Theatre Review - Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World, at The Other Palace Theatre
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| Girl power: Fantastically Great Women… [Ellie Kurtz] |
CHRIS Bush and Miranda Cooper’s musical adaptation of Kate Pankhurst’s picture book celebrating 12 fantastic women is a lot of fun.
We follow Jade (Georgia Grant-Anderson) on a school trip to a museum. She is left behind in the Gallery of Greatness devoted to historic heroines.
As Jade waits to be found by her teachers, she encounters a host of inspirational females from aviator Amelia Earhart (Anelisa Lamola) and swimmer Gertrude Ederle (Charlotte Jaconelli) to suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst (Meg Hateley) and Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (Elena Breschi).
The girl power anthems (music by Cooper and Jennifer Decilveo) get your toes tapping. Particularly catchy is the chorus of Mary, Mary and Marie which highlights the work of nurse Mary Secole (Lamola), fossil hunter Mary Anning (Jaconelli), French physicist and chemist Marie Curie (Breschi), and Agent Fifi (AKA Marie Christine Chilver played by Hateley). Deeds, Not Words and Rosa’s Lullaby also linger with you.
Jade’s meeting with American activist Rosa Parkes (Lamola) and diarist Anne Frank (Aaliyah Monk) are poignant. Sacagawea (Breschi) a Shoshone Indian, who as acted as an interpreter and guide to various explorers, and author Jane Austen (Jaconelli) make up the 12.
Fantastically Great Women… is fairly simplistic in format but should enthral young audiences and the show’s feminist message bears repeating. The superheroines encourage Jade to be strong and follow her dreams, reminding her that “well-behaved women rarely make history”.
Amy Hodge ensures the pace never lets up, the lively three-piece band (Audra Cramer, Nicola T Chang and Isis Dunthorne) are a joy and Joanna Scotcher’s colourful costumes are delightfully irreverent.
From the producers behind the acclaimed musical Six, this 70-minute musical looks set to win similar plaudits. A show created by, starring and about talented women – what’s not to like?
Until September 8