“People can be f***ers,” says drag queen taking-the-rise Loco Chanelle to drag queen on-the-rise Jamie New. And boy, at “sixteen just” don’t he know it.

His estranged father disowns him as “disgusting”. A fellow pupil mocks him as “a minger” (in addition to a litany of homophobic slurs). And his career adviser dismisses his artistic aspirations with the unhelpful suggestion of being a forklift driver. Or worse, a prison officer.

To quote Shania Twain: “Man! I feel like a woman!”

Little wonder, then, that he feels the repressive walls of his Sheffield housing estate as symbolised by Anna Fleischle and Luke Halls’ respective and impressive set and video designs  – and The Wall In My Head in the second song of the opening act – are closing around him fast.

A position in which many young people sadly find themselves. Or rather, not find themselves. Particularly LGBT young people who as survey after survey attests are more susceptible to depression, self-harm and suicide

Thankfully, his inner confidence, which swings between fearless and fragile, is bolstered by the loving support of friends and family as he attempts to realise his dreams of attending his school prom in a dress. In particular his mother Margaret, whose relationship with her “my pleasure, my pain” son forms the beating heart of the show and shines like a diamond in the show-stopping He’s My Boy, performed with great feeling by Amy Ellen Richardson.

Additional support (comic and emotional) provided by his adopted Ray by name ray of sunshine aunt who showers him in cut-price Kat-Kits from Poundland; and his BFF Pritti who as a “Muslim girl with a Hindu first name” shares his dark sense of humour and deep sense of being an outsider.

Layton Williams as the “away with the fairies” lead is exceptional as he is effervescent – illuminating the stage with his charm, wit, beauty and talent – and well worthy of his standing ovation. You cannot but love him!

However, it must be said that the second half of Sheffield Theatres’ touring production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie by far outshines the first, which is no fault of the direction or the cast, but more the dynamics of the plot which lacks sufficient flare, grit and dynamism to hook the audience.

Ditto many of the musical numbers which with the exception of the title song, the aforementioned He’s My Boy and the equally moving It Means Beautiful sung with great tenderness by Sharan Phull do not linger long in the memory.

Still, the essence of the show does. The essence of acceptance, inclusion, and being who and what you want to be, which in the words of Hal David is “what the world needs now” more so than ever.

F***ers, on the other hand, can jog on!

Peter Callaghan
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