Everybody's Talking About Jamie review: The drag musical's U.S. premiere is a glitter-fueled celebration of individuality

If you put Billy Elliot and Kinky Boots in a blender, you'd probably come up with something like Everybody's Talking About Jamie, a riotous celebration of individuality and drag culture now making its U.S. premiere with Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group.

Based on a true story as chronicled in a documentary, the musical follows Jamie New (a cheeky Layton Williams), a 16-year-old boy who dreams of becoming a drag queen and wearing a dress to his prom. With the support of his mum, Margaret (a soulful Melissa Jacques); family friend Ray (the delicious Shobna Gulati); best friend Pritti (a riveting Hiba Elchikhe); and retired drag queen Loco Chanelle (Drag Race star Bianca Del Rio), he pushes back against school strictures and closed-mindedness to unleash his inner fabulousness.

The script from director Jonathan Butterell and Tom MacRae (who also wrote the lyrics) can veer a bit into after-school-special territory, leaning on tropes of intolerance, rigid administrators, and high school bullies a few times too many. Part of the issue lies in Jamie himself — he is, admittedly, a classic teenager, prone to emotional outbursts and lashing out at his friends and family in ways that lessen one's desire to root for him. Still, there's no fault in Williams' performance. He infuses Jamie with a nimble emotional undercurrent, layering the festering hurt under his armor of outré jokes and flash.

He delivers exactly what is asked of him with a twinkle in his eye and an envious high kick. His extraordinary dance abilities — honed by his playing Billy Elliot in the West End — are a highlight of the show. Any time he struts across the stage, you'll have no question who owns it. I'd wager many women wish they could move in heels the way he does, as if they're not shoes but an extension of his being. That said, it is disappointing that we never get to see Jamie in full drag attire, except in a projection — the payoff sadly never quite comes in that department.

But if everybody's talking about Jamie, they should be talking about the supporting cast even more. Jamie's mother, Margaret, is the heart of the show — a woman trying to protect the precious independence and fragile soul of the boy she loves. Melissa Jacques gives Margaret a stolid steadiness that grounds the proceedings in essential ways. Her second-act ballad, "He's My Boy," brings the house down as she imbues a mother's love with a guttural gospel sound and offers up the full range of her marvelous instrument. The musical markets itself on its drag glam, but her quietly fierce performance is the true highlight.

Gulati also portrayed Ray in the recent film adaptation of the musical, and it's not hard to understand why filmmakers chose her. She's funny and wry, her brashness and deep loyalty the perfect foil to Margaret's gentler approach.

Elchikhe rounds out that triangle of Jamie's support system as studious Pritti Pasha, a young Muslim woman who dreams of being a doctor. She radiates warmth and kindness, offering Jamie a true north. It would be easy to play this role as somewhat one-note, but Elchikhe exposes Pritti's ongoing eternal war between yearning and restraint in subtle, beautiful fashion.

Then, there is the main attraction: the drag queens. The trio of performers, played with infectious relish by David O'Reilly, Leon Craig, and James Gillan, are a contemporary twist on Gypsy's strippers, offering humor and heart in equal measure as they welcome Jamie into their fold. But the centerpiece is Bianca Del Rio, a.k.a. Roy Haylock, as Loco Chanelle/Hugo.

Del Rio rose to fame as the season 6 winner of RuPaul's Drag Race, channeling that success into feature films and comedy specials — as well as playing this same role in the West End and making a cameo in the film. Undoubtably, Del Rio is a draw for audiences, so I feared this was stunt casting. What a delight to be proven wrong!

Haylock moves effortlessly between the more muted role of Hugo and the larger-than-life Loco Chanelle. She knows precisely when to lay the camp on thicker than her eyebrows and when to let the powerful current of a scene have the breathing room it requires. She's expectedly divine as glamorous Loco Chanelle, but equally adept as Jamie's confidante and protector, proving that Haylock is a riveting and deft performer even (and perhaps especially) when stripped of the smoke and mirrors of drag.

MacRae and Dan Gillespie Sells' score is full of pop delights, particularly the title song, but it's Kate Prince's choreography that really make the musical numbers sing. The audience gets lovely nods to ballroom culture and voguing overlaid with the brisker influence of hip-hop, which amounts to an aesthetic that feels decisively modern and apropos.

Everybody's Talking About Jamie is a glitter-coated tribute to living life loudly and proudly as your truest self, naysayers be damned. In its sparkle, it's also a welcome escape from reality. The culture it presents trades in appearances and concealment, transforming and exposing in equal measure — yet ironically, the show's weakest moments often arrive when it tries to peel away the wigs and the bright-blue eyelashes to say something profound. Still, no one can say it's a drag. B

Everybody's Talking About Jamie is playing at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre through Feb. 20.

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