Lambert Jackson: 'We were drawn to each other. Our partnership is built on friendship'

“People say: ‘Don’t you miss performing?’ Absolutely not,” Jackson says. “I like to be in control, and if you’re in someone else’s show you don’t get that much of a say. That constant up-in-the-air feeling wasn’t good for my mental health.”

Unlike Jackson, Lambert still performs as well as produces. In 2014, he won Britain’s Got Talent with musical theatre group Collabro, which he describes as “a whirlwind” experience. The group still performs together regularly. “I will be very honest about the fact that I’m not a very good actor and I can’t dance,” Lambert laughs, “so my thing has always been purely singing.”

When he was younger, Lambert wanted to go into opera, but first went to university to study languages. “Your voice doesn’t mature as a man until it’s in its late 30s, so I knew I had time,” he says. Plus, he wanted the university experience. After graduation, he did the conversion course where he met Jackson, and soon after that ended up in Collabro, where he also helped with the administrative and business side of the group. “I always did a lot of the legal work for that,” he says, “the touring and looking at budgets. Very quickly I realised that I had a passion for the numbers that come with business in this industry.”

The decision to produce shows during the first lockdown came from a late-night crisis. They had various shows about to go on, including taking the Tony award-winning musical The Secret Garden to the London Palladium. Ticket sales were going well, and it was only two weeks away when lockdown hit.

‘We needed people to understand this is creatives’ livelihoods – it’s not just a hobby’ – Eliza Jackson

Lambert rang Jackson when it was announced that Broadway was going dark. “He said: ‘We’re going to shut. We need to figure out what we’re going to do to beat everyone else. We need to be ahead of the game.’” She reckons an element of their success in lockdown came from their speed, and that this is in part why their concert series, Leave a Light On, was such a hit. Co-produced by the Theatre Cafe, the concerts were live-streamed from the homes of West End performers. The series went on for 10 weeks, covering the entire first lockdown, and provided financial support to artists who had suddenly had their incomes whipped away.

While some organisations and artists were producing work for free at the start of lockdown, Lambert Jackson charged for all of their work. This attracted some criticism, but they are adamant they made the right choice. “What we needed to ensure over those weeks,” Lambert says, “is that there was some form of economy for actors and performers to be able to make money. Someone criticised us online by saying this is a money-making venture, and our response was: ‘Yes, of course it is.’ Because actors need to be paid.”

Q&A Eliza Jackson and Jamie Lambert

What was your first non-theatre job?
Lambert: I worked in three different hotels in Cyprus doing entertainment.
Jackson: Dance teacher.

What do you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?
Lambert: Trust your instincts and don’t compromise on your values.
Jackson: What you see as your failures could be your biggest successes.

Who or what was your biggest influence?
Lambert: My mum.
Jackson: My mum for her creativity and my dad for his drive.

What’s your best advice for auditions?
Lambert: Don’t be afraid to show your humanity.
Jackson: Be yourself. If those auditioning can reflect their personality in any way, that’s what we love, rather than trying to impress.

If you hadn’t been a producer, what would you have been?
Lambert: I’d probably have gone into NHS management, which was what I was doing before Collabro.
Jackson: Law. I got the grades to do law and then thought: “Fuck it, I’m going to be an actor.”

Do you have any theatrical superstitions or rituals?
Lambert: We get the posters printed when we put a show on but we don’t hang them up until the show has been done.

When the actions of government suggested that certain roles in the theatre industry were not essential, Lambert and Jackson were keen to stress the economic importance of their work. “This is an incredibly viable industry that contributes an enormous amount to the economy,” Lambert says. Jackson agrees. “We needed people to understand this is people’s livelihoods,” she says. “It’s not just a hobby. These people were looking at a period of time where they had no access to any money coming in.”

As well as financial support, those concerts in the initial weeks of lockdown also gave artists something to work towards. Lots of them rang up, Jackson says. “They were like: ‘Thank you for giving me something to wake up for in the morning, to sing my scales for, to go on a run for and make sure I’m feeling good.’ ”

After Leave a Light On, the duo worked on filming theatre in isolation, first with The Last Five Years, and then Songs for a New World, both by US composer Jason Robert Brown. While the latter show is now 25 years old, its messages remain pertinent. “The Black Lives Matter elements to the way that Séimí [Campbell] directed Cedric [Neal]’s track. The faith elements to Rachel John’s track. It’s as relevant now, if not more so, because of what’s going on in the world,” Lambert says.

After the first lockdown, they took it to the Palladium – the first musical-theatre show on a West End stage since theatres shut – for a sold-out, socially distanced, two-night run. “It was such a beautiful [sense of] togetherness,” Jackson says, remembering the feeling in the room on those nights. “There was so much hope.” Nimax then picked it up, and a five-week run of the show will take place at the Vaudeville Theatre in February 2021.

Lambert and Jackson are ecstatic. They see the West End changing, with younger companies bringing in new talent. “It’s not going to be the same as before,” Lambert says. “Quite rightly.” The stages are changing in the way they nurture talent, encourage diversity and treat their performers. Lambert and Jackson believe Songs for a New World, and all it represents, is just the show to herald new musical theatre to the West End.

They are still relatively new to the world of producing. “We are so grateful to everyone who has taken a chance on us,” Jackson says. As they continue to grow, they want to ensure they hold on to their core values: making sure the artists get good deals, are looked after, and that the working process is transparent. As long as they keep doing these things, Lambert considers: “I think for the future, the sky’s the limit.”

CV Eliza Jackson and Jamie Lambert

Born:
Lambert: Sunderland, UK (1990)
Jackson: Sydney, Australia (1991)
Training:
Jackson: musical theatre degree at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Australia
Company: Lambert Jackson
Founded: 2018
Landmark productions:
• The Last Five Years, online (2020)
• Songs for a New World, London Palladium (2020)

Songs for a New World opens at London’s Vaudeville Theatre on February 9, 2021. Details: nimaxtheatres.com