Brighton: delighted to be back in Everybody's Talking About Jamie

It is playing the Theatre Royal Brighton until Saturday, November 11.

“This is my second time in the show,” Hayley says. “I did it before in the West End. That was 2019 before the world changed and actually I was pregnant when I did it the first time and I couldn't tell anyone but eventually when I was three months, I did tell people. I had to leave. I was growing a bump! I was very big very quickly! So to be asked back for a second time is just a dream and I am absolutely thrilled. It's like a big family on Jamie and when you're part of that family you're part of that family forever. And I really wouldn't say that this is the last time I will do the show!”

Hayley steps back from Jamie very soon before heading off to panto in New Brighton, but she's been delighted to be on the road with the show in the same role she played first time round: “I have come back to play the mean teacher again and it's so nice to play someone who is absolutely not you. I am so removed from her and that's what makes it so interesting to play somebody so different. I wouldn't say that she is nasty but she is certainly bitter. She has never really made it herself. She ended up having to teach and I don't think that's what she ever really wanted to do. She wanted to be a singer or a pop star so I do think she's ended up quite a bitter person.”

A big part of the attraction of it all is the relevance of the show as a whole: “It's a really important story (the tale of the boy who wants to wear a dress to the school prom), and you are working with incredible music and a brilliant script. Dan Gillespie Sells (frontman of The Feeling) has come up with some fantastic songs. You only have to listen to The Feeling to know the music that you're going to get in this and you come out of the theatre remembering those songs. And the other thing is that the story is a true story and everybody loves a true story but when it is a true story which is about love and hope and somebody wanting to be themselves in this world where sometimes we struggle to be the people we want to be, then it is just a great show to be part of.”

And the show is helping to change attitudes: “We get so many people coming up and wanting to tell us their own story at the stage door and really if it just helps one person, then that is fantastic. I feel really honoured to be part of a show on this scale. I've done lots in my career and this show is right up there. I think it's one of the top musicals that have ever been. It has got a great story that goes on forever. I've done some brilliant musicals like Chicago and A Chorus Line and you know they will go on forever because they've got great music and great stories and I do think Jamie is amongst them. There's still a long way to go (in terms of attitudes), but Jamie is playing across the country, it has played in LA and in different parts of the world and I think it is really making a difference.”