stage


EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAIME Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay Mon 15-Sat 20 Nov


Even after a year’s delay, Everybody’s (still) Talking About Jamie. Strutting onto the musical scene in 2017, and now the Wales Millennium Centre, the British stage show has become something of a phenomenon in just four years.


Based on a 2011 BBC Three documentary, Jamie: Drag Queen At 16 – the story of Jamie Campbell, his unconditionally loving and supportive mum and teenage drag dreams in Durham – and with music by The Feeling’s Dan Gillespie Sells, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie follows


dreams of becoming a drag queen, attending school prom in a dress in front of a backdrop of teenage homophobia and unsupportive authority figures. A pretty fabulous and mostly true story.


The original documentary touched the hearts of viewers and caught the attention of choreographer and director Jonathan Butterell (Nine), who met with a pair of long time friends Gillespie Sells – himself a gay man that grew up with same-sex parents – and TV writer Tom Macrea (Doctor Who, Threesome). From that BBC documentary, Jamie has


the teen who


not only become a West End musical but a feature film. Not bad for a boy whose careers class said he was supposed to have a future as a forklift truck driver!


With one in five millennials identifying as LGBTQ+, and that number increasing for Generation Z, a show like Jamie has a huge audience already. While the drag stuff is fun to watch, the show is ultimately about acceptance and a coming-of-age story.


meanwhile, are both fun and heartfelt – If I Met Myself Again and He’s My Boy being proof. Importantly, too, Jamie is played by a gay actor, Layton Williams (Bad Education, Rent).


The cast also includes two soap legends: Shane Ritchie as Hugo/Loco and Shobna Gulati as Ray, Jamie’s mum’s best friend. Considering the show, and the theatre industry in general, survived a pandemic and the West End going dark, the final number Out Of The Darkness (A Place Where We Belong) couldn’t be more apt to welcome fans back to the theatre.


Tickets: £19-£37. Info: wmc.org.uk CHRIS WILLIAMS


The songs,


FLY HALF


The Riverfront, Newport Fri 12 Nov


“A father. A son. A club. A Town. A game.” That’s the tagline for Fly Half, a musically-laced play that may be for steel miners what Billy Elliot was for coal miners.


Much like the aforementioned musical hit, Fly Half has already become critically acclaimed - scooping up the Critics Choice award from British Theatre Guide in 2018. Using original songs, the south Wales-set story follows a working- class man from the former industry who also plays rugby. But the narrative thrust spotlights local communities that come out and attend the games week in and week out; their dedication to both the sport and the families involved in it.


The idea of a ‘rugby musical’ might seem like a chalk-and-cheese combination at first glance, but really, few other sporting events are so closely linked with song as Wales’ favourite pastime – being a nation so entrenched in oral tradition. At only an hour’s runtime, the production is quicker- paced than the average game, too.


Tickets: £11.25-£13.25. Info: newportlive.co.uk


HANNAH COLLINS


IN THE SEA THERE ARE


CROCODILES Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay


Sat 13 + Sun 14 Nov


Coming to the Wales Millennium Centre’s Weston Studios this month, for one weekend only, is Fabio Geda’s dramatic story of survivorship, told from the perspective of a 10-year-old child.


When Einaiat Akbari’s village falls under Taliban rule, he and his mother flee. He’s soon left alone, however, in a strange and hostile world, hoping he’ll be able to find a new place to call home. For five years, Einaiat lives by the skin of his teeth, travelling through Europe until he reaches Italy, hardened by experiences that should be well beyond his years. It makes for a good companion piece to WMC’s The Boy With Two Hearts, which also champions the experiences of asylum seekers.


Produced by Mary Loudon and adapted and directed by Nicola Moran,


In The Sea There Are Crocodiles, LoudonMoranProductions, was founded specifically for it. Proceeds from the play go towards a charity called Young Roots, providing aid to child refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.


the company that performs


Tickets: £15. Info: wmc.org.uk


HANNAH COLLINS


TIM MINCHIN:


BALLET CYMRU:


BACK ENCORE Motorpoint Arena Cardiff Wed 24 Nov


Following the first UK performance of Back in 2019, the multi-talented Australian comedian is, well, back again with Back Encore – the 2021 edition. The first version marked Tim Minchin’s return to British shores after nearly a decade’s long absence and sold out outrageously quickly... So where has Tim been all this time?


In a brutally honest op-ed for The Guardian, he dished all: “I wanted to not become an unbearable tool with a huge- tiny ego.” Seeing the “dangers ahead” in being consumed by a life of fame and excess, the performer headed off hedonism at the curb. No doubt his own health and his family thanked him for it.


That also meant going cold turkey on comedy, unfortunately. But he hasn’t been totally idle: one or two hit musicals (Matilda, ring a bell?) and some TV stuff later, Tim Minchin the standup superstar is, indeed, back doing his twisted cabaret schtick because “holy shit, have I missed touring.”


Tickets: £47.30-£64.49. Info: motorpointarenacardiff.co.uk


HANNAH COLLINS


MADE IN WALES The Riverfront, Newport Thurs 11 Nov


Cerys Matthews will be giving live readings for a Ballet Cymru production by Artistic Directors Darius James, OBE, and Amy Doughty that uses some of Dylan Thomas’ best-known poems. Ballet Cymru Patron Matthews is featured in the company’s love letter to Thomas, Poems And Tiger Eggs (2017), and may bring in music fans who might not have ever been to the ballet.


The company leapt into existence in 1986, and in this triple bill of new work created in Wales by Welsh and Wales based choreographers, Ballet Cymru is also proud to present two more dances – Isolated Pulses by resident choreographer Marcus Jarrell Willis, and Murmurations by award-winning dancer and choreographer Liam Riddick.


Veteran dancer Willis questions the definition of isolation while Riddick told Buzz he “was drawn to videos of [the


before dusk and fly together in beautiful swarming formations.” Murmurations is the Welsh native’s first work for Ballet Cymru and is set to music by Charlotte Church.


Tickets: £14.75/£12.75. Info: newportlive.co.uk


RHONDA LEE REALI title]: when sparrows meet just


32


Ian Dearman Media


Matt Crockett


Sian Trenberth


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