jackie sold 600,000 copies a week. This good-natured, fun, musically inspired and rather entertaining musical is superbly balanced. The cast are all excellent, the men two-dimensional and easy to dismiss, not that it mattered in the slightest to the audience who roared anyway, and it’s all solidly anchored with a standout double act from Janet Dibley as Older Jackie and Daisy Steere as her younger self. The set is a shiny pastiche of the Jackie stylebook, the music a well-balanced and fun selection of the best 70’s tunes and choreographer Arlene Phillips (yes her of Hot Gossip/Strictly fame!) nails the disco vibe perfectly.

For full cast and more info see the tour website here

The ensemble cast are electric, with special mention for the thick thigh’d snake hipped Bob Harms as Frankie (above) who gave a passionate and ironic full belter comedy performance of tongue in cheek macho sexual energy and charm with a reworking of Puppy Love, great fun.

The rest of the smoothly singing all writhing smiling cast work as tightly and with some serious moves, all as you would expect from any show with Arlene Phillips involved. The narrative tension is surprisingly kept up even though the jokes and the plot are anorexic and utterly obvious. The second half starts off a bit slow, but soon gathers pace and the plot starts to feel more irrelevant the harder it tried to make sense but these are small niggles in a night of such warmth. It all ends in the best possible taste, with the audience throwing in their own encouragements and advice, some perfectly timed heckles which gave cast and audience a laugh, and a huge medley of closing songs which had the Theatre Royal rocking.

Mike James has written this belter and knows the target audience and plays to them, and to their strengths, their fondly remembered weaknesses and the dreams that all young women who read Jackie had.

No ‘girl power’ patronising twaddle here, just a warm celebration of the best empowering magazine for young women with a soft feminist whisper full of hope to keep it relevant and honest.

Director Anne Linstrum keeps the focus tight and the laughs light and gives the show a bubbling fizz and the live band pumped out the music under the effective and engaging musical direction of Dan De Cruz.

Sometimes, like with Mamma Mia, a jukebox can have all the best tunes and Jackie: The Musical has all the ingredients of a superb night out. It’s not deep, questioning reflective theatre; it’s nostalgic, frothy and as substantial as a bubble being lit by a disco ball and exactly what this audience wanted.

The packed house loved it, were up on their feet for the end of the show and left singing, chatting noisily away as they headed out into the night. My companion, this her first experience of musical theatre giggled and grinned her way though the show, and enjoyed it. I left chuckling to myself and having had a relaxed and enjoyable night at the Theatre. Isn’t that what it’s all about, being surprised and entertained?