Jackie: The Musical

I’m not usually a fan of what has become known as a “Jukebox Musical” but perhaps this is because there have been so many rather poor ones over the last ten years. Last night though I was charmed by Jackie and here is why. Firstly the music, so many fun memories of my youth and played and sung so well, what was not to like as they belted out I Love To Love and Twentieth Century Boy. So familiar were the songs that I could have gone on and joined the cast and been word perfect. I could not of course have competed when it came to the dancing which brings me to my second point, what choreography from Arlene Phillips and who better to have done it, the queen of pop dance then and still is from this outing. The dancers too were superb delivering her steps with energy and style. Style makes my third point, wonderful costumes and a cast who in wearing them managed to emulate the classic period illustrations of leggy, pert bottomed kids, male and female!
So on to the plot, as silly and whimsical as a Jackie Magazine feature or agony letter, filled with laughs and memories of teenage angst, it brought back an era when we were desperate to shed our innocence. It was delivered too by an excellent cast. Lori Haley Frost is delightful as best friend Jill, wickedly manipulative in her attempts to get Jackie out and paired off. Bob Harms is extraordinary as Frankie the bar owner and belts out some of the best tunes of the night with a weird blend of camp and machismo that had me rolling with laughter. Michael Hamway as son David delivers the show stopping routine of the night as declares his love for Jill with a blistering Twentieth Century Boy and dance moves to match and Daisy Steere is sugar-coated sweet as young Jackie, all media-fed innocence and charm. The rest of the cast are also good, from the featured roles to the brilliantly drilled ensemble.
But it is Janet Dibley who stands out, as Jackie, the older woman on the edge of divorce, reared on the sugar-coated platitudes of teen mags and the advice of the fictional agony aunts “Cathy and Claire”. Dibley brings much needed balance to a show full of camp silliness and make the story stand out as one worth watching. She’s fragile, sad and lonely but above all that she’s angry and eventually she is ready to fight back. She can sing too but she does what I most admire in a musical performer, she acts the song, even when the lyrics are trite or silly she gives them a dramatic sense and that is what lifts this fun entertainment to the heights that it achieves. I loved this delicious confection of show and came away singing if not dancing.
Jackie: The Musical
Theatre Royal Brighton
5 April
Andrew Kay
5 stars