Darlington Hippodrome – until 10 May 2025
Reviewed by Adam Craddock
5*****
It was an absolute pleasure to be invited along to review Darlington Operatic Society’s Spring 2025 production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at Darlington Hippodrome. It has been over 10 years since I had last seen a production by DOS and I am pleased to say that their standards have not dropped in this time!
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie follows Jamie New and his turmoil and ultimate triumph in finding his way through life as a 16 year old gay school boy in Sheffield who wants to become a drag queen, and his mother Margaret New supporting him through this journey of self discovery.
Harrison Bateman stars as the eponymous Jamie New. Bateman is fabulously eccentric and sassy as Jamie, with a brilliant innocence to his portrayal. He was strong in terms of movement and vocal and really grew into the more tender parts as the show progressed. Samantha Morrison was sublime as Margaret New. The bond between her and Bateman was palpable and her performance of “He’s My Boy” left my partner and I with goosebumps. Bravo!
Zoe Kent was strong as Ray, with an excellent comedic timing and command of her stage. Eva Ferguson was brilliant as Pritti Pasha, with a beautiful naturalism to her performance and a vocal to die for! I loved her performance of “It Means Beautiful”, although I think the use of the imagination chorus in this number was a mistake, taking the focus away from the beautiful lyric and Ferguson’s sublime performance. Other numbers I did not mind this new spin on the show but it didn’t feel needed here.
Ellen Dunbavin-Lomas was excellent as Miss Hedge, with an exceptional performance of “Work of Art” showcasing her magnificent vocals. Cam Scriven and Jonathan Wilson-Downs were both solid as Wayne New and Dean Paxton respectively, both brilliantly awful! Scott Edwards, Nick Robinson and James Bearpark were good as Laika Virgin, Tray Sophisticay and Sandra Bollock respectively, with strong comedic performance all around and a lovely sense of humanity to them.
However my absolute highlight of the show was Julian Cound as Hugo/Loco Chanelle. Cound gave a masterful performance, blending a brilliant realism to his performance with an outstanding vocal. His portrayal of this role matched up to those I have previously seen in the West End and on tour. Well done indeed!
I was gobsmacked by the production values on display for an amateur production. The set was brilliant, with a video wall being used at the back of the stage to prevent clunky scene changes. The various settings were all spot on and not one part visually looked weak, including the lighting which was perfect. The band were on top form tonight, sounding as good as any accompaniment I have heard. My only gripe with the production side was the sound. Balance between the principal cast was all spot on but the featured ensemble sound balancing was all over the place, with mics dropping out on a few occasions throughout the show, leaving the cast to deal with this as best they could.
However this was barely even a niggle on what was a marvellous night and one that I would gladly repeat. I would highly recommend the performance to anyone and you should catch this production before it closes on Saturday 10th May and see why Everybody’s Talking About Jamie!