FANTASTICALLY GREAT WOMEN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD Get your daughters to the best history lesson
JAMES Brown memorably sang about this being a man’s world but added the caveat that it wouldn’t be nothing without a woman or a girl.
Wise words that underpin the theme of this enjoyable musical that tells of famous and influential women who had to fight their way to the forefront of human achievement.
They told aviation legend Amelia Earhart her dream of flying solo across the Atlantic couldn’t be done – because she was a woman; Jane Austen published her first books anonymously – because she was a woman; Emmeline Pankhurst fought to win women the vote.
It was Kate Pankhurst, a distant relative, who gave these women from history a new voice in a series of books now developed into an inspirational piece of musical theatre.
On a school museum trip troubled pupil Jade, struggling to cope with her parents’ divorce and her search for an identity, wanders into the Gallery of Greatness and learns life-affirming lessons about empowerment and determination, prejudice and ignorance.
Georgia Grant-anderson is quite brilliant as Jade, feisty and full of expression, holding centre stage for the entire 85-minute production.
four outstanding performers bring to life Earhart, Austen, Mary Seacole, Frida Kahlo, Marie Curie, palaeontologist Mary Anning and Channel swimmer Gertrude Ederle.
Elena Breschi, Jennifer Caldwell, Chloe Hart and Leah Vassell dash through the characters with a catalogue of banging pop songs.
So rear your daughters from their mobiles and take them down to the Theatre Royal – you never know, it might just be the best history lesson they ever have.