Why political figures like Jackie Kennedy are the perfect subjects for a musical

When we sat down to write JACKIE!!!, it wasn’t just because we wanted to mythologise a First Lady, actually quite the opposite.

We were interested in what happens when a woman, an ordinary camera girl with an excellent haircut, is thrust onto the altar of American exceptionalism and told to smile for the cameras… forever.

Jackie Kennedy has become an icon, sure, but in the way women are often made icons: her clothes, her voice, her “grace.” In JACKIE!!!, we wanted to ask what might happen if she grabbed the mic and wrote the script herself, so that we could see beyond the manufactured idea of what a First Lady should be. What if she told us what it actually felt like to become American royalty, without the crown, but with all the pressure, publicity, and performance?

Although the story, and the political violence at the centre of it, is well known, we knew we didn’t want this to be a sombre tragedy. That’s not the Jackie we discovered in our research. Our Jackie has a sharp wit and a half-raised eyebrow. So we made a show full of camp chaos. A musical comedy that blends 1960s Americana with pop culture, cartoonish caricatures, and the Kennedy family’s own Shakespearean absurdity.

Why Jackie? Because in her, we found the perfect lens (Camera Girl pun intended) through which to explore the cost of legacy, the suffocating weight of dynasty, and the paradox of power. She’s both a central player and a silenced observer, a woman marketed as a brand while battling betrayal and the relentless expectations of the nation.

Through irreverence and silliness, we allow the audience to be entertained while grappling with these serious topics. Comedy is a way of understanding how Jackie was constructed, consumed, and commodified. In a world still obsessed with royalty, legacy, and image, Jackie remains painfully relevant.

Jackie!!! plays at Gilded Balloon Patter House (Big Yin) from 30 July to 25 August (not 11th) at 18:30