COMING HOME: Hiba Elchikhe, currently in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Apollo Theatre

Pocket Size Theatre and Liza Heinrichs (Captured by Liz) have teamed up again and created our new series 'Coming Home'. In this new piece, we look at the reopening of Theatres in London and around the country and celebrate our industry coming back. We got together some performers who will be some of the first to return to theatres and created this piece to bring some positivity to the theatre industry which has been through one of the toughest years in our lifetime. Whilst it is important to acknowledge the hardships we've all gone through, it's important we pull together as a community and celebrate our beloved industry finally coming back! 

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie has been running in the West End since November 2017, a new British musical it has taken audiences by storm and has had a hugely successful run over the past few years. The show has recently announced that it will be temporally closing from the 26th of September at the Apollo Theatre, where Mischiefs Theatres’ Magic Goes Wrong will take its place. However, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie will be making a return in 2022! 

Hiba Elchikhe is currently playing Pritti Pasha in the West End production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and has recently announced that she will be playing Alice in Dick Whittington this Christmas at the New Wimbledon Theatre. She will also be appearing in ‘Well-Behaved Women’ at Cadogan Hall on the 3rd September. Her other credits include the title role in Brooklyn the Musical at the Greenwich Theatre, Fiver at the Southwark Playhouse, Antony & Cleopatra at the National Theatre, Princess Jasmine in Disney’s Aladdin in Australia, Ghost the Musical in Asia and The Sound of Music for ITV. 

REVIEW: Studio Cast Ep of 'In the Willows'

In 2019 the new musical In the Willows toured a dozen or so UK Venues to good reviews and although I missed the tour, I was delighted to hear the new six track EP that has just been released featuring some of the touring cast including one of my favourite musical comedy actors Clive Rowe as Badger. Written by P Burton- Morgan with music and lyrics by Pippa Cleary (who also wrote the musical version of The Secret diary of Adrian Mole) and composer Kieran Merrick, it is a modern energetic tale based on the Kenneth Grahame’s famous novel but transposing the characters to a British comprehensive school, The Willows, and the surrounding area. It gives the story a fresh real life setting and challenges a young audience to find their own voice and be open about who they are and their past. It is not to be confused with Julian Fellows Wind in the Willows Musical which is a more traditional retelling of the original stories.

Of course, on a six track EP the full story is hidden, and the characters hinted at rather than fleshed out, but it whets your appetite to see the full show when it next tours or transfers into the West End. No doubt during lockdown many new musicals have been developed and will be seeking finance to be fully staged but this one is surely ahead of the queue having already toured smaller UK venues and the EP shines a light on the exciting and distinctive musical style which seems to borrow from Hamilton and Six, two of the most recent West End stage successes.