Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World is a musical based on a book written by Kate Pankhurst, a relative of the late great Emmeline Pankhurst; the leader of the suffragettes and just one of the many fantastically great women of history who appear in this musical.
The show follows Jade (Georgia Grant-Anderson), a little girl who is separated from her class on a school trip and stumbles into the Gallery of Greatness, an exhibit closed to the public. Here, some of history’s most powerful and influential women come to life to support her through some tough times and help her find her inner strength and worth.
The show is great fun for all the family and will have everyone from ages 8-80 bopping along to each toe-tapping track. The soundtrack is full of absolute bangers, each one heavily culturally influenced by the beautiful and strong women it is celebrating. I enjoyed the way the audience was very cleverly used as the rest of the children in ‘Quiet Children’.
It would be impossible to review this show and not mention the absolute powerhouses that are Meg Hateley and Charlotte Jaconelli. Charlotte embraces the opportunity to show off her voice with her little opera moment and blows the audience away with her versatility. Meg Hateley brings a gorgeous energy to her performance, and both of these, along with Anelisa Lamola as Rosa Parks, were my standout performances.
Disability representation is quite central to this story; we learn that Frida Kahlo (Elena Breschi) suffered from polio aged 6 and a near-fatal accident at 18 that almost left her unable to walk again. Tragic as this was, it was also the reason she became an artist as, unable to complete her medical training, she picked up a paintbrush while recovering.
Gertrude Ederle (Charlotte Jaconelli), ‘Queen of the Waves’, contracted measles as a young child which damaged her hearing, and she was almost completely deaf by the 1940s. Later in life, she taught swimming to deaf children. A gorgeous homage to all of this, as well as Sacagawea’s (Elena Breschi) time spent as a translator, was the inclusion of British Sign Language woven throughout the show and the choreography, adding a stunning nuance to the story.
The most poignant moment is the number ‘Rosa’s Lullaby’ which creates a beautiful moment of connection between Jade and Rosa Parks (Anelisa Lamola) and touches lightly on the fear and difficulty involved in living within an intersection of minorities. I love this moment so much because although all of these women are appearing to support Jade in her journey of development in life, it is essential to acknowledge that being female is not the only challenge she is going to face as she grows older, and the inclusion of this integral moment gives the show a huge amount of depth and importance as well as making it relatable to a much wider demographic because it talks to little girls who face other challenges in life than just being female. On a personal level, hearing the lyrics of this song sung to Anne Frank (Aaliyah Monk) hit very differently and gave a whole new meaning to the words.
Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World is the show I wish was around when I was younger and that every little girl needs to see, and it leaves you wanting to change the world and knowing that you can.
You can catch Fantastically Great Women at The Other Palace until 8th September.
