How A Suffragette, A Painter, and An Explorer Create An Explosion of Joy: 'Fantastically Great Women' Review

★★★★ | A few days before the show opened, a colleague of mine kept singing “badadadada-fantastic!” at work. He never took his foot off the gas about how incredible Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World would be, which is quite an achievement considering that original British productions don’t tend to last very long on the average theatregoer’s Spotify playlists.

But all it takes is 80 minutes at The Other Palace to know that this one is special. Chronicling the lively escapades of young schoolgirl Jade (Georgia Grant Anderson) as she meets trailblazing women throughout history, it is the kind of musical that lends itself to be prime material for energy-bursting flash mobs and pumps dopamine into veins as you rock out to the finale track on loop after leaving the theatre.

Fantastically Great Women’s defining strength lies in its music. You know that one inspirational song featured in every musical family movie? This is the theatrical arrival of a cast album full of it; a melting pot of repetitive anthem-like lyrics, the pop genre’s simplistic music structure, and ridiculously catchy tunes. Its songs place within the ranks of This Is Me (The Greatest Showman), Try Everything (Zootopia), and Let It Grow (The Lorax), capitalising on memorable lyrics and easy melodies to hook you onto an explosion of joy and feel-good confidence that no one wants to come down from.

The company of Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World. Photo Credit: Ellie Kurttz

Carolyn Downing and Rob Bettle’s design does not let the score down either – the band meagrely comprises three people, but it is to the duo’s credit that a well-rounded sound pulsates throughout the auditorium. It knows when to hone in on a more floaty electronic timbre and elsewhere selects its peaks in the musical storytelling to let the drums rip. You’ll want to keep coming back just for how sensationally fun the show is.

It is precisely because the wildly addictive music leaves you perpetually hungering for another song that the frivolity of Chris Bush’s story comes to the fore, though. Having our 12-year-old protagonist – who is only capable of thinking in the petulant trivialities of pets, picking after-school clubs, and ignoring her parents – receive counselling from some of the most socially and scientifically groundbreaking women in history debases the takeaways of their lives’ work into generic buoyant slogans about conviction, empowerment, and overcoming fear. Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst (Meg Hateley), for instance, brings the house down with a blinding rap on the monumental campaign for enfranchisement, and somehow, the conclusion Jade lands on is that she deserves to own a puppy because… go women’s rights! Since that is the level of nuance the musical pitches at, all we ever get to learn about each of these accomplished women is what they are most famously remembered for; the musical never probes any deeper than common knowledge.

Meg Hateley (right), as Emmeline Pankhurst, and the company of Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World. Photo Credit: Ellie Kurttz

Part of the problem, and this is ironically a happy problem, is that our cast is so good that every musical number is a thrill to watch. Elena Breschi is having an absolute blast on that TOP stage, and so do we get a rip-roaring experience from absorbing her infectiously electric performance. Native American explorer Sacagawea is a delightfully compelling embodiment of the quintessential virtual character exhibit narrator in a natural history museum – apt, given that our female icons come alive from a history gallery – whilst her Frida Kahlo, a painter, is outrageously larger-than-life.

With an excellent Mexican accent, comically flamboyant mannerisms, and an extravaganza of vibrant color, Breschi ensures that the wide grins and vigorous cheers from the audience never fade whenever the lights are focused on her. Another one to watch is Meg Hateley, but she dominates the two musical numbers (as Emmeline Pankhurst and Agent Fifi) she leads so spectacularly that it requires no conscious effort on our part to keep eyes fixated on her.

Effectively, therefore, what we have on our hands is a vacillation between the adrenaline highs of show-stopping musical numbers and irritating, stagnated monologuing with a tantrum-throwing preteen. It feels like an episode of a cable network drama: inserted between riveting scenes of action is lacklustre talk about dull things – one just itches for the ability to skip ahead.

Elena Breschi (centre), as Frida Kahlo, and the company of Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World. Photo Credit: Ellie Kurttz

The million-dollar question for this musical is whom it serves. Indeed it is a brilliant kid-friendly introduction to the understated female characters within the annals of humanity’s progress. Chris Bush has imbued Fantastically Great Women with a remarkable kineticism, ensuring that the plot zips through time to feature pioneers from a myriad of fields, each with their own musical number suitably in style to dramatise their careers. And what an awesome pop rock concert it is.

But beware a reductive romanticisation of our trailblazers; a quick song-and-skit interlude about stolen credit is hardly sufficient correction to the lopsided emphasis on ideal outcomes over the ugly and unsavoury truths of their lives. Pankhurst endorsed bombing and arson as legitimate campaign strategies; Rosa Parks’ dedicated activism is popularly erased to favour the narrative of an ordinary individual taking a bold stand; Kahlo’s critical acclaim was mostly earned posthumously, and instead she was merely viewed as the eccentric wife to her husband during her lifetime. These must not be buried underneath the explosion of joy and earworms.

At the heart of Fantastically Great Women is the optimistic hope that the act of revolutionary women imparting their stories to our protagonist can inspire Jade and the thousands more who come through the doors of The Other Palace. Failing to recognise the unabashed spectrum of their dimensionality negates the true heroism of their character: they were flawed of course, and they suffered for their work yes, but the resulting legacy made them fantastically great.

Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World plays at The Other Palace until 8 September.