Richard E Grant cast as for­mer drag queen in Everybody’s Talk­ing About Jamie

Though it might seem that Richard E Grant fever peaked ear­li­er this year dur­ing his charm­ing Oscar cam­paign, the people’s thirst for fur­ther Grant con­tent can­not be ful­ly slaked. His fan­base requires a steady drip of new infor­ma­tion about the beloved Eng­lish char­ac­ter actor, and today, they’ve got­ten pre­cise­ly what they crave.

The Hol­ly­wood Reporter has announced that both Grant as well as Sharon Hor­gan have joined the cast of Everybody’s Talk­ing About Jamie, an upcom­ing adap­ta­tion of a Lon­don stage smash. The musi­cal con­cerns the plight of school­boy Jamie, a 16-year-old who lands at the cen­tre of con­tro­ver­sy in light of his plans to wear a frock on prom night in brash defi­ance of the provin­cial town’s notions about gen­der performance.

Grant will play the wise men­tor Hugo, a for­mer drag queen offer­ing Jamie solace and sup­port – though the ​‘for­mer’ bit has this writer wor­ried that we may not get the chance to behold Grant ful­ly resplen­dent in drag regalia. Either way, he’ll be able to indulge the live­ly, wily ener­gy that’s been his career’s bread and butter.

Hor­gan has been set to appear as Jamie’s teacher Miss Hedge, one of the pri­ma­ry antag­o­nists in the young man’s life. Miss Hedge’s con­stant refrain of ​“get real” dis­cour­ages Jamie from liv­ing his exceed­ing­ly fab­u­lous truth, but of course she’s no match for the pow­er of indi­vid­u­al­i­ty and pride.

There’s been a recent spike in feel-good musi­cals about teens plagued by angsty dis­tress, from Dear Evan Hansen to Be More Chill to The Prom, many of them pass­ing off their upbeat eth­ic as an excuse for sub­par writ­ing. Grant’s involve­ment looks like the first sign that Jamie and his cohort will fare a bit bet­ter than their transat­lantic cousins on Broad­way – if noth­ing else, we know he’s got the pipes.