Tom MacRae – co-writer of ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’

Back in September 2019, we welcomed the fantastic script-writer Tom MacRae onto Writer’s Routine.

Along with Dan Gillespie-Sells, Tom wrote the hit West End musical, ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’. It opened in Sheffield, before transferring to London, selling-out constantly and receiving rave 5 star reviews. After writing for comedy on TV and for Dr Who, Tom had always planned to write a musical with his mate Dan, from the band ‘The Feeling’. Then, watching a BBC documentary about a boy who wanted to go to high-school prom in a dress, he finally had an idea. Drawing on modern pop influences, and working class musicals such as ‘Blood Brothers’, Tom and Dan locked themselves away in a French villa and wrote the musical.

Tom talks about the plotting and planning of writing for stage, how you writing dialogue when you know half the story has to be told in song. Also, how he knows when to be funny, and also went to switch off and stop working for the weekend.

There’s fantastic advice in here about discipline, characterisation and finding the hook of a story.

Subscribe for more!