The true story of Jamie Campbell – a 16-year-old boy who wanted to go to his school Prom in a dress and with aspirations to be a Drag Queen, first saw the light of day as a BBC documentary – and the rest of course is musical theatre history.
Why is it such a powerful piece? I think it’s because it speaks to all of us about our dreams, our desire to be unique and at the same time our true selves, and to be accepted for who we are. Layton Williams, leading the UK touring cast which has now hit the Theatre Royal, Brighton, has a powerful pitch-perfect mastery of Jamie’s shyness, brash ambition and vulnerability. It is an absolutely stunning performance and highly nuanced physically and emotionally.
When Layton is on stage – and he is for most of the show – you cannot take your eyes off him. His highly emotive vocal range, his balletic movement and his intense concentration on whatever is going on around him is electrifying. He makes the role totally his own.
Around him, an amazingly talented cast supports him and develops fascinating characters we can believe in. Central to the story is the loving connection between Jamie and his mother Margaret. Amy Ellen Richardson is stunning as the single mum, who totally supports her son. There’s a strong resonance with the musical Blood Brothers and its matriarch Mrs Johnson. Amy’s Act 2 song He’s My Boy stops the show and is the out and out, the best song in the musical.
Dinnerladies star Shobna Gulati is the feisty family friend Ray, who gives a gutsy element to the storyline. And there are other strong female characters – Sharan Phull brings an emotional honesty to her role as Jamie’s best schoolmate Pritti, and Lara Denning is an equally feisty but unsympathetic Miss Hedge, the careers teacher who keeps telling Jamie to forget his dream and get real.
Also core to the storyline is the faded drag star Loco Chanelle, now reduced to running a fancy-dress shop in Sheffield where the action is set. Ray Haylock plays Hugo, Loco’s creator, with dry, drawling American drag humour, but wow when his alter ego Bianca Del Rio metamorphoses into Loco, the fun and games begin. Bianca simply blows us away and it’s a high-octane performance that seems to inspire the hesitant Jamie.
The audience of course goes wild whenever it can, and you leave the theatre for a cold, rainy December Brighton night, feeling you’ve shared something that’s important to all our lives.
Jamie is at the Theatre Royal until 2 January. You’d be loco to miss it.
See December’s Scene magazine for my interview with Layton.
Watch the trailer here:
