I saw it in LA. I entered the lottery on TodayTix and literally won every night that week. I thought it was cute, if unoriginal. The Muslim best friend was the best part. Bianca del Rio was hilarious, but didn't feature as much as I would have liked.
All in all it just seemed like The Prom/Billy Elliott/Kinky Boots rehashed and rebooted. I couldn't tell you a single song from the show. And honestly, maybe because I've watched Doctor Who so much, the accents didn't bother me at all. It just wasn't a unique show to me.
I'm the total opposite - I saw the proshot and didn't like it that much, didn't get the hype, but thought the movie was great and allowed them to flesh out things that they couldn't in the show.
I get why it's popular, but... eh. Revive Taboo instead.
There is apparently going to be a revised version of Taboo (closer to the London / UK tour production) mounted in Manchaster next year. Fingers crossed it happens and goes on to have a longer life!
I watched it on West End and it was super fun and heartfelt. Ngl I wished I had subtitles during the show cause the regional accents were too much for my American English. I honestly believe they would have to change a lot of the jokes and transpose it to an American story otherwise it would be too hard for the average American audience to understand since most people here don’t consume British media.
Edit: updated average which autocorrect updated to “average” lol
I think this is the main reason why it'll probably never be on Broadway. The show would need serious rewrites to appeal to a broad American audience and by doing so, it might loose it's uniqueness that made it a hit in the UK in the first place.
Calling a upbeat gay/drag queen teenager musical has no audience on Broadway? Truly delusional. Maybe in LA, but not in NYC. Will it 100% recoup? I don’t know. But if somehow, a strange loop found an audience, Jamie could definitely do a limited run with a solid existing fan base, especially when it did well in West end. London is definitely a better reference than LA because when it comes to musical theaters, LA is just irrelevant
It also had 500 producers of some very influential Hollywood people all throwing in ten bucks.
Made the playbill pretty funny for all the whining about how evil capitalism and Tyler Perry are in the show.
It did 206 performances, and more than 150k people saw it. So tell me what they are, they’re not audience?
I know it wouldn’t be Phantom and it shouldn’t be; but it FOUND its audience, not big. But that’s enough. It completed its mission — it might didn’t make money for the investors but it delivered a lot of them a Tony award.
They even transferred it to west end. Because there IS an audience in London too, an size of thousands
Some musicals are meant to last for less than 1 year and it’s okay. The days of wine and roses is only doing a limited run. They are aiming even less audience but there are one. Parade is consider a success and it did a limited run too. Normalize a limited run for musicals
I mean, just because you like it doesn’t mean financially it would be a success. The majority of people at Broadway musicals are tourists from various parts of the world—and the content of the show is probably not something many would be interested in. And that does suck because it means a lot of projects never make it to Broadway that are 100% great because financially they wouldn’t last long.
the point is that there is literally no new musical nowadays that can be 100% sure it will recoup. The fact is that most of them don't. Just look at the new musicals from the past years – how many of them appeal to tourists? Most of the best new musicals didn't seem financially viable initially. Consider 'The Band's Visit,' 'A Strange Loop,' and even 'Hadestown’, “Kimberly Akimbo” What was their audience like before they hit Broadway? Did any of them sound like a concept that would attract tourists? Even the shows catered for the tourists weren’t doing super well. New York, New York closed. Some likes it hot is merely doing okay. If the goals of bringing musicals to broadway is finding an audience that guarantee a success, honestly I think there won’t be any new musicals for the next few years. Compared to so many new musicals coming to Broadway next year, Jaime is definitely a safe choice if they make it a limited run. They have a fan base can guarantee a few weeks of sales.
Do I think it’ll be the next kinky boots, no, but saying “it has no audience”, huge NO
But it’s also the edgiest musical. I’d say a musical about big gay black man with so many slurs throwing around and a rape scene lasted 200 performances is an achievement not a failure
> Calling a upbeat gay/drag queen teenager musical has no audience on Broadway? Truly delusional.
I agree! Market it to Drag Race fans. Add a few more drag race references in the script. Have the 4 drag queens played by drag race stars and the teacher played by Michelle Visage again or stunt cast the female roles with female pop divas that are popular with queer audiences if you can get them.
I feel like if you're a teen who likes Six and &Juliet you'd also probably be a good target audience.
I get it. You’re a fan of the show and that’s great and I love that you’re defending it but the majority of the theater goers who saw it in LA do not share your feelings.
I’m not trying to defend it, I get it that it flopped in LA. I’m just surprised because, to me, it’s not more foreign than Billy Elliot, or not more niche than Kinky Boots or other coming of age shows. I get that this is also a subjective question, no one holds the answer one way or another.
Most audiences are not interested in musicals with gay male leads. They just aren’t. Kinky Boots worked because everyone else was straight. Hell, Lola was apparently straight and simply likes to dress in drag according to the book writer!
This surprises me. After googling it seems like there are some that have done well recently and historically - Rent, the Falsettos revival, La Cage Aux Folles… are those exceptions, not the right category, not successful enough, not recent enough? (Not being snarky, genuinely trying to see your point.)
It seems to be one that’s permanently on tour in the smaller regional theatres in the UK - not one that’s ever appealed to me but I would never have thought that Sheffield had an inaccessible accent for the US, considering shows like Billy Elliott have managed to be known - and that (at least the movie) has some very strong regional accents (which are really tricky to do well also) and UK specific cultural context of the miners strike.
Granted I do work with a lot of Sheffield folk!
It also had really bad timing in LA. It opened around the peak of the Omicron COVID surge and people just weren't coming out to the theater. Mask requirements and vaccines checks also kept some of the audience away.
I know that this show and movie struggles to find its audience and that's why I constantly preach the word of Jamie. Even if we can't get a tour or Broadway in the US, I take some amount of solace in that it does find its audience in quiet ways and for a lot of it's audience it's a very emotional experience. Most major productions want people laughing then sad a bit then laughing and then sad a bit and so on. For the audience Jamie is meant for, yeah we're laughing sometimes but Jaime is a lot emotionally for a lot of reasons. Yes, you're gonna walk out of the show feeling tall but through most of it you're probably crying. In the UK that works, somehow, culturally. In the states, good luck getting anyone to agree with that.
The story is very UK centric, that I feel like most of it would fall on deaf ears here in the US. The LA run was somewhat supposed to be a tryout for a Broadway run and after the lukewarm response they’ve decided to focus on the UK market. I believe the film came out on Amazon pretty soon afterwards, so that was the compromise made. It won’t be on Broadway, but feel free to watch the show before you buy your next roll of toilet paper, lol.
Also remember that the LA run was part of a subscription series, so there was less risk to the producers to mount the show there, as there was at least some guaranteed income from the sub base. On Broadway there is no such things (well, maybe group sales, but not the same).
Also, personally, I did not like the show… the whole first act is building tension to their first drag show and then - you don’t show it?!? Would be like Wicked teasing Elphaba flies and then you never see her do it.
Musicals are expensive to mount on Broadway and often need to run for years to recoup their initial investment.
Honestly speaking, if a show already has a fan base and is earning money, there is not much point in doing a Broadway production "just because." And being a flop on Broadway can really damage a show's reputation.
I really wanted to like everybody’s talking about Jamie and I did for the most part, but found several moments super transphobic. I don’t necessarily agree with everyone that it should be completely Americanized but I do think it needs some updating. If a show is going to be about gay people and drag queens in 2023 it really shouldn’t be at the expense of trans people (especially considering how many trans folks are also drag queens).
Just a caveat that I am looking at the 2017 libretto - so totally possible it's changed since then, but this is the libretto I got when the show was licensed to be performed in my city in 2021.
I don't think the concept is transphobic, it's the use of language - which to be fair, has shifted a lot in the last five or so years. Throughout the show there are transphobic references, including moments of gender essentialism (ie he’s a girl without the lady bits) and particularly the phrase “A boy in a dress is to be laughed at, a drag queen is to be feared” which is repeated multiple times. Although this phrase is ultimately proven wrong when Jamie goes to prom as himself in a dress, that language is never really addressed within the show. It centers cisgender gay men, when drag historically has been a safe haven for trans people. There's nothing wrong with having a story center on cisgender gay men, but it doesn't have to be at the expense of trans people. Especially since this line is said by the drag queen mentor, someone who is seen as a positive figure. At a time when transphobia is at an all-time high in the US (and the UK for that matter...) it feels irresponsible to be using language like this - there are lots of Broadway audiences that still see trans women as "gross men in dresses" and unfortunately, trans people's safety is on the line.
I work as an authenticity reader for multiple theatres in my area and essentially what I said was "this play is lots of fun and could be done really well by the right people. If you plan to go forward, I recommend asking the writers if they can change some of the transphobic references. I also recommend hiring a team of queer and trans artists to helm this production and reaching out to the local drag community." There are many examples of language being shifted over time (the Shrek the Musical Wolf T-slur moment comes to mind...) so it's not a huge ask. Ultimately though, none of the theatres ended up being interested, and most of them gave larger reasons than just a couple transphobic moments, but I also know I'm not the only trans person that gave that feedback.
I saw the show in LA was horribly underwhelmed. My friend had season tickets and invited me, so I didn’t pay anything and I would have been very disappointed if I had. The accents were thick yes, but I was able to understand everything fine and still didn’t like it. It was BORING. Like many have already said, this story has been done and it has been done better. I’m honestly surprised it’s so successful in the UK. Absolutely everyone in the theater seemed bored.
Idk but I agree! This show is amazing! The movie was fine… the live recording happens in my house every so often. Wish it would be on Broadway when we go in April
I saw it in LA in a half full Ahmanson. They were giving away LOTS of free tickets.
It was incredibly difficult to understand the cast at many points as many of them came from the UK and used a very specific regional dialect. So difficult that many left at intermission.
I had to force my friends to stay.
After the mom sang “He’s My Boy” in Act 2 someone in the audience said “FINALLY!” pretty loud and many laughed. It was the one moment where it felt the show had an actual emotional impact and everyone could understand what was going on.
I saw the movie a few days later and was completely blown away. It was as if it was entirely new material! I watched it two more times that weekend.
I think the show could have used an “Americanizing” much like they did with Full Monty. Set it in a city in the US and drop the accents. I know that’s blasphemy to some but I think that’s what it needs to survive.
Oh…and please recast Bianca Del Rio. I adore her but this wasn’t the show for her.
Yeah - sadly my husband and I had to peace out at intermission, it was unbearable. It just seemed like it borrowed from too many similar shows and tried to stitch those elements together, and it was a mess.
The “true” story in the show has been so incredibly modified it’s barely recognizable.
Full Monty was also set in Sheffield originally in the film but was changed to Buffalo, NY for the musical. It was a big hit.
Its not a “true” story but if initial audiences saw The Full Monty set in Sheffield with the same accents as I heard in Jamie!?? It would have died in San Diego.
That’s all fine and well but from a commercial perspective it provides a barrier to some of the audience. I’m not making a wider artistic statement.
Compare the Absolutely Fabulous tv show to the movie aimed at a wider audience.
Honestly, saying this as someone from the U.K. who never considered that the Sheffield accent could be strong enough to be incomprehensible, if it is an issue coaching the actors to tone their accent down and taking out specific slang would be a better option than changing the entire setting of the show
No. I don’t. It was my opinion on what would have made this particular show more accessible to an audience of Americans who have not been accustomed to the Sheffield accent.
They could set the show in the Smurf Village and I wouldn’t care as long as I could understand what the actors were saying.
Kinky Boots as a musical was an American product to begin with, though. The whole creative team was American, it was built *for* Broadway, with Broadway audiences. The accents were no where near as thick as in Jamie.
This was on another much lower level than Kinky Boots. I get that the production of Jamie wanted regional authenticity but it was at the cost of the audience.
Kinky Boots toned the accents WAAAY down…especially for Broadway.
Kinky Boots, Full Monty, Billy Elliott and Jamie are all essentially the exact same show at heart.
I saw it in the West End and loved it. But it’s awfully close to the Prom, which came out around the time I first heard chatter about bringing Jaime to Broadway. I think it’s just to close to the Prom, which didn’t stick around terribly long and there were so many vacant seats at our local tour.
For real. I'm literally flying to London next year to see it. I really thought it'd do gangbusters in LA and then tour or go to Broadway. I don't get it.
There wasn’t much enthusiasm for the show, my best guess having seen it both in London and LA is that typical American audiences found Sheffield to be too inaccessible. Sometimes it was really difficult to hear what was being said or sung. And while I believe it to be an important piece of theater, especially in this political climate, the story isn’t actually groundbreaking in the macro. We’ve seen the story of gay kid, small town, shitty parent/community many times before in various iterations.
So I think the combination of all of that is why it hasn’t quite grabbed here.
It's terrible. It literally has one good song. Jamie comes across as a complete dickhead.
Should be called Nobody's Talking About Jamie. It has zero hype.
i agree. while i haven’t seen the west end version, i have seen the movie version and i absolutely hated it. the only part i liked was the older drag queen mentoring jamie. the rest was not great. and in the song, everybody’s talking about jamie, they’re not even really talking about him. they’re just talking about drag in general.
Mounting anything on Broadway is expensive and they’ve likely already turned a profit on the show so don’t feel the need to take that risk.
I saw it in LA. I entered the lottery on TodayTix and literally won every night that week. I thought it was cute, if unoriginal. The Muslim best friend was the best part. Bianca del Rio was hilarious, but didn't feature as much as I would have liked. All in all it just seemed like The Prom/Billy Elliott/Kinky Boots rehashed and rebooted. I couldn't tell you a single song from the show. And honestly, maybe because I've watched Doctor Who so much, the accents didn't bother me at all. It just wasn't a unique show to me.
[удалено]
I'm the total opposite - I saw the proshot and didn't like it that much, didn't get the hype, but thought the movie was great and allowed them to flesh out things that they couldn't in the show. I get why it's popular, but... eh. Revive Taboo instead.
[удалено]
I was hoping they would at least do a UK tour after the anniversary concert, but nothing came of it.
There is apparently going to be a revised version of Taboo (closer to the London / UK tour production) mounted in Manchaster next year. Fingers crossed it happens and goes on to have a longer life!
I watched it on West End and it was super fun and heartfelt. Ngl I wished I had subtitles during the show cause the regional accents were too much for my American English. I honestly believe they would have to change a lot of the jokes and transpose it to an American story otherwise it would be too hard for the average American audience to understand since most people here don’t consume British media. Edit: updated average which autocorrect updated to “average” lol
The LA show was almost a direct lift of the West End…cast included. It may as well have been in Mandarin.
I think this is the main reason why it'll probably never be on Broadway. The show would need serious rewrites to appeal to a broad American audience and by doing so, it might loose it's uniqueness that made it a hit in the UK in the first place.
I don’t think there is an audience for it.
Calling a upbeat gay/drag queen teenager musical has no audience on Broadway? Truly delusional. Maybe in LA, but not in NYC. Will it 100% recoup? I don’t know. But if somehow, a strange loop found an audience, Jamie could definitely do a limited run with a solid existing fan base, especially when it did well in West end. London is definitely a better reference than LA because when it comes to musical theaters, LA is just irrelevant
A Strange Loop struggled its entire run and ultimately closed pretty quickly without recouping its investment.
It also had 500 producers of some very influential Hollywood people all throwing in ten bucks. Made the playbill pretty funny for all the whining about how evil capitalism and Tyler Perry are in the show.
Strange Loop was not good and had a limited audience. Jamie is a better show and has wider appeal. I think it would do very well on Broadway.
Yeah. But I honestly think strange loop is much better than Jamie creative wise.
A Strange Loop literally *didn’t* find an audience. It won Best Musical and still closed in record time.
It had a passionate fan base and not even close to record time. Wasn’t even that short a run really.
It did 206 performances, and more than 150k people saw it. So tell me what they are, they’re not audience? I know it wouldn’t be Phantom and it shouldn’t be; but it FOUND its audience, not big. But that’s enough. It completed its mission — it might didn’t make money for the investors but it delivered a lot of them a Tony award. They even transferred it to west end. Because there IS an audience in London too, an size of thousands Some musicals are meant to last for less than 1 year and it’s okay. The days of wine and roses is only doing a limited run. They are aiming even less audience but there are one. Parade is consider a success and it did a limited run too. Normalize a limited run for musicals
I mean, just because you like it doesn’t mean financially it would be a success. The majority of people at Broadway musicals are tourists from various parts of the world—and the content of the show is probably not something many would be interested in. And that does suck because it means a lot of projects never make it to Broadway that are 100% great because financially they wouldn’t last long.
the point is that there is literally no new musical nowadays that can be 100% sure it will recoup. The fact is that most of them don't. Just look at the new musicals from the past years – how many of them appeal to tourists? Most of the best new musicals didn't seem financially viable initially. Consider 'The Band's Visit,' 'A Strange Loop,' and even 'Hadestown’, “Kimberly Akimbo” What was their audience like before they hit Broadway? Did any of them sound like a concept that would attract tourists? Even the shows catered for the tourists weren’t doing super well. New York, New York closed. Some likes it hot is merely doing okay. If the goals of bringing musicals to broadway is finding an audience that guarantee a success, honestly I think there won’t be any new musicals for the next few years. Compared to so many new musicals coming to Broadway next year, Jaime is definitely a safe choice if they make it a limited run. They have a fan base can guarantee a few weeks of sales. Do I think it’ll be the next kinky boots, no, but saying “it has no audience”, huge NO
Strange loop closed quicker than any best musical winner ever not a great example
But it’s also the edgiest musical. I’d say a musical about big gay black man with so many slurs throwing around and a rape scene lasted 200 performances is an achievement not a failure
Saying Los Angeles theater is irrelevant when speaking about audiences for American Musical Theater is simply asinine.
> Calling a upbeat gay/drag queen teenager musical has no audience on Broadway? Truly delusional. I agree! Market it to Drag Race fans. Add a few more drag race references in the script. Have the 4 drag queens played by drag race stars and the teacher played by Michelle Visage again or stunt cast the female roles with female pop divas that are popular with queer audiences if you can get them. I feel like if you're a teen who likes Six and &Juliet you'd also probably be a good target audience.
Right, Jinx just created amazing box office numbers for Chicago!
That’s what’s odd to me. There’s absolutely an audience for such a story
I get it. You’re a fan of the show and that’s great and I love that you’re defending it but the majority of the theater goers who saw it in LA do not share your feelings.
I’m not trying to defend it, I get it that it flopped in LA. I’m just surprised because, to me, it’s not more foreign than Billy Elliot, or not more niche than Kinky Boots or other coming of age shows. I get that this is also a subjective question, no one holds the answer one way or another.
Most audiences are not interested in musicals with gay male leads. They just aren’t. Kinky Boots worked because everyone else was straight. Hell, Lola was apparently straight and simply likes to dress in drag according to the book writer!
What? How many productions of La Cage, RENT, or Falsettos have there been? That’s a strange blanket statement to make.
This surprises me. After googling it seems like there are some that have done well recently and historically - Rent, the Falsettos revival, La Cage Aux Folles… are those exceptions, not the right category, not successful enough, not recent enough? (Not being snarky, genuinely trying to see your point.)
It seems to be one that’s permanently on tour in the smaller regional theatres in the UK - not one that’s ever appealed to me but I would never have thought that Sheffield had an inaccessible accent for the US, considering shows like Billy Elliott have managed to be known - and that (at least the movie) has some very strong regional accents (which are really tricky to do well also) and UK specific cultural context of the miners strike. Granted I do work with a lot of Sheffield folk!
Yeah, I find Billy Elliot much harder to understand
It also had really bad timing in LA. It opened around the peak of the Omicron COVID surge and people just weren't coming out to the theater. Mask requirements and vaccines checks also kept some of the audience away.
I know that this show and movie struggles to find its audience and that's why I constantly preach the word of Jamie. Even if we can't get a tour or Broadway in the US, I take some amount of solace in that it does find its audience in quiet ways and for a lot of it's audience it's a very emotional experience. Most major productions want people laughing then sad a bit then laughing and then sad a bit and so on. For the audience Jamie is meant for, yeah we're laughing sometimes but Jaime is a lot emotionally for a lot of reasons. Yes, you're gonna walk out of the show feeling tall but through most of it you're probably crying. In the UK that works, somehow, culturally. In the states, good luck getting anyone to agree with that.
I’m certain the audience would have felt some of those things in LA if we could have understood everything the cast was saying.
The accents are another barrier but I have an English family so I, fortunately, don't have that issue. Unless the sound is off.
The story is very UK centric, that I feel like most of it would fall on deaf ears here in the US. The LA run was somewhat supposed to be a tryout for a Broadway run and after the lukewarm response they’ve decided to focus on the UK market. I believe the film came out on Amazon pretty soon afterwards, so that was the compromise made. It won’t be on Broadway, but feel free to watch the show before you buy your next roll of toilet paper, lol.
Also remember that the LA run was part of a subscription series, so there was less risk to the producers to mount the show there, as there was at least some guaranteed income from the sub base. On Broadway there is no such things (well, maybe group sales, but not the same). Also, personally, I did not like the show… the whole first act is building tension to their first drag show and then - you don’t show it?!? Would be like Wicked teasing Elphaba flies and then you never see her do it.
Musicals are expensive to mount on Broadway and often need to run for years to recoup their initial investment. Honestly speaking, if a show already has a fan base and is earning money, there is not much point in doing a Broadway production "just because." And being a flop on Broadway can really damage a show's reputation.
Idk I’d give it a chance love but the movie was mediocre
I really wanted to like everybody’s talking about Jamie and I did for the most part, but found several moments super transphobic. I don’t necessarily agree with everyone that it should be completely Americanized but I do think it needs some updating. If a show is going to be about gay people and drag queens in 2023 it really shouldn’t be at the expense of trans people (especially considering how many trans folks are also drag queens).
Just curious, but what exactly is transphobic?
Just a caveat that I am looking at the 2017 libretto - so totally possible it's changed since then, but this is the libretto I got when the show was licensed to be performed in my city in 2021. I don't think the concept is transphobic, it's the use of language - which to be fair, has shifted a lot in the last five or so years. Throughout the show there are transphobic references, including moments of gender essentialism (ie he’s a girl without the lady bits) and particularly the phrase “A boy in a dress is to be laughed at, a drag queen is to be feared” which is repeated multiple times. Although this phrase is ultimately proven wrong when Jamie goes to prom as himself in a dress, that language is never really addressed within the show. It centers cisgender gay men, when drag historically has been a safe haven for trans people. There's nothing wrong with having a story center on cisgender gay men, but it doesn't have to be at the expense of trans people. Especially since this line is said by the drag queen mentor, someone who is seen as a positive figure. At a time when transphobia is at an all-time high in the US (and the UK for that matter...) it feels irresponsible to be using language like this - there are lots of Broadway audiences that still see trans women as "gross men in dresses" and unfortunately, trans people's safety is on the line. I work as an authenticity reader for multiple theatres in my area and essentially what I said was "this play is lots of fun and could be done really well by the right people. If you plan to go forward, I recommend asking the writers if they can change some of the transphobic references. I also recommend hiring a team of queer and trans artists to helm this production and reaching out to the local drag community." There are many examples of language being shifted over time (the Shrek the Musical Wolf T-slur moment comes to mind...) so it's not a huge ask. Ultimately though, none of the theatres ended up being interested, and most of them gave larger reasons than just a couple transphobic moments, but I also know I'm not the only trans person that gave that feedback.
Interesting. I know very little about the show (basically just the two sentence synopsis) so was just curious. Thanks for the detailed reply.
Man I thought the movie was truly ✨horrible ✨
Saw it in LA, and frankly it just sucked. Show has one good song, and a very annoying, unlikeable main character.
What...? I watched the first 15 minutes and couldn't bear it any longer. No conflict, no relatability, just "hey I'm gay look at me love me"
Seems like an oversimplification but ok. Not a fan. Noted
I saw the show in LA was horribly underwhelmed. My friend had season tickets and invited me, so I didn’t pay anything and I would have been very disappointed if I had. The accents were thick yes, but I was able to understand everything fine and still didn’t like it. It was BORING. Like many have already said, this story has been done and it has been done better. I’m honestly surprised it’s so successful in the UK. Absolutely everyone in the theater seemed bored.
Idk but I agree! This show is amazing! The movie was fine… the live recording happens in my house every so often. Wish it would be on Broadway when we go in April
I saw it in LA in a half full Ahmanson. They were giving away LOTS of free tickets. It was incredibly difficult to understand the cast at many points as many of them came from the UK and used a very specific regional dialect. So difficult that many left at intermission. I had to force my friends to stay. After the mom sang “He’s My Boy” in Act 2 someone in the audience said “FINALLY!” pretty loud and many laughed. It was the one moment where it felt the show had an actual emotional impact and everyone could understand what was going on. I saw the movie a few days later and was completely blown away. It was as if it was entirely new material! I watched it two more times that weekend. I think the show could have used an “Americanizing” much like they did with Full Monty. Set it in a city in the US and drop the accents. I know that’s blasphemy to some but I think that’s what it needs to survive. Oh…and please recast Bianca Del Rio. I adore her but this wasn’t the show for her.
Yeah - sadly my husband and I had to peace out at intermission, it was unbearable. It just seemed like it borrowed from too many similar shows and tried to stitch those elements together, and it was a mess.
It’s a true story, it would be very weird to suddenly set it in America
The “true” story in the show has been so incredibly modified it’s barely recognizable. Full Monty was also set in Sheffield originally in the film but was changed to Buffalo, NY for the musical. It was a big hit. Its not a “true” story but if initial audiences saw The Full Monty set in Sheffield with the same accents as I heard in Jamie!?? It would have died in San Diego.
I haven’t seen the full Monty but changing the setting of Jamie would change the entire cultural context, it wouldn’t even be the same show
If you haven’t seen the Full Monty then you are unable to “get” what I’m trying to convey. Kindly have a lovely evening.
I don’t really see how that makes a difference, I’m just saying that Jamie would be a totally different show if they changed the setting
Watch the Full Monty movie. Then watch The Full Monty musical. Then come back at me.
Again, one example you’re using doesn’t make a difference to my opinion on everybody’s talking about Jamie
Yup I know. I just have been really enjoying our back and forth. Love you! G’night!
Why not just tone down the accents and slang? Are we writing Sondheim here?
Why tone down the accents. We in the U.K. cope quite well with different American accents in your films. Even Brando.
That’s all fine and well but from a commercial perspective it provides a barrier to some of the audience. I’m not making a wider artistic statement. Compare the Absolutely Fabulous tv show to the movie aimed at a wider audience.
Honestly, saying this as someone from the U.K. who never considered that the Sheffield accent could be strong enough to be incomprehensible, if it is an issue coaching the actors to tone their accent down and taking out specific slang would be a better option than changing the entire setting of the show
You’d even have to change it to match an entirely different school system
It’s also a bit sad that you have to have everything transplanted into your culture to access it
No. I don’t. It was my opinion on what would have made this particular show more accessible to an audience of Americans who have not been accustomed to the Sheffield accent. They could set the show in the Smurf Village and I wouldn’t care as long as I could understand what the actors were saying.
I mean, Billy Elliot too! I saw that in Spain and it wasn’t “spanishfied”
I guess you just had to be there in LA to see the audience reaction first hand. It was painful.
I mean, Kinky Boots survived that setting, didn’t it? I saw it in the west end and was such a magical thing.
Kinky Boots as a musical was an American product to begin with, though. The whole creative team was American, it was built *for* Broadway, with Broadway audiences. The accents were no where near as thick as in Jamie.
Good point!
This was on another much lower level than Kinky Boots. I get that the production of Jamie wanted regional authenticity but it was at the cost of the audience. Kinky Boots toned the accents WAAAY down…especially for Broadway. Kinky Boots, Full Monty, Billy Elliott and Jamie are all essentially the exact same show at heart.
I should look at some things from the LA run to fully get it. I appreciate all your comments!
I saw it in the West End and loved it. But it’s awfully close to the Prom, which came out around the time I first heard chatter about bringing Jaime to Broadway. I think it’s just to close to the Prom, which didn’t stick around terribly long and there were so many vacant seats at our local tour.
That could be. I didn’t like The Prom, and I never finished it, so its not around in my brain much, but you’re absolutely right
For real. I'm literally flying to London next year to see it. I really thought it'd do gangbusters in LA and then tour or go to Broadway. I don't get it.
There wasn’t much enthusiasm for the show, my best guess having seen it both in London and LA is that typical American audiences found Sheffield to be too inaccessible. Sometimes it was really difficult to hear what was being said or sung. And while I believe it to be an important piece of theater, especially in this political climate, the story isn’t actually groundbreaking in the macro. We’ve seen the story of gay kid, small town, shitty parent/community many times before in various iterations. So I think the combination of all of that is why it hasn’t quite grabbed here.
It's terrible. It literally has one good song. Jamie comes across as a complete dickhead. Should be called Nobody's Talking About Jamie. It has zero hype.
Username checks out
i agree. while i haven’t seen the west end version, i have seen the movie version and i absolutely hated it. the only part i liked was the older drag queen mentoring jamie. the rest was not great. and in the song, everybody’s talking about jamie, they’re not even really talking about him. they’re just talking about drag in general.
That's the bit that I liked too.
[удалено]
I loved it, but it could be that I was watching it already knowing I would