Jayde Adams interview: 'The last time working class girls felt power from being women was the Spice Girls'

The Divine Ms Jayde: The Soho Theatre show runs January 31-February 9
Suzie Larke
Zoe Paskett31 January 2019

Jayde Adams is a diva and she wants the world to know.

The moment for demure and stripped back performance has passed. Now, as the Bristolian comedian says she’s ready for her own talk show, it’s all about gowns, ballads and as many costume changes as she can cram in.

After winning the Funny Women Award in 2014 and being nominated for best newcomer at Edinburgh Fringe in 2016, Adams has been going from strength to strength. With her combination of stand-up and a smashing singing voice, she’s done wonders in demonstrating that someone who started at the fish counter in Asda can become a star.

The Divine Ms Jayde, which runs at the Soho Theatre from January 31-February 9, is glittery, sequined revelry – but it’s revelry with a purpose.

The show is “a deconstruction of feminism and a celebration of what really matters, through musical theatre”. Created with composer Richard Thomas, who won an Olivier Award for Jerry Springer: the Opera and wrote the music for Jonny Woo’s All Star Brexit Cabaret, the show sees Adams throw everything and the kitchen sink at the Soho Theatre stage. That includes her partner, comedian Rich Wilson, the Madge to her Dame Edna.

The Divine Ms Jayde suggests that, underneath all that jazz, the most important thing is to be real.

“I’ve been thinking about what my hashtag would be,” she says. “My own ‘girl power’, and I think it would be ‘keep it real, babes’, because I think everyone’s just not seeing how mad everything is at the moment.”

She's talking about the feminist slogans printed to sell t-shirts and the pop stars equating sex appeal with empowerment. “It’s all advertising. I see stuff all the time, all these images and these words that don’t marry up with each other.

“Feminism is being discussed, but it’s being discussed amongst middle class people, which is great, there needs to be a conversation, but it isn’t a conversation that’s being had to anyone other than people that already believe in it. The last time working class girls felt power from being a woman was the Spice Girls. ‘Girl power’ was the simplest, most beautiful idea that encouraged a generation of girls.”

Throughout the show, she picks apart ideas of modern feminism in a way that women of all classes can related to. The witty and tongue-in-cheek songs cover female empowerment, confidence and body positivity, as well as the feminist future we’re heading towards. Most of all, she wants the audience to laugh at how ridiculous everything is.

“I’m all about body positivity but no one needs to see me in my underwear to know that I’m body positive,” she says. “I’ve got a weird knee. I did my cruciate ligament in doing the scissor kick to PJ and Duncan’s Let’s Get Ready to Rumble and now my knee looks like Haley Joel Osment...now! I do not need to get that out on the front cover of Cosmo wearing a swimsuit. Put me in couture, put me in an incredible dress.”

She’s no stranger to glitz and glamour. Showbiz has been coursing through her veins since she was five years old. “My auntie Julie owned a freestyle disco dancing school.” She preempts my question of what that is with the assertion that “there’s no artistic merit in it at all. It’s literally about how fast you can do it, how flexible you are and whether or not you’ve got 1,000 Swarovski diamonds on your costume.”

As with many who go onto hog the spotlight, she was passed over for the lead roles in school plays.

“If you’re looking at someone to play the nurse in Romeo and Juliet, who are you looking at? Jayde Adams. I had to be Peter. The nurse’s assistant. I brushed the stage. That’s the best stage brushing anyone’s done in their life. I stole the show.”

It was the discovery that she could sing that changed it all, and the one teacher who noticed. She has no training, and only began to take it seriously after her flatmate overheard her singing Time To Say Goodbye while she was ironing.

“The more I’ve sung the better I’ve got at it,” she says. “The more compliments you hear, the better you get. I’ve just had people compliment me enough that I’ve just ignored the other s***.”

There have been plenty of moments of that, but she’s not focusing on any of it. Now, it’s all about making the most of her time to shine.

“I was told this year I wasn’t serious enough to be a comedian, because I've always gone for the entertainment. Next year, I will be taking myself seriously as a comedian. I’ll be wearing a black jumper and all of the showbiz and sequins will be in a cupboard.”

We’ll believe that when we see it.

Jayde Adams: The Divine Ms Jayde runs at the Soho Theatre from January 31-February 9, sohotheatre.com

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