By Harriet Cunningham
Fangirls ★★★★½
Belvoir, October 16
#OMG #Harry #Nobodylovesyoulikeme #fangirlssrslionehunjipercent
Yve Blake’s much anticipated musical, Fangirls, directed by Paige Rattray and choreographed by Leonard Mickelo, has arrived in Sydney on a tidal wave of glitter. The show squeezes the entire boyband thing - the lights, the squeals, the feels, the merch, the chat, the sparkles, the dance moves, the whole social media-powered fangirl movement – into Belvoir St’s 300-seater upstairs. It’s intense. As great theatre should be.
Yve Blake (front), leads a pitch-perfect cast in Fangirls.Credit: Brett Boardman
Edna is in her first term of high school. As a scholarship girl she feels awkward and out of place until she meets her BFFEs – Best Friends ForEver – Jules and Brianna on the bus. They share a passion for boyband True Connection and its frontman, Harry, but Edna takes fandom to a new level when she begins writing fan fiction and sharing it online in fanfic chatrooms across the world.
When the band announces they will be touring Australia, Edna, Jules and Brianna are beside themselves. But who will get to go when they have only two tickets between the three of them? And how will Edna tell Harry she knows his deep, dark secret?
Fangirls is, in Yve Blake’s words, a "thriller comedy musical" inspired by the portrayal of young girls as desperate, delusional and way too loud. She has a keen eye: the cast is pitch perfect in the argot of the schoolyard, the gym shorts wiggle, the teenage slump. But this is no Ja’mie mockumentary: even boppy music and tight dance moves cannot upstage trenchant lyrics and real drama. Over the course of the show we go from laughing at, to laughing with, to crying, to screaming our lungs out for these much-maligned superheroes.
The production brings together an energetic ensemble led by Yve Blake as Edna, and including an indefatigable Sharon Millerchip as Edna’s mum, and IRL - in real life – popstar Aydan, of The Voice and Eurovision fame. Integral to the show is the video content (David Fleischer and Justin Harrison), the lighting (Emma Valente), and a terrific score, directed by Alice Chance.
Fangirls is loud and funny and raw, with a powerful message delivered with sass and joy. It could no doubt fill a much larger theatre and is currently being adapted for TV. Like teenage girls, this show is destined to go far.
Fangirls runs until November 10