HAYLEY TAMADDON JOINS THE 2023-24 UK & IRELAND TOUR OF AWARD-WINNING HIT MUSICAL EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE
HAYLEY TAMADDON MISS HEDGE IMAGES: DOWNLOAD HERE
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, the smash-hit and critically acclaimed musical, is pleased to announce the return of Hayley Tamaddon (Coronation Street, Emmerdale) as Miss Hedge, having previously appeared in the West End production at the Apollo Theatre. Hayley is best known for her screen roles as Del Dingle in Emmerdale and Andrea Beckett in Coronation Street as well as for winning the fifth series of Dancing on Ice in 2010. Her musical stage credits include Fame, MAMMA MIA!, A Chorus Line, The Rocky Horror Show, Grease, Spamalot, Chicago and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Hayley will appear in the upcoming tour of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie that launches at The Lowry, Salford from 7th to 17th September 2023.
She joins the previously announced Ivano Turco (Get Up, Stand Up!, Cinderella) as Jamie New, Rebecca McKinnis (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie West End, Dear Evan Hansen, We Will Rock You, Les Misérables) as Margaret New, Shobna Gulati (The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie West End and Film, Coronation Street, Brassic) as Ray, Talia Palamathanan (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie Tour and film) as Pritti, with John Partridge (Eastenders, The View Upstairs, La Cage Aux Folles, Chicago, A Chorus Line, CATS) as Hugo/Loco Chanelle (7 September until 11 November 2023 and 16 January until 23 March). Further casting to be announced.
Hayley Tamaddon said “After being part of the West End production in 2019, I’m so excited to be joining the touring company of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. The UK audiences are in for an absolute treat!”
Following a record-breaking three-year West End residency, sold out UK & Ireland Tour and Amazon studios award-winning film the show opens at The Lowry on 7 September 2023 before visiting Sunderland, Nottingham, Bromley, Birmingham, Cardiff, Brighton, Leeds, Blackpool, Llandudno, Oxford, Southampton, Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Woking, London, Bristol, Plymouth, Sheffield, Liverpool, Eastbourne, Portsmouth, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Northampton and Leicester with further tour dates to be announced.
Jamie New is sixteen and lives on a council estate in Sheffield. Jamie doesn’t quite fit in. Jamie is terrified about the future. Jamie is going to be a sensation. Supported by his brilliant loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness, into the spotlight.
This ‘Funny, outrageous, touching’ (Daily Telegraph) musical sensation is to be experienced by all the family and not to be missed!
Set to an original score of catchy pop tunes that will ‘blow the roof off the theatre’ (Mail on Sunday) by lead singer-songwriter of The Feeling, Dan Gillespie Sells and writer Tom MacRae (Doctor Who). Choreographed by Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Kate Prince (Into The Woods, Some Like It Hip Hop, SYLVIA, Message In A Bottle). This ‘sparkling coming-of-age musical’ (The Times) will have everybody talking about Jamie for years to come.
Sixteen: the edge of possibility. Time to make your dreams come true.
Music by Dan Gillespie Sells
Book and Lyrics by Tom MacRae
From an idea by Jonathan Butterell
Directed by Matt Ryan from original direction by Jonathan Butterell
Design by Anna Fleischle
Choreography by Kate Prince
Lighting design by Lucy Carter
Sound design by Paul Groothuis
Video Design Luke Halls
Casting by Will Burton
Musical Supervisor Theo Jamieson
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is at The Lowry, Salford from 7th to 17th September 2023. For more information and tickets visit www.thelowry.com.
-ENDS-
For more information, images, or to arrange interviews please contact Jennifer Dean at jennifer.dean@thelowry.com. Images can also be downloaded from www.flickr.com
Listing Information: The Lowry, Pier 8, The Quays, Salford, M50 3AZ
Thu 7 – Sun 17 September 2023
Website: www.thelowry.com
Watch the Everybody’s Talking About Jamie trailer here.
NOTES TO EDITORS
The Sheffield Theatres Production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is produced on tour by Nica Burns, Ian Osborne, Teresa and Craig Beech.
Director Jonathan Butterell saw the Firecracker documentary film ‘Jamie: Drag Queen at 16’ the true story of Jamie Campbell and his mother, Margaret. This inspired him to create this musical which is a dramatised portrayal of a period in Jamie’s life but is not a faithful account. Certain events and characters have been fictionalised.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie opened at the Sheffield Crucible in 2017 and transferred to the Apollo Theatre in the West End later that same year and ran until September 2021. As well as receiving 5-star reviews, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie has won 8 major theatre awards, including the UK Theatre and WhatsOnStage Awards for Best New Musical and the Attitude Culture Award 2017, and was nominated for 5 Olivier Awards. Most recently the show won Best Original Cast Recording at the 2019 WhatsOnStage Awards. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie commenced its first UK Tour in February 2020 starting at the Sheffield Crucible where the show had originally played 3 years previously, however, the tour was cut short due to COVID-19. The UK Tour re-commenced in September 2021 playing until May 2022. A second UK Tour commences in 2023 at the Lowry, Salford Quays.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie was screened live from the Apollo Theatre into over 500 cinemas across the UK, Ireland and select European territories on Thursday 5 July 2018, it was screened in cinemas across the US, Canada and Australia in November 2018 and then there was an encore cinema screening across the UK on 29 January 2019. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie won the Event Cinema Campaign of the Year at the Screen Awards 2018. The official West End cast recording was released digitally worldwide and on CD in the UK on Friday 27 April 2018 and won the WhatsOnStage award for Best Original Cast Recording in 2019. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie has been made into a major film by New Regency, Film4 and Sheffield based production company Warp Films starring Max Harwood, Sarah Lancashire, Lauren Patel, Shobna Gulati, Ralph Ineson, Adeel Akhtar, Samuel Bottomley, with Sharon Horgan and Richard E. Grant. The stage production’s director, Jonathan Butterell, made his feature-film debut as director. The film is available globally on Amazon Prime.
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CAST BIOGRAPHIES
Ivano Turco plays Jamie New. Early training: Arts 1 School of Performance, The Urdang Academy. Credits while training: Sleeping Beauty (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry). Upon graduating in 2020 he debuted in the Original West End cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella starring as Prince Sebastian (Gillian Lynne Theatre). He was a part of ALW’s Cinderella Original Album Cast Recording which received a GRAMMY Nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album in 2021 with Ivano further receiving a nomination as a Featured Artist. In 2021 he was the winner of the Black British Theatre award for Best Male Actor in a Musical for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella, sharing the same nomination at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2021. In 2021 he starred as Mordred in Lambert Jackson’s CAMELOT: In Concert (London Palladium); he was a part of the original London workshop cast of FANGIRLS as Salty/Dance captain. He also appears on the studio album of Footballer’s Wives as Salvo, featuring on the singles ‘Lonely Moon’ and ‘Let’s Dance’. Most recently Ivano was the alternate Bob Marley in Get Up! Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical. (Lyric Theatre).
Rebecca McKinnis plays Margaret New. Her theatre credits include Tessa in Wish You Were Dead (UK Tour), Heidi Hansen in Dear Evan Hansen (Noël Coward Theatre); Joan in You Are Here (Southwark Playhouse); Bridget in St Anne Comes Home (The Actors Church); Margaret in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Apollo Theatre); Christina in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Playhouse Theatre); Tina Ruston in A Small Family Business (National Theatre Olivier); u/s and Lauren in Viva Forever (Piccadilly Theatre); Les Misérables (25th Anniversary Tour); Teacher and u/s Killer Queen in We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre); u/s Jeanie in Fat Pig (Trafalgar Studios); Susannah Townley in Three Hours After Marriage (Union Theatre); Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew (Changeling Theatre Company); Lucy Lockett in Beggar’s Opera (Changeling Theatre Company); u/s and Donna/Tanya in Mamma Mia! (Prince of Wales); Virus/cover Kim and Big Sue in Taboo (UK Tour); Starting Here Starting Now (Upstairs at the Gatehouse); Kitty in Charley’s Aunt (CMC). Other credits include: Sound of Music Live (ITV); Comedy Cuts (ITV2) and Beauty and the Beast (Disney).
Shobna Gulati plays Ray. Shobna will soon be seen returning to the role of Nima in the upcoming second series of Channel 4’s Hullraisers. She became a household name for her role as Anita in Victoria Wood’s dinnerladies and as Sunita, in Coronation Street. She trained at Manchester University, Trinity Laban, Goldsmith’s College, London, Darpana Academy for Performing Arts, India and has a postgraduate in teaching dance from Middlesex University. Theatre credits include The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (UK Tour); Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith); Richard II (The Globe); Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (The Apollo Theatre and tour ); Daisy Pulls It Off (The Park); Anita & Me (Birmingham Rep/Touring Consortium); Grease (Leicester Curve); Mamma Mia International Tour 2015- 2016, Jon Godber’s April in Paris (Derby Playhouse/ National Tour); B!rth, Hunger for Trade, Come Closer Pretend You Have Big Buildings, Cafe Vesuvio (Royal Exchange, Manchester); How High is Up?, The Jungle Book, (West Yorkshire Playhouse); dinnerladies, Girl’s Night (National Tour), The Vagina Monologues (Mark Goucher Ltd); Romeo and Juliet, Crazy Lady (Leicester Haymarket, Contact Theatre ); The Mikado (New, Vic Stoke and Stephen Joseph Theatre) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Tara Arts/National Tour) , Moti Roti Puttli Chunni, Blaggers, and D’yer Eat with Your Fingers? (Theatre Royal, Stratford East). Film credits include Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (New Regency/Film4/Warp Films); Finding Fatimah (British Muslim TV); Junkhearts, (Dir. Tinge Krishnan) and BAFTA award winning short film, Shadowscan (BFI/Channel4/Disruptive Element Films). She has also written and directed the critically acclaimed comedy show for young women The Masala Girls. Television credits include Brassic (Sky); Inside No 9 (BBC); My Name is Leon (BBC); Midsomer Murders (ITV); Murder They Hope (UKTV); 4Stories – On the Edge (Blacklight Productions); Doctor Who (BBC); Moving On (LA Productions); River City (BBC Scotland); Treasure Champs (CBeebies) Casualty (BBC); Doctors (BBC); Coronation Street (ITV), Hold The Sunset (BBC), In the Club (BBC), Eastenders (BBC), New Street Law (BBC), Magnolia (BBC), Paranoid (ITV1/Red/Netflix), You, Me and Them (UKTV Gold), The Slammer (CBBC), Jackanory (CBBC), Bedtime Stories (Cbeebies), Coming Up (Channel 4), Where The Heart Is (ITV1) and dinnerladies (BBC). As a panellist she was seen on Call My Bluff, Have I Got News For You, Countdown and was a regular on ITV’s Loose Women until 2014. She appeared in Best Home Cook and was a semi- finalist in Celebrity Masterchef for the BBC and has appeared in Soapstar Superstar and Stars in their Eyes for ITV. Documentaries include: RTS award winning, River Walks, BBC1, Empire’s Children, Channel 4, Back In Time For Tea BBC2, Disappearing and Discovering Britain, More4. Shobna has also worked extensively as a dancer and choreographer in regional theatres and also in community and education settings across the UK. Between 1992 and 1994 she was a dance animateur for Yorkshire and Humberside. She has written her critically acclaimed memoir, REMEMBER ME? Discovering my mother as she lost her memory, published by Octopus Books in September 2020. She is a Doctor from Bolton University, University of Huddersfield, and Sheffield Hallam, and is Chancellor of The Children’s University, Oldham. She is also a Deputy Lieutenant for Greater Manchester.
Hayley Tamaddon plays Miss Hedge. Hayley is a versatile actor and performer with a vast career ranging from TV to stage to arena. On the small screen, Hayley is best known for playing Delilah Dingle in ITV’s Emmerdale and then Andrea Beckett on Coronation Street. She has also made countless other guest appearances with credits including Waterloo Road, The Royal Today, Where The Heart Is, The Royal, Shameless, Jimmy McGovern’s Accused and most recently ITV’s Unforgotten. She was crowned the winner of ITV’s hit show Dancing on Ice alongside her skating partner and childhood friend, Dan Whiston. They then went on tour with Torvill and Dean, where they got to perform their winning routine, Jai Ho every night. The pair were later invited back in to take part in ‘Dancing on Ice, The Champion of Champions’. On the big screen, Hayley starred in the hit comedy movie Eaten by Lions alongside Asim Chaudhry & Johnny Vegas. Written by Jason Wingard and David Issac, it was shown in cinemas all over the U.K and won numerous awards On stage, Hayley has taken on leading roles in plays and musicals in the West End and throughout the UK. Highlights include: Lisa in Mamma Mia (West End); Trish in Boogie Nights (UK tour); Fame (West End / UK tour); Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie (UK tour); Roxie Hart in Chicago (UK tour); The Lady of the Lake in Spamalot (UK tour); Janet in The Rocky Horror Show (UK tour); Diana Morales in A Chorus Line (Sheffield Crucible) and Frenchy in Grease (UK tour). Earlier this year Hayley won a Writers Initiative with UKTV and Female Pilot Club and was one of four women to have her comedy script performed in from of an industry audience. ‘Molly B’ is now in development as a 6 ep TV comedy. Hayley played Miss Hedge in the West End Production and is delighted to be back as part of the touring company.
Talia Palamathanan plays Pritti Pasha. Talia trained at The Brit School and part time at the Laura Bruce Dance Academy and Flawless Dance School. Her theatre credits include Stacey in Pump up the Volume for MTFest (Turbine Theatre), Lizbeth in Original London Cast of Cages (Riverside Studios), Becca/Understudy Pritti Pasha in Everybody’s Talking about Jamie (Original UK Tour, Ahmanson Theatre Los Angeles), Anne Margaret in Teenage Dick (Donmar Warehouse), West End Musical Celebration (Palace Theatre), Hortensia in RSC’s Matilda: the Musical (Cambridge Theatre). Her TV credits include The Late Late Show with James Corden performing with Everybody’s Talking about Jamie (CBS), Pav in Hank Zipzer (CBBC), and Children in Need performing with the cast of Matilda: the Musical (BBC). Her film credits include Everybody’s Talking About Jamie: The Film (Warp Films). Workshops include: Sharmina in Soho Dreams (The Lowry). Music Videos include: Michael Bublé & Idina Menzel ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’. Other Work Includes: Soho Dreams Cast Workshop Recording, The Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2019 with Drew Mconie & Cush Jumbo, Dancer in Flawless: Chase the Dream Tour, Various Hip-Hop/ Commercial dance works for Flawless, Aston Merrygold, Dance Proms & MOVEIT.
John Partridge plays Hugo/Loco Chanelle. John is a British actor, singer, presenter and writer. John initially trained in ballet at the Royal Ballet School and went on to train in musical theatre at the Bush Davies School of Theatre Arts and Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts. At the age of 16, John left college to join the cast of the original UK tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical CATS. He went on to join the West End production of the show at the New London Theatre, to star as Rum Tum Tugger. John was subsequently asked to play the role in the official film of the show, opposite Elaine Paige and John Mills. Other West End credits include: Zach in the London revival of A Chorus Line (London Palladium); Robert Martin in The Drowsy Chaperone (Novello Theatre); Gringoire in Notre-Dame de Paris (Dominion Theatre); The Fix (Donmar Warehouse) directed by Sam Mendes; Hawker/Captain Walker in Tommy (Shaftesbury Theatre); Grease (Dominion Theatre); Electra in Starlight Express (Apollo Victoria Theatre); and The Butcher in The Hunting of the Snark (Prince Edward Theatre), Taboo 20th Anniversary Concert (London Palladium) and Daryl Van Horne in The Witches of Eastwick in Concert (Sondheim Theatre). John most recently played Maitland in The Chalk Garden (Theatre Royal Windsor & Yvonne Arnaud Theatre); led the National Theatre & CAST Doncaster production of The Doncastrian Chalk Circle as Azdak; toured the UK as The Emcee in the Rufus Norris production of Cabaret; played Buddy in The View Upstairs (Soho Theatre); Turai in Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing (UK Tour); and Chief Superintendent Tanner in The Case of the Frightened Lady after having starred as Albin, who moonlights as star drag act Zaza, in a brand new version of La Cage Aux Folles. He played Billy Flynn in Chicago (UK Tour); Prospero in The Tempest (Northcott Theatre); John in Miss Saigon (UK Tour); Roger in Rent (European Tour); appeared in Black Goes With Everything (Churchill Theatre, Bromley); and Marilyn in Boy George’s musical Taboo (The Venue). Screen credits includes: Julius Caesar in African Queens (Netflix), Felipe in Involuntary Activist (Iris Prize/BBC); and the long-running and much-loved role of Christian Clarke in EastEnders (BBC, 2007-2016). A well-known TV personality, John was crowned Winner of Celebrity MasterChef (BBC); bared all on The Real Full Monty (ITV); was a judge on Taking The Next Step (CBBC); competed in Battlechefs with Marco Pierre White (Watch) and gymnastics show Tumble (BBC). John was a celeb judge on the hugely successful Over the Rainbow (BBC); regular guest host of The National Lottery Draws (BBC); and is frequent guest contributor on Jeremy Vine (Channel 5). John has worked with several rock and pop acts, including: U2, Pet Shop Boys, Kim Wilde, Neneh Cherry, Pete Townshend, Mica Paris and Ultra Naté. In 2009, John won the Inside Soap Award for the Sexiest Male and, in 2010, he was awarded the Entertainer of the Year Award at the annual Stonewall Awards ceremony. In 2013, John performed his first live one-man show Dames ‘n’ Dudes at The Matcham Room, Hippodrome. Following its success, John released Dames, Dudes + Cowboys Too, his debut album featuring original songs alongside classic covers. In 2018, he premiered his all-new live show John Partridge: Stripped at The Other Palace Studio. Following its success, he revived the show in August 2018 at Assembly Checkpoint, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, returning back to London for a final performance at The Pleasance. Following his Celebrity MasterChef win, 2020 saw the release of his debut book, There’s No Place Like Home.