Punchy and powerful, Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World is huge amounts of fun at The Other Palace
“Do what you love and the rest will come”
At a moment when many of the kind of ‘classic’ musicals being revived in London deal women a rough hand, it is instructive to see so many new musicals acting as a corrective. SIX has been doing its thing, Kathy and Stella have hit the West End this summer and after premiering in 2022, Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World has been touring extensively and now plays a summer season at The Other Palace.
Aimed at the family market (recommended for 7+) but with appeal for any ages, it is a pocket-sized powerhouse of a show, well directed by Amy Hodge. Adapted from Kate Pankhurst’s book (yes, one of those Pankhursts), Chris Bush and Miranda Cooper infuse the production with so much of the contemporary flair they have previously brought to their respective worlds of theatre and pop music as the spotlight is turned onto some of the more unheralded great women that history has neglected.
We begin with 12-year-old Jade on a school trip to a local museum, who finds herself on her own after doing a good deed and tempted into the new, unopened Gallery of Greatness. As her mood begins to slip, the exhibits start to come to life to give her self-confidence a boost, women such as Amelia Earhart, Sacagawea, Frida Kahlo, Mary Seacole and many more besides, talking frankly about their experiences and the challenges they’ve faced, passing on the lessons learned.
That might sound a bit worthy but not a jot of it. There’s a good deal of humour and smartness in Bush’s book and in the lyrics too (Bush and Cooper), acknowledging the struggle both in lifetimes of these women and to secure their legacies. And there’s such exuberance in the score (Cooper and Jennifer Decilveo), its pop influences evident in tight harmonies and real attitude. It’s too easy but Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World really is fantastically great and really deserves to endure as long as any misogynistic classic.
