Jackie Steps Back In Time!

There is something particularly appealing about any show, exhibition or concert that promises to whip you back to the heady days of your teenage years.  Even the mere mention of Jackie:TheMusical has had me smiling since the tour dates for its five night stop at Perth Concert Hall were announced last year.

I was a Jackie fan; every Wednesday after school I’d wander over to the North Muirton paper shop to pick up my reserved copy from behind the counter.  A curly wurly treat –well, I was earning £1.21 an hour at the time – to enjoy while pouring over the problems of other angst ridden teenage girls and I was as happy as a girl living in 1985 could possibly get.

I kinda hoodwinked RG into coming along with me; he has been working on a boat for seven weeks and I felt bad abandoning him on his second night home.  So I vaguely murmured something about a musical and offered to buy him dinner at North Port before we went in… It was sitting over a delicious pre-theatre (more below!) that I broke news he’d likely be one of around only 5 men in the audience.   I think it was maybe ten….

The auditorium was really busy and as predicted chocablock full of women downing white wine out of plastic cups.  The big surprise though was the age group; although largely 40 – 55 year old Jackie readers of the past there was a huge number of younger women and girls clearly there with mums and aunties and work colleagues.

The air was thick with that fabulous buzz that arrives in a room full of upbeat women, phones clicking for numerous selfies, laughing galore and the readjusting of a seventies style collars among those who’d run the entire gambit and dressed up for the occasion.   

The stage lights went up, the band who were right there on stage under the photo-strip boxes, fired up with a series of intros to seventies classics from Donny Osmond to David Essex and we opened on a drunk Jackie (Janet Dibley), 55, about to be divorced and packing up her home.

From the first number out of the show’s stunning seventies jukebox you knew you were in for a good night.  The story in its most basic form is about divorce and lost love and life at its rawest but it is underpinned with the joyful innocence of Jackie’s teenage alter ego – upbeat, joyful and always prepared with sage advice from the pages of her beloved Jackie.

The stage set is bright, and brings a glorious re-enactment of our favourite photostories, cartoon speech bubbles and handsome boys included. One big anthem after another flies out of the talented cast and the troop of dancers bring one fabulous retro outfit after another alive with energy and kitsch.   Two huge disco balls filled the stalls with glistening light and the energy of the world’s biggest hen party sprung into life with clapping, swaying and lyrics rising up from the audience around me.

The show is written Mike James and directed by Anna Linstrum, and had the full cooperation of Jackie’s publisher DC Thompson who gave access to the archives.  The dances were the brainchild of choreographer Arlene Phillips and as this unlikely idea came to strut across the stage it was clear that the generation of women who had ploughed through 600,000 copies of Jackie every week carried as much love and affection for their weekly mag as they did for Marc Bolan or David Essex.

The writing played right into the nostalgic hands of its audience but far from being a sickly sweet re-enactment of a perfect world it swung between then and now, poking perfect fun at the doe-eyed teenagers in all of us with tongue firmly in cheek. 

And so, so funny.  I laughed until I cried – Frankie the bartender’s camp Puppy Love and Jackie’s son David’s announcement to his one true love only two of the many musical highlights – and strengthened by the oestrogen of 600 other women, cheered Jackie on as she found her inner tiger feet.

As for RG… well we were only two tracks in and Crazy Horses had him bobbing his head, reliving his own youth as the sharp guy at the disco (his version!).     

If this isn’t what the term feel-good was invented for I don’t know what is.   You will LOVE this show. It’s happy, nostalgic, kitschy and with a soundtrack and dance moves that will have you singing into your plastic wine cup.   The entire audience was on its feet by the end reliving their youth, fuelled by seventies anthems, girl power and maybe a few wee sherbets! 

So, if you are:

A)     A woman who values her friends above all boys

B)      A woman who loves to dance and sing while imaging she married the legendary David Cassidy

C)      A woman who has survived the bruises, bashes and bumps of life and come out smiling with a glass of Prosecco in one hand and a online dating account in the other

D)     A man who loves a kitschy seventies number as much as the next woman and isn’t afraid to admit it

Then our advice is to go and buy tickets for this fantastic show NOW!  Your teenage self will be extremely grateful that you did.

BOOK TICKETS>>>

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We had dinner at North Port before the show which is a perfect location for a pre-theatre meal.  I am a bit of a fan it has to be said but then two courses of delicious, seasonal ingredients for £14.95 what’s not to like?! 

The service is always friendly at North port, not too formal, relaxed and chatty.  Our appetiser was warm, homemade bread with a carrot and malt puree which RG and I devoured.  

I had a tasty smoked Haddie Pate served with onion jam and a dill oil with a puddle of buttermilk and some crisp toasts.  The pate was chunky and packed full of flavour and I could see RG eyeing it up across haggis, neeps and tatties.  However, the homemade haggis in North port is always a treat – they make it in house themselves and he was for doing a half way swap.

It was fish all the way for me with a Hebridean salmon fillet and haricot beans with golden beetroot as a main.  The flavours were earthy and the portion size was perfect for a pre-musical dance-athon.  RG opted for the chicken which he doesn’t normally go for but which he assured me was moist and brought to life by the celeriac and charred onion.

Well worth a visit if you’re booking in to enjoy the show! More about North Port Restaurant on our directory>>>