{"id":1426,"date":"2017-11-23T04:15:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-23T04:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/?p=1426"},"modified":"2017-11-23T05:16:36","modified_gmt":"2017-11-23T05:16:36","slug":"my-return-to-soho-to-find-out-why-everybodys-talking-about-jamie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/my-return-to-soho-to-find-out-why-everybodys-talking-about-jamie\/","title":{"rendered":"My Return to Soho to find out why Everybody’s Talking About Jamie"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Press night, Apollo Theatre, London. Photo – J Summerfield \u00a9 2017<\/p><\/div>\n

The extraordinary thing about entering Soho after a long time between drinks is that you forget how long it is since you were away.\u00a0 The embrace of being at home once more erases all memory that you haven\u2019t been back in a long time. The draw on this occasion is of course, the very same reason I have lived, celebrated, written and sung about Soho for so long \u2013 the fight for inclusivity.<\/h3>\n

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After an excited telephone conversation last week with one of Soho\u2019s greatest champions and bona fide theatrical taste makers, Nica Burns, it would seem that Nimax theatres now have their very own living work of art that heralds all that Soho represents in the fight for inclusivity, diversity and acceptance – a new musical called \u2018Everybody’s Talking About Jamie<\/a>\u2019 that I watched tonight at The Apollo Theatre. Cunningly, the piece traverses the potential edgy challenges of it\u2019s story by making it\u2019s message indisputably and exquisitely universal.\u00a0 You may hear upon the vine that the musical is about a drag queen.\u00a0 It is, but that’s not all.\u00a0 This is a story about family and bravery.\u00a0 It is about individuality and the right to express it no matter what the cost.\u00a0 It is Louise\u2019s Gypsy Rose Lee, it is Sally Bowles and yes, it is often Billy Elliot \u2013 but always utterly it\u2019s own original story of transformation and coming of age, all portrayed with heart stopping charisma by John McCrea.\u00a0 It has also returned to the West End the powerful archetypal tale of a mother\u2019s love for her son with the kind of depth only explored before in Willy Russell\u2019s\u2019 Blood Brothers (lest us not forget how long that particular show ran for).\u00a0 Jonathan Butterell\u2019s bold and sensitive production could do the same.<\/h3>\n
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Nica Burns and Tim Arnold<\/p><\/div>\n

That \u2018Jamie has opened on the edge of Soho is absolutely perfect.\u00a0 When speaking to BBC News in my first interview about Save Soho two years ago, the bewildered reporter asked me \u201cYes, but what are you trying to save Tim?\u201d.\u00a0 And I told her then as I still tell many people today \u2013 the right to belong<\/em>.\u00a0 That is what we want to save.\u00a0 In Soho, and in every corner of the world.\u00a0 Soho has always been the beacon for anyone who felt they could not belong in their own town, and thus moved to live or work in Soho \u2013 creating, over time, the most creative and inclusive square mile in the world.\u00a0 And wouldn\u2019t you just be ever so surprised to know that one of the featured songs by the excellent Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MacRae in \u2018Jamie is all about belonging.<\/em><\/h3>\n

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I have not returned to Soho since our great friend and pint sized bottled spirit of the place – Bernie Katz<\/a> passed away earlier this year.\u00a0 I have avoided my place of belonging for fear of noticing his absence, along with so many other treasures I value that have been singed at the edges. \u00a0And yet tonight, I can promise you that the spirit of Soho was there in full.\u00a0 It\u2019s fairly rare for me to invest my attention in anybody else\u2019s musical work because I am so contently absorbed in my own on a 24\/7 basis.\u00a0 Why look out at today when there are still numbers by Sondhiem that have not been dissected and devoured?\u00a0 I think Bowie and Duchamp may both have made valid arguments in concentrating on your own art and never be distracted by what other artists around you are doing. \u00a0Mostly they were right. \u00a0In this case though, I am breaking the rule. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is probably the most important new British musical to hit the West End since Oliver! It\u2019s form is of our times and it\u2019s heart is that of a classic.\u00a0 I am thrilled and privileged to have been there at the opening.<\/h3>\n
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Tim Arnold and Zoe Wannamaker<\/p><\/div>\n

Obviously, beyond the musical, the entire evening was poignant to me (let\u2019s face it, I rarely write after midnight unless I\u2019ve had the most memorable experience). Emerging from the stage door as I left\u2026 my one, my only Electra \u2013 Zoe Wannamaker, crept out in Vivienne Westwood style pantaloons and a cheeky grin.\u00a0 We hadn\u2019t seen each other since New Years Eve in 2010.\u00a0 She was the first person I ranted and raved to about the musical before we said our goodbyes and both disappeared into the rain soaked cobbles of Rupert Street.\u00a0 We were both blown away.<\/h3>\n

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After a short walk through the rain deciding which route to go home, I waited in the doorway of Bar Italia for a pizza (which Dorian gave me free of charge as their card machine was broken) and between the age old fumes I have known for so long of toasted coffee beans, melting mozzarella and the perfume of fresh basil, I watched a couple on the other side of Frith Street locked in an impossibly long embrace and passionate kiss of such delicacy, that…I took a photo of them.\u00a0 Since filming What Love Would Want<\/a> this year, I freely admit to becoming a voyeur of romance.\u00a0 And why not?<\/h3>\n

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The couple were utterly uninhibited, effortlessly full of freedom, without a care in the world, proud with love and an invisible spiritual shape that said \u2018this is us\u2019<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s what I saw in \u2018Jamie on the stage and it was now what I was watching on the streets of Soho.\u00a0 Beauty and bravery.<\/h3>\n

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Pizza arrived.\u00a0 So did the uber.\u00a0 The driver said \u201cWhat music do you want on? You can play your own if you like?\u201d. Alone finally, in the darkness, my mind turned to something, or somebody else, and I elected to play the theme from Cinema Paradiso.<\/em>\u00a0 However, when I get home, I shall be searching for the soundtrack of Everybody\u2019s Talking About Jamie.\u00a0 And I recommend you do the same.\u00a0 After you\u2019ve seen the show.<\/h3>\n
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This is after midnight, anything could happen…<\/p><\/div>\n

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<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The extraordinary thing about entering Soho after a long time between drinks is that you forget how long it is since you were away.\u00a0 The embrace of being at home once more erases all memory that you haven\u2019t been back in a long time. The draw on this occasion is of course, the very same…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[138,148,143,137,145,139,140,141,39,142,144,29,146,149,147],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Tim-crop.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1426"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1442,"href":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426\/revisions\/1442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timarnold.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}