HOW THE MUSICAL, EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE, WAS CREATED: THE OFFICIAL STORY (NOT THE FAIRYTALE)
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NCE UPON A TIME in a small, former mining village in county Durham lived a boy called Jamie Campbell. Jamie always knew he was different and from a young age he liked to dress in girls’ clothes.
MARGARET CAMPBELL, JAMIE’S MUM He used to dress in my clothes all the time. I always knew when he’d been in my wardrobe because my things would be out of place or put back awkwardly on the hanger. When he was little I used to think his liking for girls’ clothes was just kids playing because our friends had a lot of girls and he would play with them. He always used to dress in tutus and fairy wings and people would just say, “Oh, there goes Jamie.” Nobody thought anything of it. His dad never liked it; he was a rugby player and he would have expected Jamie to go down the pits if they hadn’t been closed by then. But that was never going to happen. My mum, May, had a curtain shop and when he was younger he would go in and ask for a length of material and we would make him a dress together. We both loved making dresses for him.
Jamie and Margaret in the Apollo auditorium
What I admire about Jamie is that he believed in himself enough to dress in the way that made him happy. When he went into town he wouldn’t be in a frock but would dress in more flamboyant clothes that attracted some remarks. When people were horrid, he let the negative things go over his head because he was being true to himself, and that why his drag name is Fifi la True - he has to be true to himself. I love my boy and I feel so lucky: I got two in one, a son and a daughter in one labour!
When he was 14, Jamie came out to Margaret, thinking that if he said he was bisexual it might make it easier for her to accept. But she replied “Son, you’re gay,” having known for some time. It’s no wonder that Jamie describes his Mam, a single mother for much of his childhood, as his rock.
At school, Jamie was mostly able to dismiss the taunts about being gay from the nastier children - “I mean, it was stating the obvious,” he says. Besides, the flash of originality in his hairstyles or minor adjustments to the dull uniform they all had to wear - but mostly his exuberant approach to life - had long given the game away that he was different, and happily so. So whilst everyone knew he was gay, Jamie had a big, big secret - his ambition was to be a drag queen and, deep breath, he wanted to attend the school prom in a dress when he and his classmates graduated in 2011. It’s surely a sign of how remarkable this young man is that he believed his prom ambition story should be shared with the wider world. So, as you do, he went about finding a documentary maker to do just that. “I just wanted do this thing and when I want to do something I’ll do whatever it takes,” says Jamie. Being a resourceful 15 year old, Jamie went on the internet and typed “how to get a documentary made” into a search engine, sending an email to all the companies that came up on the results. But none replied, until - only a few months before the prom in 2011 - one, Firecracker, contacted him. It turned out he had sent his email to an account that was checked only sporadically.
JES WILKINS CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER AT FIRECRACKER As you can imagine, we get sent lots of ideas for documentaries. Only about 1 per cent of these get made. So what was it about Jamie’s email that made us sit up? Jamie’s email read like a film script, it was a very good pitch. It was the perfect combination of a brilliant character and a brilliant story: totally heart-warming, it made me think of Billy Elliot. So I sent a member of our team Jenny Popplewell - who then directed the documentary brilliantly - to meet Jamie with a camera. As soon as we saw him on camera I knew we had something special, and when I pitched it to the commissioning team at BBC 3 they got fully behind it. One of the shots Jenny took that day was pretty much the opening of the film - Jamie coming home in his school uniform and putting his high heels on - because it was such a unforgettable image. He’s a lovely character – he’s a combination of confidence and vulnerability. What was striking was the fact that he wanted to be in the spotlight, he wanted to be fabulous, but not in a reality-TV kind of way; it’s just the core of his being. There was something about Jamie that was special.
Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, directed by Jenny Popplewell and produced by Laura Ellings
Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, was shown on BBC3 in August 2011. Directed by Jenny Popplewell and produced by Laura Ellings.
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hance intervened again for Jamie: theatre director Jonathan Butterell was channel-hopping that night and came across it. He immediately knew he had to put Jamie’s story on stage, and as a musical, but how? JONATHAN BUTTERELL, DIRECTOR AND CO-WRITER I caught the documentary by accident: the story of a 16-year-old boy wanting to go to his school prom in a dress and all the challenges he faced on the way, had elements of a classic fairytale. That was the simple part. What moved me and inspired me to create a musical was the story of the boy and his mum and the working-class community they come from, which is at the heart of the piece. Very similar to my own childhood in a council estate in Sheffield.
Jonathan approached an old friend of his Daniel Evans, Artistic Director of the highly regarded Sheffield Crucible, which has a reputation for producing excellent drama. Daniel liked the idea and asked who is writing the music and story? Jonathan didn’t know and he set out to find his collaborators. Meanwhile, on a visit to see Kiss Me Kate in Chichester, West End Star Michael Ball had got chatting to two aspiring musical theatre writers, Dan Gillespie-Sells and Tom MacRae. They asked him for advice, Michael kindly went round to Dan’s studio and Tom and Dan performed their songs for him. He discovered that they didn’t have a story. He explained that you need to write the story first and suggested they worked with Director Jonathan Butterell. Michael rang Jonathan and discovered that he had a story for a musical, but no writers! So Jonathan met Dan and Tom. They found they all had similar backgrounds and clicked. After he had heard their songs, Jonathan told them about Jamie’s story and they connected with it on an emotional level. The creative team of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie was born. Jonathan says: “There is a bit of all three of us that has ended up in Jamie - we hope that audiences will see a bit of Jamie in themselves too.” Michael Ball
So in 2014 our three hopefuls went to Sheffield to persuade Daniel Evans to commission them to create their show. Daniel Evans asked if they could give him a plot breakdown as soon as possible. Yes, they said and realising they had three hours before their train back to London, decided to write the plot there and then. They looked everywhere in the Crucible theatre for a space to work, but the café was packed, every rehearsal room was booked and there was no suitable space nearby. Then someone said: “Well, you could use the wig room.” So amongst the wigs, the brushes and the glue, the three men created the story of their musical, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
JONATHAN BUTTERELL, DIRECTOR AND CO-WRITER
DANIEL EVANS, FORMER ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF SHEFFIELD CRUCIBLE Only a tiny percentage of ideas that come to an artistic director even get off the ground but I had an inkling that Everybody’s Talking About Jamie would go ‘big’. I believed in Jonathan’s passion for the project and the writers he had now chosen: Tom MacRae has a great CV and I was already a fan of Dan Gillespie Sells’ pop music. So I commissioned it. It was a huge risk financially and reputationally – I’m glad we took it.
Jamie and Margaret Campbell with Layton Williams and his mum, Michelle Forshaw at the Sheffield Crucible’s opening night of Kiss Me, Kate, December 2018
The documentary was my originating inspiration. However, Dan, Tom and I watched it once and once only. We needed to be free as a creative team to tell Jamie’s story in our own way. We didn’t want to be encumbered by Jamie saying “It wasn’t quite like that” or “That detail is wrong” so we deliberately did not meet Jamie Campbell and his mum, Margaret, until after the show had been written and workshopped. I moved the setting from Durham to Sheffield, where I grew up, and where the production would be created. I changed Jamie’s surname from Campbell to New. I wanted to create Jamie’s world and expand the characters in it, in particular we invented the school and Jamie’s friends who were not part of the documentary. As you will see, the opening number starts with Jamie in class with his peers, dreaming up his future. The first time Jamie and Margaret Campbell saw the show was on opening night. They loved it. When they came onstage at the end of the show, they just hugged each other and cried. The audience went wild. It was an incredible moment.
NEW WRITERS, DAN GILLESPIE SELLS, MUSIC Jamie’s story resonated with Jonathan, Tom and me; we’re from humble backgrounds and were kids with a big dream - we knew that if we were going to do what we wanted to do it would be a big leap. And we all have very strong connections with our mums and recognised the importance of the relationship between Jamie and Margaret. So knowing those characters allowed me to create a musical voice for them: Jamie’s stuff is modern, pop and funk and driven by what he listens to - what’s in the charts - which is in turn influenced by artists such as Michael Jackson and things that went before. Margaret’s music has a certain soul feel, as she would have grown up listening to singers like Dusty Springfield. I’ve always been able to write for other artists but what was liberating for me was having this structure to write within; having a moment, or the rhythm of a scene to write to gives me a lot of direction, and it sets my imagination free to deal with how to get around any problem. Being given that purpose of a scene is like being given a runway to take off from. This show was the greatest amount of time I’ve worked with a lyricist (as I write a lot of the lyrics for my own songs) and it was an extremely collaborative process, and we used a lot of different approaches, whatever worked best in that instance. Sometimes Tom would give me a lyrical hook and I would write a melody around it, or I would write a melodic structure and Tom would set a lyric to it, and everything in between. You have to get there however you get there.
NEW MUSICAL TOM MACRAE, BOOK AND LYRICS This is my first work for the stage after writing for television and film, and I had to learn a different approach; there are things that work on screen that don’t work on stage. In television everything has to be communicated quickly and the camera will telegraph a look or a gesture for you, but that doesn’t work in theatre. This form allowed me to breathe, and I found the confidence to write much longer scenes. Conversely, for the song lyrics, you might have only 10 syllables to communicate a character or set the scene, so then everything has to be condensed to its essential element. As a writer, everything is material, and I’m fortunate that I live in London, a diverse city with an energy of its own, so there is always something going on around you. One of the lines in the show - “I always dress in designer clothes – Nike, Adidas, Puma, you get me?” - I heard when I was sitting on the top of a bus in London 15 years ago. I make sure I get public transport a lot... When Jonathan, Dan and I met to discuss this project we could see instantly where the songs would go. It was musical we could do together. At its heart the story is about Jamie and his mother and the fierce love between them: without the songs it would still be a lovely story and a wonderful play, but with the songs it becomes epic and consequential.
“When Dan and I started writing the musical, we didn’t have a clue about what we were doing and so we never thought we were doing it wrong. Thank God Jonathan knew what he was doing! “– Tom MacRae
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he production was given a three-week run at the Crucible in February 2017, and each night the sold-out audience - many of them attracted to the show by word of mouth - rose as one to give the cast a standing ovation. Meanwhile, the show’s acclaim had gone beyond Sheffield, and critics from national newspapers descended on the Crucible to give Everybody’s Talking About Jamie a slew of positive reviews. But the theatre world is littered with shows that never become “big” - go from small spaces to the West End or a national tour - for any number of reasons, most of them to do with the huge cost of staging, particularly large-cast musicals with a live band, as Jamie is. At this point, then, we need a Fairy Godmother to make the story complete; enter Nica Burns, the co-owner of the magnificent Apollo Theatre, who read the reviews and - before midnight could toll and consign this particular Cinders back to the scullery - magicked up a carriage and horses (well, she caught the 10.26 from St Pancras) and went to the Crucible to see the show before its run finished.
NICA BURNS, PRODUCER: “Everybody seemed to be talking about the show so I went to the final matinee in Sheffield - but with no expectations. I came out of the auditorium singing the tunes having laughed, cried, laughed again, and I was dancing with happiness.”
In the best Hollywood tradition, she decided to do the show right there. “I sought out Jonathan Butterell, and immediately offered to produce the show in London at one of my theatres. It had to come to the West End. This is an uplifting musical for our times and for everyone. “I cried twice. My favourite place to find out about a show is in the ladies’ loo, because everyone’s queuing and chatting - and everyone was so excited.”
And now Jamie has hit the West End and, as anyone in the theatre will tell you, to go from the page to the stage in three years, let alone to the theatre capital of the world, isn't just a fairytale, it's a minor miracle. “In theatre terms, three years to create a completely new musical is nothing,” says Nica Burns. And the fairytale continues. The show is now in its third year in the West End and is out on the road with its first UK tour sending over 5,000 people out into the night every week with joy in their hearts and a spring in their step.
AND THE LAST WORD GOES TO... JAMIE CAMPBELL: The opening night in Sheffield was without doubt the biggest night of my life (to date) and I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew it was going to be good, I could feel it even from the slight contact I had had with it. From the very moment it began with the school kids running around the stage, I knew those kids. Everyone had those kids in their schools. It was so believable.
Jamie with Margaret and his nan May at the Apollo stage door and below Jamie Campbell today and Jamie at 16 getting ready for the prom
MARGARET CAMPBELL: I think this show is Amazing. It’s our lives. It has so many layers: they even catch Jamie’s self-doubt, and his inability to understand his place in the world, all hidden under a confident persona that is my boy. Yes, I do actually say “he’s my boy” about my Jamie, just as Margaret New sings onstage. I think she is wonderful. The Margaret in Tom MacRae’s head was me! How did he manage to write it without meeting me? I was very emotional all the way through. And although they imagined it, they managed to capture all the important moments of my life.
It was like looking at a mirror of my sixteen year old self. So young, so naive, so ambitious. Ready to take on the world and nothing was going to get in my way. The stage Jamie resonated with me as the real Jamie. It was incredible.
Interviews by Veronica Lee, edited by Nica Burns
DAN GILLESPIE SELLS (COMPOSER) The tour was cut short in 2020 due to COVID-19. How does it feel to be able to share Everybody’s Talking About Jamie with audiences again after the past year? For me it’s going to be amazing and quite emotional, and I think it’s the same for our cast. I’m feeling for them. I’ve feel for our cast and crew and all of the people who work on our show. For them to get the chance to do their work again is really extraordinary. For them to be able to perform again after more than a year of being in limbo, I’m just really relieved for them. Did you ever imagine back in 2017 that the musical would go on to be such a phenomenal success? I suppose you’ve got to allow yourself to dream. As an artist you’ve got two different voices in your head. One is managing expectations, which artists learn to do all the time; we do the work and we don’t care where it goes and we don’t care about the money and we don’t care about the success or the awards or any of that stuff. We tell ourselves that, because it’s sensible and it’s how you survive as an artist. There is so much disappointment in this business that you do get quite tough. But then there’s the other voice - the small part of you when you’re writing and developing any project that dares to dream. If you didn’t have that then you wouldn’t do it. It would be hard to carry on, so part of you keeps that little flame of hope alive. In that little flame of hope there’s all these grandiose ideas of maybe one day it being a West End show, maybe one day it being a movie. I’d be lying to you if I said all of this was never in our furthest thoughts but it wasn’t our focus. Our focus was to create a show that was for Sheffield. We had this kind of inkling that it might be something that could speak to a lot of people and a wide audience. Had scoring a musical always been on your wishlist? Yes, it was. A very long time ago The Feeling had a pretty sniffy review in one of the music rags where the reviewer - I think slightly disparagingly - was saying that there was something a bit musical-theatre about some of the material on Twelve Stops And Home, our first album. I never took it that way. I took it as a compliment because I have great respect for musical theatre. Did writing the score come easily to you? There was a lot of hard work involved but it came easily and it felt natural. It felt like a natural fit, being melodic and telling stories and writing in-character and giving different voices to different characters stylistically speaking. It’s almost like it’s an excuse to do all the things I’ve always wanted to do in pop music.
Which musical number in the show is your favourite and why? It’s quite hard to pin them down because when you work on a show for a long time every song has to get tested to a point where if it’s not robust and strong enough it gets cut. I find it hard to pick out a favourite. I genuinely can’t choose between the children. [Laughs] Don’t make me choose between the children! Were you already familiar with the true story that Jamie is based on? I’d seen the documentary when it was first broadcast but it wasn’t until later, when Jonathan asked me to watch it, that I was reminded of it. Why do you feel it’s such an important story to tell on stage? One of the reasons I was excited to do this was that you don’t often get the story of an effeminate boy at the centre of a piece of drama as a hero. You don’t get a heroic effeminate character, you get a kind of tragic or comical character. If you look through the annals of queer storytelling it’s either slightly sexualised in some way or another, or the camp kid is the sidekick - just there for laughs. I found this more interesting because it was this authentically effeminate male lead hero character at the centre of the story. That felt fresh. And we don’t need another gay victim story. He’s strong from the very beginning. Does it resonate with you personally? Lots of things about it resonate with me. I’m a state school kid and Jamie’s a state school kid. I had teachers like Miss Hedge who pretty much wanted to stamp out any idea of getting above your station, standing out too much or becoming an artist. That was kind of ridiculed in the same way Jamie’s dream is. However, I think that’s the same for all three of us in the creative team - me, Jonathan and Tom. We’re all state school boys. I think having strong mothers is another thing that connects all of us to this story. The big relationship in this story is between Jamie and his mother. That’s the main story and the big emotional highpoint in the piece is the song that Margaret sings [He’s My Boy].
Does the theme of inclusion speak to audiences both young and old? I think so because lots of different generations connect with it. I like the way that Hugo, a gay man of a certain age, meets Jamie, who is a much younger gay man. Hugo thinks he has all the answers when actually he doesn’t. He gives Jamie some slightly off advice about what it means to be strong and stand up for yourself and become ferocious in order to survive in this world, which is maybe him projecting his own experiences onto Jamie. What kind of feedback have you had from fans about the show? I don’t know how it happened but even from the beginning in Sheffield everyone connected with it very strongly. Even with characters like Dean the bully, lads were coming up to us and going ‘I was like Dean when I was at school but I like your story and I’m not like him now’. We get the most amazing stories from the most unexpected people. It’s very funny and it’s poppy and toe-tapping and all those things so people enjoy it and we don’t have to be preachy at all. I love that. Obviously there’s the people who are going to connect with the story because they’re very much a Jamie but I think a lot of people come to the theatre not expecting to be as connected with the story as they are. That’s what’s lovely, when you surprise people. You must be thrilled with the idea of reaching a whole new audience with the tour? Absolutely and I think the same thing will happen - somehow people will recognise there’s a bit of Jamie lurking in everyone, a bit of an outsider, a bit of someone who is prepared to dream a bit bigger and burst out of the limitations that have been placed on them. It makes him really relatable and it’s a classic coming-of-age/overcoming-adversity story. There’s something very simple and classic about it and the relationship at the heart of the story is a boy and his mum. It’s relatable across generations. The tour calls at Hull. Does it have any significance for you? I’ve often played in Hull with the band and it’s a great city. I’ve always found the audiences to be very welcoming and I’m sure they’re going to love Jamie.
LAYTON WILLIAMS (JAMIE NEW)
For people who are new to Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, how would you sum up the storyline? Our story is about a 16-year-old boy who wants to be a drag queen and the journey he goes on to find himself and his drag persona. It’s also about his relationship with his parents – his wonderful, supportive Mum Margaret who loves him unconditionally and his Dad who doesn’t. What do you see as the key themes? Acceptance and inclusion. Family, friendship, trust and support. There are so many different, relatable characters in it - [laughs] although if you identify with the dad then have a word with yourself! And there’s so much diversity in the cast. The real Jamie is white and I’m not, but that wasn’t even a question for the producers and creatives which is so refreshing and so fab, like just ‘He’s right for the role’ and that’s how it should be. Oh, and there are high heels, high kicks, drag queens, beautiful dresses, feather boas, some fantastic songs and brilliant dancing. It really is fun, funny and fabulous with a lump in your throat and a little tear. How important is the theme of inclusion to audiences both young and old? Very important. I get messages from people of all ages who have been helped by the show – children who want to come out and parents who want to understand them better. So many people can relate to being an outcast or feeling different but after seeing the show they’ll feel, to quote one of the songs, there’s a place where they belong. One guy said to our director (Jonathan B) in Sheffield ‘I was Dean once’, referring to the bully character. People see elements of themselves in the characters and the show. This is a show for everyone, especially for today.
What challenges does the role of Jamie present? It’s about the emotional journey he has to go on. Eight times a week I’m having an argument with my character. Being 16 years old is hard and the rollercoaster of emotions is a lot to navigate. The acting side is demanding and I have to look after my voice and keep myself on top form all the time so that when I get out on stage I slay it. I want to give people a fantastic show every night so I look after my health and am rested and prepared. That’s the nature of the job but that’s what makes it exciting because you put your whole self out there on stage.
What’s your favourite musical number in the show and why? And You Don’t Even Know It is fab because it’s the opening number and I get to sing and dance and do it all. Then I love the closing number Out Of The Darkness because I have my microphone in my hand and I feel like a real popstar.
Do you know the real Jamie and have you based your performance on him? Yes, I know Jamie Campbell, he’s a really lovely guy. I rewatched the documentary once I got the part. There a few things he does, like a few little dance moves, that I’ve put into the show. I take some of his isms and personality traits. On the surface, Jamie comes over as really confident and out-there, but there’s so much vulnerability to him. That’s something I don’t necessarily have myself. I try hard to stay as true to him and his story as I can because I want to do it justice.
Is there one thing you couldn’t be on the road without? My suitcases full of outfits and things for my dressing room, like my dolls and cards full of love and my artwork. I have to put them all out so when I come into the room I feel the love and the energy.
Does the show resonate for you on a personal level? Yes it does. I’m a queer boy from a council estate up North, so we have that in common. Me and my mum have had our moments in the past but we always patch things up. Things weren’t always rosy. As I say, I was a gay boy on a council estate and as much as I tried to hide it I had a few things coming my way. It’s not been the easiest ride but I put it into my art.
What are you most looking forward to about taking Jamie on tour? Taking the show to a brand new audience and hopefully, changing their opinions and perspectives whilst having a fun, funny, fabulous evening.
How hard do you think it will be to say goodbye to Jamie when the tour ends? I can’t even think about it to be honest. I’ll have been playing this part for a good year and a half and I’ve loved every single second of it. All good things have to come to an end and I’m sure there are many more amazing opportunities waiting for me in the future but this will be something I will never forget. It’s been a life-changing job. The tour calls at Hull New Theatre. Does it have any significance for you? The theatre has had a big renovation since I was last there so it’s going to be a whole new vibe. I’m also so looking forward to being there with Bianca Del Rio [aka Roy Haylock, who plays Hugo/Loco Chanelle]. I’m going to take her around all the streets and vintage stores. I love a good vintage store in Hull!