Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World, an empowering stage adaptation of suffragette descendent Kate Pankhurst’s award-winning book, brought to life by an incredible all-female creative team, is coming to Oxford Playhouse from Wednesday 25 to Sunday 29 May.
Inquisitive heroine Jade breaks away from her class trip to the local museum to take a peek at the Gallery of Greatness. There she meets a host of amazing women from history, some widely celebrated, some almost forgotten, from Rosa Parks to Sacagawea, Amelia Earhart to Marie Curie, Mary Seacole to Frida Kahlo, Jane Austen, and Pankhurst’s own relative Emmeline.
Audiences can join Jade in meeting these incredible and inspiring women from the past: from explorers and scientists to artists and secret agents, hearing the stories of some of history’s independent icons who really did change the world.
The amazing creative team bringing this uplifting stage show to audiences across the UK includes renowned dramatist Chris Bush (Pericles, National Theatre; Faustus: That Damned Woman, Headlong), with music by Miranda Cooper (Girls Aloud; Sugababes) and Jennifer Decilveo (Miley Cyrus; Ben Platt) and live arrangements by Jen Green (Beverley Knight; Pixie Lott), director Amy Hodge (Mr Gum and The Dancing Bear – The Musical!, National Theatre), designer Joanna Scotcher (Emilia, Shakespeare’s Globe/Vaudeville Theatre), choreographer Dannielle Lecointe (Dick Whittington, National Theatre), lighting designer Zoe Spurr (Emilia, Shakespeare’s Globe/Vaudeville Theatre) and Carolyn Downing (Summer & Smoke, Almeida/Duke of York’s Theatre) as sound designer. The new cast members for the Spring 2022 tour are Kirstie Skivington (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Apollo Theatre and The Crucible Sheffield; Jesus Christ Superstar, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre; Bend It Like Beckham, Phoenix Theatre), Kudzai Mangombe (Malindadzimu, Hampstead Theatre), Elise Zavou (Red Riding Hood, Theatre Royal Stratford East) and Clarice Julianda (Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, UK tour). Returning to the show after the hugely popular (although devastated by Covid-19) tour are Renée Lamb (SIX, West End; Be More Chill, The Other Palace and Shaftesbury Theatre; Little Shop of Horrors, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Christina Modestou (SIX, West End; We Will Rock You, Dominion Theatre; In The Heights, Southwark Playhouse) and Jade Kennedy (The Snow Queen, Brighton Open Air Theatre; Billy Elliot, Victoria Palace Theatre).