Hit musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie tells the story of 16-year-old Jamie New, who dreams of becoming a drag queen. Inspired by a real-life television documentary and garnering great critical acclaim since premiering in 2017, the show returns to the Midlands this month, with Ivano Turco taking the title role, John Partridge playing Hugo/Loco Chanelle and Hayley Tamaddon starring as Miss Hedge... What’s On recently caught up with the trio to find out more...

In his short career so far, super-talented musical theatre star Ivano Turco has already demonstrated formidable range. Having made his professional debut playing Prince Sebastian in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella in the West End, he then transformed into reggae icon Bob Marley in bio-musical Get Up, Stand Up!. But his latest role, as Jamie in the new touring production of heartwarming British musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, is particularly fulfilling because “it’s the closest character to my actual character that I’ve played.” 
That’s partly because, in playing a gay teenage hero and aspiring drag queen, Ivano is getting to embrace his queerness in a way that his previous theatre roles haven’t allowed. “I really wanted to be able to experience playing within those realms and not having to put on several layers to try and be somebody else.” 
What this means in practice, Ivano explains, is that in the rehearsal process, he doesn’t “have to do as much” in terms of trying to figure out his character’s mannerisms and nuances. 
“It’s very freeing in that sense, in that I can put a lot of my natural movement into it.” 
One of the other aspects of the role that really resonates with Ivano is Jamie’s close relationship with his mother. “For the most part I grew up in a single-parent household with my mother, so we really had that kind of connection. [Like Jamie] I know what it felt like to have a dream that was different from everyone else’s.”

Since it premiered in 2017, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie has been a huge international hit. Ivano believes its success has a lot to do with the pioneering nature of the character of Jamie himself. “He’s just a boy who happens to be gay and wants to be a drag queen. I think that’s a refreshing lens to look through - [someone] who’s not burdened by their queerness. I know I really felt empowered by that, watching it.” 
Ivano thinks another of the show’s key draws is its music. “The music is really easy to digest. It’s a lot like what we listen to nowadays, so it’s much more realistic [than most musical theatre].”
If Jamie has had a remarkable run over the last few years, then so has its new star. From an early age, Ivano set his sights on performing. Growing up in Milton Keynes, he graduated from drama school in 2020 and found himself personally chosen by Lord Lloyd Webber to be the male lead in his hotly anticipated new show, Cinderella. The experience proved to be wonderful for Ivano, if somewhat nerve-wracking: “To have a multimillion pound musical resting on your shoulders was hard to navigate for me. I found at times it was hard to really [appreciate my achievement] because there was just so much work to be done. But then somewhere about halfway [through the run], because I really knew the show and what I wanted to do as an actor, it became perfect.” 
To top that challenge, Ivano then took the lead role of Bob Marley in the musical Get Up, Stand Up! - and did so on the back of only two weeks’ rehearsal! “The first Bob had a year to prepare … so for me to try and get all that work done in two weeks was… well, a challenge!” 
As for the future, Ivano really isn’t thinking too far beyond Jamie, “dream show” that it is. “[This role] is my chance to put into overdrive all the techniques that I've learned, as the character is so much closer to me. I feel like there's a lot more power with it that I’ve been afforded.”

Getting to dress up must be one of the most enjoyable elements of an actor’s life - and in that respect, John Partridge is certainly relishing playing Hugo - aka frustrated drag artiste Loco Chanelle - in the new tour of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. “I’ve tried on Loco’s undergarb so far,” he says, “the padding and the corset, and I’m looking forward to it. I always like characters that are transformative.” 
John’s only costume concern is Loco’s vertiginous heels. “I have worn heels, but these are extraordinary. So I’ve been teetering around in them at home - I answered the door to the builders in them this morning!”
For John, who became a household name playing Christian Clarke in EastEnders, the show is a perfect entrée back into musical theatre after having major surgery on his vocal cords. 
“My role [in Jamie] is small and perfectly formed,” he says of Hugo, the dress shop owner who, in the process of becoming a mentor to the show’s titular hero as he takes his first steps in drag, rediscovers his own passion for performing. 
“There’s something very comforting about stepping into this Jamie juggernaut,” says John, who adds that the production already feels very ‘family’. 
“I know that’s a word that’s thrown around all the time, and actually it’s often a lie - it’s something we say simply to give that impression - but this really is like that. It’s to do with the feeling of the piece; there’s something very grounding about it.”
As for his character, John says he’s really connected on a personal level with Hugo and his poignant journey. “There aren’t that many parts written for a mid-50s gay man. [Like Hugo] I’m at the moment in my life where I’m fully aware of what’s behind me as opposed to what’s in front of me - of my fleeting successes and my failures and disappointments.” 

It has to be said, though, that John is being pretty hard on himself, given the amount of success he’s had. On stage, he’s been dazzling audiences ever since appearing in the original UK tour of Cats, aged just 16. His impressive CV also includes showstopping performances in, among other musicals, Cabaret and La Cage Aux Folles.
In 2008 he landed the part of the out-and-proud Christian in EastEnders, quickly becoming a fan favourite.
Indeed, he thinks Everybody’s Talking About Jamie has been such a success because it has the mass appeal of a TV soap opera. “It’s a story about Jamie, but it’s also got this really wide breadth of very well-crafted characters that you see in your daily life. You live with them in your own homes, on your own streets.” 
What’s more, he says, he couldn’t be prouder to be involved in a show that, in telling the story of a gay teenager, flies the flag for the LGBTQIA+ community. “We see this massive push against LGBTQIA+ hard-won freedoms -  and they are hard-won freedoms … and that’s why it’s really important for us right now to be able to get out there and tell this story. And the fact that people *love* this show gives me hope. It shows me there is a way through.”
Whether starring as much-loved characters in Emmerdale and Coronation Street, or appearing as herself in shows such as Dancing On Ice, Hayley Tamaddon has always lit up the screen with her natural warmth and charm. So she’s performing quite the switch-up with her role in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, for once playing someone relatively cold and unsympathetic: cynical teacher Miss Hedge, who is out to quash poor Jamie’s showbiz dreams. “I am not cold,” Hayley says, confirming what a leap the character is for her. “I am huggy and warm and want to cuddle everybody - whereas she’s just a bit over life.”
Actually, Hayley has already played Miss Hedge - in the West End production of Jamie back in 2019 - and this new tour is proving a joyful return to the role. “Even though I’m a few years older, I’ve apparently still got the moves! I’m dancing around on tables, and I get to rap, which brings out that inner Vanilla Ice in me.” 
Hayley doesn’t see Miss Hedge as a villain, but rather as someone who’s been beaten down by disappointment - and who has more in common with Jamie than might seem to be the case... 
“The way I see her, she’s a really frustrated club singer. That’s all she wanted to do, but she couldn’t because there was no money, and she ended up going into teaching to make a living. She looks at Jamie as this kid she kind of sees herself in a little bit, but she can’t let that side out.” 
Miss Hedge also reminds Hayley of teachers she encountered as a youngster growing up in Blackpool. 
“I did have one teacher, Mrs Crossley, who was ace - she used to tell me ‘Be whatever you want to be, go dance, go sing.’ But a lot of teachers said ‘You’ll never make it, Hayley - it’s too difficult, don’t try and do it.’ That just made me want to do it even more.” 
Indeed, from baby ballet classes onwards, Hayley never looked back. After graduating from drama school, she went straight into a West End musical, landing a role that would change everything for her: the lead in a Sheffield revival of A Chorus Line. In the audience for that show was Emmerdale’s casting director - and so it was that she landed the part of the irrepressible Del Dingle. 
Alongside her successful telly career, Hayley has continued to tread the boards, appearing in shows including Chicago and Thoroughly Modern Millie. She thinks Jamie is something special, though - not least because of the sheer passion of its fans. “It has the biggest fanbase that I’ve ever known in any show. They hold parties for the cast and they’re very prominent on social media, so if anybody in our company was getting grilled by anybody, that fanbase would step in. So we’re very lucky to have that.” 
Hayley is looking forward to the show picking up new fans as it travels around the UK - particularly because of the powerful statements the musical makes about tolerance and self-expression. “The more towns we can get this show into, the more parents are educated, the more kids that watch and go ‘I did bully that other kid at school, I should stop that’ – the more we can get the word out there, the better.”
So what else does Hayley have in the pipeline? Well, she’s currently writing a TV comedy, inspired by her own life. Meanwhile, she says she’d be interested in going into the jungle with I’m A Celebrity. “In terms of reality shows, that would be the funniest, because I’m scared of everything!” 
When it comes to Jamie, however, she has no qualms about what lies ahead: “Of course I get stage nerves on opening night, and for the first few nights, but you turn over the energy and they become exciting nerves. It feels wonderful - you should never stop feeling like that.”

by Hugh Montgomery

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie shows at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from Tuesday 23 to Saturday 27 January