One instant come-on for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie could be Madonna’s “Vogue.” The classic video looks to have been the inspiration for two, maybe three of film choreographer Kate Price’s extravagant numbers. Another way of saying this is: Some of the routines in the tuner now streaming on Amazon Prime are the best we’ve seen since 1985 when Madonna took up four minutes and fifty-three seconds for advising the world to take a pose.
The reason Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, transferred from the London stage to movie houses, might need a peppy come-on or two is that a brief description of it could sound like “Oh no, not another one of those!” Oh yes, it’s about someone wanting to attend a prom but planning to buck prom traditions to do so. Only last year there was The Prom. Transferred from the Broadway stage to the wide screen, that one told the gallant tale of a female senior wanting to put on a tux and escort her girlfriend to the prom.
This year the Jamie everybody is talking about is 16-year-old Jamie New (Max Harwood, a screen newcomer surpassingly good at his assignment) who sometimes likes to get himself up as a girl. His prom goal is to attend the iconic event wearing a dress.
It’s a goal supported by his mother Margaret (Sarah Lancashire), mom’s friend Ray (Shobna Gulati), and best friend Pritti Pasha (Lauren Patel). It’s not encouraged by guidance counsellor Miss Hedge (Sharon Horgan) or leading school bully Dean Paxton (Samuel Bottomley) and Paxton’s pack of hanger-on mates. The dress strategy is definitely not approved by estranged dad Wayne (Ralph Ineson).
Adding to the action causing all the Jamie talk is his career goal, decidedly at odds with his classmates. He plans to express himself as a drag queen. (Maybe Madonna’s “Express Yourself” can be invoked here, too.) The drag-queen plan is another backed by the determined Margaret. Her sweet-sixteen birthday gift to Jamie is a pair of glittery red pumps that resemble Dorothy’s ruby slippers on steroids. (Guy Speranza designed the costumes, Lily Beckett hair and make-up.)
At this endeavor Jamie is trained by aging drag artist Hugo Battersby (Richard E. Grant, giving another of his award-worthy performances). No longer appearing very often as Loco Chanelle, Hugo does everything he can to coach his young successor. He does it so well that Jamie has a sensational bow some time before prom night, The triumph further bolsters his confidence. Not that he doesn’t have second thoughts before Hugo pushes him on stage and raises the curtain so that Jamie can strut his stuff before an audience including tormenter Paxton and jeering pals.
Whether Jamie achieves his prom intentions won’t be disclosed here, although readers of this highly positive review will probably guess correctly. Nor will other plot queries be revealed, such as what happens with dad Wayne and Dean Paxton.
What can be said is that the magical flick reaches satisfyingly happy endings in several quarters. (The spirited Pritti confronting the cowed Dean is a highlight.) It may be that were Everybody’s Talking About Jamie released not too many decades earlier, the ending would have been considered unrealistic. In 2021 when attitudes and standards have significantly altered, the musical more accurately reflects the tenor of the times.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie was written for the stage by Tom MacRae, who coined the fresh (in more than one sense of the word) lyrics and composer Don Gillespie Sells. Anne Dudley joined the songsmiths for the film, directed with sensitivity and joy by Jonathan Butterell and based on his stage guidance. They’ve all contributed to a top-notch score that pops up immediately with the opening number, “You Don’t Even Know It.” The effervescent rouser just happens to be the best kick-off showtune since “Hello” from The Book of Mormon.
N.B.: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is based on a true story as well as the BBC documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16. The actual Jamie—Jamie Campbell of far-flung English village Bishop Auckland, County Durham—settled on his prom outfit but thought he’d lessen local objections by having a film crew follow him around. He set the project in motion, and it landed as hoped. That aspect of Jamie’s smart tactics is not included in either the stage or film version, which is perfectly fine.
Full disclosure: I saw Everybody’s Talking About Jamie in London’s West End two years ago. (It bowed in Sheffield, close to Bishop Auckland.) At the time, I had only recently seen The Prom in New York City and suspected that the superficial similarities between the productions might keep the former, which bowed in London before The Prom opened on Broadway, from being shipped stateside. (Comparisons are said to be odious, but often they are not, which is to say that of the two I much prefer Jamie Campbell’s story.) The good news is that the jubilantly serious stage version of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie opens in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theatre in January. Can a visit to a Manhattan stage be far behind? Let’s hope not.
