By Ben Travis | Posted 29 May 2018

From La La Land to The Greatest Showman, via Beauty and the Beast and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, the musical is live and kicking on the big screen. Now British theatre hit Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is getting a cinematic adaptation that after thriving in the West End.

The show adapts the true story of Jamie Campbell, a teenager from the North East who chose to attend his school prom in drag, attracting ire from the school staff and respect from his classmates. Campbell’s story was first documented in a BBC Three documentary, Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, which writer Tom MacRae and The Feeling frontman Dan Gillespie Sells turned into a Sheffield-set theatrical musical — think part Billy Elliot, part Kinky Boots, with all the catchy songs and snappy northern dialogue that implies.

The film will mark another entry in a long line of drag-themed cinema — Paris Is Burning, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar — and is being produced by Warp Films, behind the likes of This Is England, Ghost Stories, Four Lions and Berberian Sound Studio. Show director Jonathan Butterell is on board to helm the adaptation with MacRae and Sells also signed up, though it's unknown whether stage show lead John McCrea will reprise his role on film.

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