At a running time of an hour and twenty minutes, it has taken me longer to type the heading than to watch the show! I’m not complaining, mind, as this was an action-packed evening celebrating the achievements of some truly remarkable women who changed the world by varying degrees, some are household names, whilst others a little more obscure – except in their own households, obviously.
The musical is based on a book by Kate Pankhurst, a distant relative of Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the suffragettes, who campaigned for votes for women, and adapted for the stage by Chris Bush, who also wrote the lyrics with Miranda Cooper, who also wrote the music with Jennifer Decilveo. I hope you are keeping up here. The Director is Amy Hodge.
It would have been easy to take each of the dozen women featured in turn to tell their stories, but I found the way in which the piece was structured to be far more interesting, and entertaining. The groups of three or four at a time added to the impact.
The evening began with four teachers in trench coats giving us, the school party, a good telling off for misbehaving. No change for me there then. They were played by the four main actors below.
Behave yourself, stop chewing – and don’t do that Stan!
The show is set in The Gallery of Greatness, an exhibition dedicated to women’s achievements, but is, as yet, not open to the public. A schoolgirl, Jade, played by Georgia Grant-Anderson, has become detached from her classmates and teachers, who are visiting the rest of the art gallery, and found herself alone in this section. She keeps being asked by various characters, and a mysterious public address tannoy voice, who seems to be speaking directly to her, if she is lost to which she replies that she isn’t as she know exactly where she is, the problem is that the others don’t.
Apart from Millie Kiss, who played Anne Frank, all of the other adults had multiple roles.
Georgia Grant-Anderson as Jade
The heroines of the production, whose portraits are on the backdrop of the set, as is Jade’s, appear in order to give her some advice on how she can find herself and make a difference to the world, however great or small.
The first three pioneers emerged from the back of the set. They were Amelia Earhart, Sacagawea and Gertrude Ederle. This inspired combination covered the conquest of air, earth and water.
Ms Earhart (Leah Vassell) was not only the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, but the first ever person to do so across the Pacific. Not content with that, she also attempted to be the first woman to fly solo around the world, sadly she disappeared during this pursuit.
Georgina Grant-Anderson as Jade with Elena Breschi as Sacagawea
Sacagawea (Elena Breschi) was a Native American who lived in the village of Awatixa, in what is now North Dakota, until she was 11 years old when she was taken by the Hidatsa tribe during a raid. A couple of years later Captain Meriewether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark asked the tribe for help in negotiating their exploration of the Western USA, and chose Sacagawea as she was bilingual so could communicate with the tribes they would encounter. She used sign language to get her points across to the two soldiers. The trip entailed crossing the Rocky Mountains, which she managed to do, guiding them safely to their destination, finding them food and saving their lives on several occasions. All this with her newborn baby strapped to her back. The village in which she was born is now also known as Sakakawea Village in her honour.
Jade, Georgia Grant-Anderson with Amelia Earhart, Leah Vassell
At the age of 20, Gertrude Ederle (Chlöe Hart) was an Olympic champion and world record-holder in five aquatic events, when she became the first woman to swim the English Channel, doing it in a time which was two hours faster than any of the five men who had completed the feat before her. She had impaired hearing after contracting measles as a child and went on to teach deaf children to swim. She ended up holding 29 national and world amateur swimming records.
What I love about shows aimed at the younger end of the age range, this is for six year-olds and upwards, is the ingenuity of the presentation. This was illustrated in the depiction of the aviation skills of Ms Earhart and the aquatic prowess of Ms Ederle, the latter of which utilised a sheet of blue translucent polythene, with a hole cut in the middle and attached to two poles held by the other actors. She lay on a table, facing the audience, her upper body through the hole whilst doing the crawl with her assistants shaking the prop to simulate the sea. So simple yet so effective, especially when you have the vivid imagination of a six year-old. It also brought laughs from the rest of us.
Emmeline Pankhurst, played by Jennifer Caldwell, was the next to take the limelight. When she appeared dressed in a blinged-up marching band outfit I wondered what was going on but it soon became clear that it represented the band of women marching for their right to vote. After telling Jade that sometimes actions speak louder than words when trying to reach your goal, they broke into a song and dance, ‘Deeds not Words’, the motto of the suffragettes, which the audience was encouraged to echo.
Emmeline Pankhurst, Jennifer Caldwell, right, with her band. Elena Breschi, Leah Vassel and Chlöe Hart
Although eventually successful, the movement, begun in 1903, didn’t achieve any results until 1918 when the Representation of the People Act was passed, but that still only allowed women over the age of 30, who met a property-owning qualification, to vote. It wan’t until 1928 that the same rights were granted to women as men.
The artistic trailblazers were next with Frida Kahlo (Elena Breschi) and Jane Austen (Chlöe Hart). The former suffered from polio as a child and, after a traffic accident left her unable to pursue her chosen career path in the medical profession, she took up painting and became one of the world’s foremost artists. Frida, and her husband Diego’s portraits, in front of one their respective works, are on either side of the Mexican 500 peso note.
Jane Austen is one of the giants of English literature with novels such as Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice, all of which are lampooned during her introducing herself to Jade. When she first began writing she had to hide her identity as women were never published.
Elena Breschi as Frida Kahlo
The big number of the night was called Mary, Mary and Marie, spotlighting the achievements of Mary Seacole, Mary Anning and Marie Curie. A second Marie, Marie Christine Chilver, was also thrown in for good measure. This was a real ear worm of a song which accompanied me all the way to the bus station until I could get my earbuds in to rid myself of it. Fortunately it was a banger so not a melody of the irritating kind.
Mary Seacole (Leah Vassell) was born in Jamaica and trained by her mother to be a nurse. She was refused a job by the British War Office when she applied to help the troops during the Crimean War, so she paid to travel there herself and set up the British Hotel where she nursed many soldiers back to health and provided them with food, clothing and care. She even treated enemy soldiers who were in need of help.
Mary Anning (Chlöe Hart) worked in the family business of fossil hunting at Lyme Regis, where they sold their finds to rich tourists. She proved very adept at this making several scientific discoveries, including full length dinosaur skeletons which helped prove that they actually existed and that the world was millions of years old.
Marie Curie (Elena Breschi) was born in Poland but saved up to study in Paris where she discovered two new elements, Polonium, named after her country of origin, and Radium. She won a Nobel Prize but, being a woman it was presented to her husband, Pierre, also a scientist. He refused to accept it unless his wife were recognised as a joint winner, which she eventually was. She won a further Nobel Prize for Chemistry, making her the only person to win the award in two different disciplines. Her work is still used today in the treatment of cancer.
The second Marie (Jennifer Caldwell), was known as Agent Fifi and was studying languages in Paris at the outbreak of the Second World War. She was captured by the Germans and sent to a prison camp for British women but she made a daring escape. The British government was so impressed that they recruited her as a secret agent, hence Agent Fifi, her job being to train spies and test their ability.
Leah Vassell as Rosa Parks with Jade, Georgina Grant-Anderson
Rosa Parks (Leah Vassell), was a black resident of Montgomery, Alabama who took a bus ride and refused to stand up to let a white man have her seat. This caused her to be arrested as whites had priority when the bus was busy, leading to a boycott of the buses by the black community which lasted 381 days, meaning that a large number of vehicles stood idle in garages and the revenues of their owners plummeted. It was only lifted after the US Supreme Court ruled that the white priority rule was unconstitutional.
Finally we come to Anne Frank who went into hiding in an attic in her parents’ attic for two years during the occupation of the Netherlands by the Nazis in the Second World War. Whilst secreted, she kept a diary outlining her hopes, fears and the hardship of daily life. The family was eventually discovered and killed in the prison camps. Her father managed to survive and published Anne’s diary after the war.
If a lot of this sounds a bit sombre, it was anything but. The singing and dancing, under the choreography of Dannielle ‘Rhimes’ Lecointe, was excellent and the humour never far away. When the heroines ask Jade if she knows who they are, she replies that she doesn’t, except when the question is posed by Rosa Parks, when she is told, I know who you are, we have you on a tea towel at home.
A special word also for the band who were housed in three light boxes high at the back of the set. They were only a trio; Audra Cramer, Musical Director and Keys; Bronwen Chan, Assistant Musical Director (Original Production), Percussion and Second Keys and Isis Dunthorne, Drums, but you would have thought that there was twice that number at least.
The set was simple but spectacular mostly due to the Lighting Designer, Zoe Spurr.
I realised that there was going to be a bit of man-bashing but there was not as much as I thought, and none of it was gratuitous so the positivity of the women’s achievements was highlighted, in fact, the advice given to Jade could just as easily have been imparted to an insecure young lad wanting to make his mark in the world.
So, if you want to go see a feel-good show with a message, this is for you.
Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World – The Musical runs at Leeds Grand Theatre until 3rd March, yes, I realise that that is a Sunday. For more details and to book, please go to https://leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/fantastically-great-women-who-changed-the-world/
For all shows and films at Leeds Heritage Theatres please see https://leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/
All photographs by Pamela Raith. Feature Image from Leeds heritage Theatres
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