Everybody's Talking About Jamie to reopen in the West End with socially distanced audiences

The West End production of Everybody's Talking About Jamie will recommence performances on 28 November 2020.

The musical first opened at Sheffield Crucible in spring 2017, transferring to the West End later that year. The piece won a number of WhatsOnStage Awards in 2018, including Best New Musical.

The show, which has been in the West End for three years, is inspired by a documentary about Jamie Campbell, who wanted to be a drag queen at the age of 16. It is due to be released as a film in early 2021, with the first trailer now available.

Nica Burns, producer of Everybody's Talking About Jamie said: "Like everyone else in the UK, year 11 at Mayfield High School is back to school and coping with COVID-19 and the challenges of personalising their facemasks within school rules… We are delighted to welcome back our pre-lockdown leading performers with the addition of Phil Nichol guest starring as Hugo/ Loco Chanelle.

"To keep them safe, our brilliant cast and the backstage team will be tested for COVID every 48 hours. In a change of schedule, we will now be playing 8 shows a week Wednesday to Sunday with ticket prices remaining unchanged.

"We are only able to open such a big cast show with so few seats thanks to Oliver Dowden and the DCMS Culture Recovery Fund grant. Huge thanks to them – you should have heard the cheers from the cast when they received the news! It is wonderful to be able to welcome back our cast, backstage crew and all our fantastic freelancers who together make the production."

Appearing in the reopening cast will be Noah Thomas, Melissa Jacques, Phil Nichol, Sejal Keshwala, Hiba Elchikhe and Gillian Ford. The show's script and production is set to be adapted to suit Covid-compliancy rules for an initial run of six months, according to reports.

See the full cast reveal here.

Everybody's Talking About Jamie has music by The Feeling's Dan Gillespie Sells, book and lyrics by Tom McRae, direction by Jonathan Butterell, set and costumes by Anna Fleischle, choreography by Kate Prince, lighting by Lucy Carter, sound by Paul Groothuis and video by Luke Halls. Theo Jamieson is the musical supervisor, Richard Weeden the musical director, Will Burton the casting director and George Richmond-Scott the associate director.

The film adaptation of Everybody's Talking About Jamie will open in cinemas in early 2021, where Jamie will be played by newcomer Max Harwood. Richard E Grant will take on the role of Hugo/Loco Chanel, with Sarah Lancashire playing Margaret New, Sharon Horgan as Miss Hedge and Shobna Gulati playing Ray after having taken on the role in the West End. The film is directed by Butterell, with MacRae writing the screenplay.

Ticket holders for dates from 12 to 27 November will have their seats exchanged for a new performance.

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