Kelle Bryan and Joanne Clifton will share the role of Miss Hedge on the 10th anniversary UK tour of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, with Divina De Campo as Hugo/Loco Chanelle. The tour opens at Leeds Grand Theatre on 15 January 2027.
Kelle Bryan and Joanne Clifton will divide the role of Miss Hedge between them on the 10th anniversary UK tour of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. Bryan plays the part from Leeds to Southampton, Clifton takes it on from Cheltenham through to Newcastle, and Divina De Campo completes the principal casting as Hugo/Loco Chanelle.
They join Ashcon Rahmani, announced earlier as Jamie New, and Rebecca Trehearn as his mum Margaret New. Rahmani is from Rotherham and a recent graduate of The Urdang Academy, and the tour is his professional debut. Trehearn won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Julie in Showboat.
Bryan played Martine Deveraux in Channel 4’s Hollyoaks, a role that brought her nominations at the British Soap Awards and the Inside Soap Awards. Her stage credits include Daddy Cool at the Shaftesbury Theatre, Wings at the Young Vic and The Exonerated at the Charing Cross Theatre.
Clifton won Strictly Come Dancing in 2016 with Ore Oduba and has worked steadily in musicals since, most visibly as Polly in Fawlty Towers in the West End and on tour. She has also played Princess Fiona in Shrek, Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray and Morticia Addams in The Addams Family.
De Campo was the runner-up in the first series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and won Best Performance in a Musical at the UK Theatre Awards for Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Leeds Playhouse. She has recently finished playing The Amazing Karnak in Ride the Cyclone at Southwark Playhouse Elephant.
“I’m so delighted to take on this iconic musical role,” Bryan said. “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is so relatable, relevant and heartfelt, but also fun and full of sass. I can’t wait to step into Miss Hedge’s fabulous red shoes and bring some ‘Edge to Hedge!’”
Clifton called the part “a casting dream”, adding: “I can’t wait to join such a talented team of performers and makers for the show’s tenth anniversary!”
“This show is so very special,” De Campo said. “Jamie’s amazing story – and the beautiful characters within – have impacted audiences world-over for a decade now. I’m excited to follow in the footsteps of some amazing past performers, and to bring Loco Chanelle into a new and glittering light.”
The rest of the company is Natasha Lewis as Ray, Mariam Pope as Pritti, Matthew Cavan as Tray Sophisticay, Daniel Jacob as Sandra Bollock, Jenson Steele as Laika Virgin, William Hazell as Dad, Kyle Dick as Dean, Ethan Casey-Clothier as Levi, Ellie Eames as Vicki, Uzuazo O’David as Cy, Grace Porter as Bex, Callum Saddler as Young Loco and first cover Jamie, Fin Scott as Mickey, Zaynab Shahid as Fatimah, Will Stevenson-Jones as Sayid and Zarina Thompson as Becca, with Jáiden Lodge and Ynez Williams as swings and Samantha Ivey understudying Margaret, Miss Hedge and Ray.
Pope makes a professional musical theatre debut on the tour, having appeared in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre. Several others are straight out of training: Dick, O’David and Shahid are all recent Urdang graduates, and Saddler makes an adult professional debut.
The tour will also carry a new song by Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MacRae, who wrote the score and the book and lyrics. The production has released a short film introducing the company, Meet the Class of 2027.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie opened at the Sheffield Crucible in 2017 and transferred to the Apollo Theatre later the same year, staying in the West End for three years and taking the UK Theatre and WhatsOnStage awards for Best New Musical. It was screened live from the Apollo into more than 500 cinemas in 2018 and made into a feature film, released on Amazon Prime in 2021. The story comes from the Firecracker documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, about Jamie Campbell and his mother Margaret, and is a dramatised rather than faithful account of it.
This is the third major UK tour of the musical, and it opens in Leeds ten years after that first Sheffield staging. The company last played in London at the Peacock Theatre, on the second UK and Ireland tour in early 2024; the anniversary tour’s only London week is at the New Wimbledon Theatre from 23-27 March 2027. It finishes at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle on 24 July 2027.
Producer Nica Burns said the musical “has been a huge success around the world, playing to audiences from all walks of life. A brilliant, uplifting musical for all.”
The Sheffield Theatres production is produced on tour by Nica Burns. Jonathan Butterell, whose idea the musical came from, directs, with Matt Ryan as tour director, design by Anna Fleischle, choreography by Kate Prince, lighting by Lucy Carter, sound by Paul Groothuis, musical supervision by Theo Jamieson and casting by Will Burton.
Tour dates for the Everybody’s Talking About Jamie 10th anniversary tour
- 15-23 January 2027: Leeds Grand Theatre, Leeds
- 26 January - 2 February 2027: Storyhouse Theatre, Chester
- 2-6 February 2027: Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury
- 9-13 February 2027: Sunderland Empire, Sunderland
- 16-20 February 2027: Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
- 22-27 February 2027: Wolverhampton Grand, Wolverhampton
- 2-6 March 2027: Wycombe Swan, High Wycombe
- 8-13 March 2027: Sheffield Lyceum, Sheffield
- 15-20 March 2027: Manchester Palace Theatre, Manchester
- 23-27 March 2027: New Wimbledon Theatre, London
- 30 March - 3 April 2027: Liverpool Empire, Liverpool
- 6-10 April 2027: Hall for Cornwall, Truro
- 13-17 April 2027: Congress Theatre, Eastbourne
- 27 April - 1 May 2027: King’s Theatre, Glasgow
- 4-8 May 2027: Mayflower Theatre, Southampton
- 11-15 May 2027: Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham
- 18-22 May 2027: The Alexandra, Birmingham
- 25-29 May 2027: Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury
- 1-5 June 2027: Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
- 8-12 June 2027: Theatre Royal, Nottingham
- 14-19 June 2027: Curve Theatre, Leicester
- 22-26 June 2027: New Theatre, Oxford
- 28 June - 3 July 2027: New Victoria Theatre, Woking
- 6-10 July 2027: The Alhambra Theatre, Bradford
- 12-17 July 2027: Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury
- 19-24 July 2027: Theatre Royal, Newcastle
