Review: ONE NIGHT ONLY PRESENTS...EVERYBODY'S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE

Last night saw the third in a special 'One Night Only' virtual series, which reunites cast and creatives from musical theatre productions, past and present. Produced by SimG Productions and Musical Theatre Radio, yesterday saw an array of stars from Everybody's Talking About Jamie come together online for two extremely enjoyable hours of panel discussion and performances.

Having watched the first 'One Night Only' event using the Remo crowd platform, I was once again impressed by the uniqueness of the experience. The 30 minutes of 'mix and mingle' time prior to the main event is the perfect opportunity for fans of the musical to interact with one another. This period of time ramped up the anticipation, so the audience were chomping at the bit by the time the 'main stage event' began.

Simon Greiff of SimG Productions once again acted as the evening's charismatic host, getting questions answered and ensuring the event flowed well. The balance of interview vs musical content was much better than that of the previous event, which I was incredibly pleased about. The 'show' began with a discussion on how Everybody's Talking About Jamie was created between composer Dan Gillespie Sells, book writer/lyricist Tom MacRae and director Jonathan Butterell. Within this section, Gillespie Sells also performed two exclusive cut songs from the show, "Moments" on his own playing acoustic guitar and then the beautiful "Like A Baby" on piano with original Sheffield and West End Jamie, the phenomenal John McCrea.

The next section of the evening saw a chat with Butterell, set and costume designer Anna Fleischle, lighting designer Lucy Carter and a brief appearance by current touring Jamie, Layton Williams. Here, we listened to more fascinating insights about the initial vision and inspirations for the production. This was then followed by a gender-switched performance of "It Means Beautiful" by current West End Jamie, Noah Thomas.

The final section saw a panel discussion between John McCrea, Noah Thomas and original Pritti, Lucie Shorthouse. The dynamic here was great and Shorthouse's journey with the show was particularly inspirational for young performers, with her award-winning performance in Everybody's Talking About Jamie being her first job out of drama school.

The organisers seem to have really found their stride with this distinctive type of event now, and whilst there did still seem to be some ongoing confusion from bookers about how the platform worked and the content provided, the vast majority of the fans most certainly enjoyed the evening - as did I, greatly.

To post a comment, you must register and login.