Butterell’s movie is bold, proud and loud, so dust off your high heels and get ready to celebrate the beauty of difference and the electricity of Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MacRae’s award-winning musical. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is now showing on Prime Video and in selected cinemas nationwide.
Based on the BBC Three documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, broadcast in 2011, Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MacRae’s musical adaptation proudly took the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield by storm in February 2017. Soon after, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie would do the same in London, becoming one of the biggest West End hits of 2017 and 2018.
The Warp Pictures and Film 4 movie adaptation of Sells and MacRae’s musical was initially announced in 2018 and would find a home with 20th Century Fox before transferring to Disney after the Fox merger. However, during the COVID-19 hiatus, Disney’s 20th Century Studios decided to relinquish distribution rights, with Prime Video quickly stepping in. This decision would result in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie having a disappointing straight-to-streaming premiere. Despite showing on a handful of cinema screens nationwide, I fear this will affect people’s experience of the movie; after all, musicals are designed to be watched on a big screen with panoramic sound.
However, discussions on streaming versus cinema aside, Butterell’s film adaptation holds on tight to the original stage production and, in turn, avoids any significant stumbling blocks. There are attempts to build on the stage show’s core story; however, these are minor, adding only slight depth, particularly when exploring Jamie’s complicated relationship with his absent dad. Instead, Butterell’s film plays it safe, celebrating the smash-hit musical through a bright, colourful adaptation full of love, energy, and humour.
The decision to cast an unknown actor as Jamie carried risks, but Max Harwood is fabulous, delivering a lively performance that genuinely brings Jamie to life. At the same time, the ensemble surrounding Harwood is stunning, with superb performances from Richard E Grant, Sarah Lancashire, Shobna Gulati and Lauren Patel.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is a celebratory and colourful joy to behold, and it deserves to reach as many young people through streaming as possible; after all, in a society that still forces too many young people to hide their unique and beautiful differences, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie encourages them to shine and bathe in their uniqueness. Butterell’s movie is bold, proud and loud, so dust off your high heels and get ready to celebrate the beauty of difference and the electricity of Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MacRae’s award-winning musical.
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