Ahead of the WhatsonStage awards 2024, I am taking a look back at the shows I have had the pleasure of reviewing across the year for myself and for 'The STRAND Magazine', starting with the one that started it all, Fangirls!⭐⭐⭐
We soon get to know her friends Brianna (Miracle Chance) and Jules (Mary Malone) – these two are incredible performers and their dynamic is nothing short of relatable. This trio functions almost like a family with their quintessential relationship hiccups and emotional dynamics that find poor Brianna nearly always stuck in the middle of it all. Our show races off with a bang – figuratively and literally – with the reveal of the set's amazing centre piece: three curved LED screens which display the solar system, arenas and stadiums, a choir of people (young actors from the BRIT School who piled into the auditorium for their professional London debuts) who represent the sea of fans' roaring their lungs out at a pop concert, and more. It then cleverly transitions to the bedroom of our protagonist Edna (Jasmine Elcock), with clothes falling from the rafters and straight onto the stage – I'm taking predictions now on how many times these clothes are going to hit Elcock in the face during this musical's run! Edna, we learn as we are introduced to her, is the writer of a classic Y/N story (a genre of fanfiction where readers insert themselves into the narrative, usually as a love interest to the main character whom fans have a celebrity crush on) involving Harry (Thomas Grant), the megastar lead singer of a boyband. It's the type of story that almost every fanfic writer has done and would probably be sent to prison for if they tried to enact these fictional fantasies in real life.
The search party number “Justice” is another anthem that earned a hugely positive audience reaction. Here, the ensemble grew to its pinnacle with Ebony Williams' impeccable choreography and Yve Blake's gloriously over-dramatic lyrics, proving there are more teenagers obsessed with fanfiction and boybands than we likely believed in our childhood days. The pace of Fangirls is breathless. We gallop from one "new fanfic idea" to an amazingly catchy "best night of our lives" to a slightly strange time jump for the last minute of the first half. We don’t even have enough time to process and hope that the final seconds of Act 1 are just another fanfiction sequence before the auditorium lights brighten for the interval, leaving us with quite a few questions.
The Act 2 I saw didn't feel like it belonged to the same show as the Act 1 from 20 minutes ago. It took the central plot device of an unhinged fanfiction to extremes, going down an unrealistic storyline that detracted from the joyous energy and pure passion of before. When I thought things couldn’t get darker, it did – over and over again, whilst still going deeper and deeper. Easing us out of the really dark section is the song "Disgusting", an anthem for anyone who grew up being bullied in school and had no acceptable outlet of reprieve – something I observed a lot of audience members connecting with, based on all the reactions across the auditorium. The beautiful harmonies from Chance, Elcock, and Malone shine through, just as they do throughout the musical as a whole.
Like the crazy Wattpad and AO3 stories we grew up with, Fangirls' dive into addictive fan culture and rabid boyband mania goes just a step too far. Fangirls played at the Lyric Hammersmith until 24 August and is eligible for 5 awards at the WhatsonStage awards this year, but will they come on top? Only time will tell. If you missed the run of the show in the summer and want to explore more, the soundtrack from the original Aussie cast is available on all streaming platforms. But before you do, I encourages those who are impacted by themes of self-harm and mental health to seek more information about “the hashtag” used in this show before listening. All Photo Credits : Manuel Harlan
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