Based on the book by Kate Pankhurst
Adapter: Chris Bush
Director: Amy Hodge
From a fantastically great book about fantastically great women comes a fantastically great show. Strap in, listen up and enjoy the history of some of the world’s most amazing females in this treat of a show for young and old. History lessons have never been this much fun.
Based on the award-winning picture book by suffragette descendant Kate Pankhurst, Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World is a pop medley whizz-through of the biopics of some of the most influential women of recent history. When Jade (Georgia Grant-Anderson) gets separated and lost on a school trip to a museum she falls into the rabbit-hole that is an exhibition of fantastically great women. A burst of technicolour and techno-pop ensues as she has fleeting audiences with headliners such as Emmeline Pankhurst, Frida Kahlo, Marie Curie, Jane Austen, Amelia Earhart, Mary Seacole, Rosa Parks as well as some, perhaps, lesser-known figures such as Sacagawea, Agent Fifi, Gertrude Ederle and Mary Anning. Under Joanna Scotcher’s vibrant technicolour design it is a rainbow of history, inspiration and catchy pop tunes.
The comparisons to Six: The Musical are inevitable as the Venn diagrams both musicals overlap significantly. Both have a gig style quality, a short running time and put catchy pop tunes and clever lyrics into the mouths of women from history. Designed for young female audiences the appeal of both shows transcend their targeted audience to allow a much greater appeal. With many of the women sitting firmly on the national curriculum there were murmurs from the younger members of the audience educating their grown-ups as the next exciting and colourful figure entered the stage.
Cleverly, Chris Bush’s adaptation keeps the feel of a picture book – the pages turning to reveal another interesting woman we will spend a few minutes in the company of. Miranda Cooper and Jennifer Decilveo’s music is perfectly pitched in terms of catchiness and variety. Backed by a live, all female bad, highlights include a rapping Emmeline Pankhurst (Jennifer Caldwell) dressed in a vibrant purple military outfit, Frida Kahlo’s (Elena Breschi) World of Colour in which the stage is transformed into a beautiful palette, and the superbly silly Mary, Mary and Marie about Marys Seacole, Anning and Curie. Fittingly, the show is topped off with a beautiful ballad, Rosa’s Lullaby, sung by Rosa Parks (Leah Vassell) to a troubled Jade struggling to find their place in the world. It is surprisingly moving after an hour of silliness. The creators of the piece have honed a wonderful show of entertainment, education and sentiment.
Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World is playing for a month over Christmas and New Year and offers a fantastically packed eighty minutes. Don’t make it a mother/daughter treat. Drag dads, brothers, uncles and grandads along and lean into the celebration of women past and, more importantly, those yet to come.
Runs until 7th January 2024 at The Lowry and tours until 16th March 2024.