Fanny - Kings Head Theatre - Review

Just as I made a ‘if I had a nickel’ joke between ‘Vagabond Skies’ and ‘Saving Mozart’ just a few months ago, I feel compelled to make another, for if I saw two shows that push the once hidden stories of musically gifted sisters overshadowed by their brothers and forced to be the traditional wife, I would have two nickels, which wouldn’t get you far in today’s expensive world, but it is a little odd. But, whilst ‘Saving Mozart’ celebrated the story of Nannerl Mozart with soaring ballads, a bond between siblings and powerful imagery of dream like worlds, ‘Fanny’ at the Kings Head Theatre tells the tale of Fanny Mendelssohn with an exquisite combination of girl power strength, farce and a style of slapstick comedy that comes naturally to its six-person cast.

Fanny (played by Mischief Theatre co-founder Charlie Russell) loves music and has a real passion and talent for composing, but it’s the 1800’s and she’s a woman; her future is marriage and family, not the international fame her brother Felix (Dan Abbott) enjoys as one of Queen Victoria’s favourite composers. But here, Calum Finlay has taken a sad tale of being held back from true potential to fit with societal expectations and transformed it into a whirlwind adventure of wickedly funny, dream chasing girl power as Fanny, upon discovering that her brother has published her music under his name, sets out for London to take his place at a concert for the queen, pretending to be him.

As the title character, Russell effortlessly balances hilarity with heart. Fanny is a dreamer, imagining orchestras playing the music she writes as she feels trapped in the four walls of the family home by her controlling mother (Kim Ismay). She is smart and witty, plotting her escape to the freedom of musical success whilst using her smarts to both wind up siblings Rebecka and Paul (Danielle Phillips and Jeremy Lloyd) and get future husband Wilheim (Riad Richie) to support her adventure. Russell, famed for being an original member of Mischief and for appearing in multiple of their productions, is a natural comedian; expressive, buzzing with energy with bright eyes and a cheeky smile. She makes Fanny a full of life and excitement heroine and you are instantly drawn into her story.

Dan Abbot’s Felix Mendelssohn plays the caring older brother, encouraging Fanny to write with him and not listen to their mother, but behind the cheery smile and ‘go out there and shine my sister’ attitude he has his own motives, and all of them are to the benefit of himself and himself only. Kim Ismay’s mother of the family wants what is best, perfect partners for Fanny and Rebecka and success for Felix, whilst youngest sibling Paul becomes the dogsbody, helping everyone else out as much as he can. A great deal of the show’s comedy comes from Jeremy Lloyd as both the struggling Paul and multiple other characters including a pub dwelling gentleman roped into one of Fanny’s pieces of music and a carriage driver with some interesting pronunciations. Other laugh out loud moments come from Riad Richie’s pun filled rant as a stressed out Wilheim and Danielle Phillip’s Rebecka doing everything she can for freedom from her overbearing mother.

At a running time of roughly 2 hours 15 minutes including the interval, the jokes come thick and fast. In a way, act one works as build up, the formation of Fanny’s wild scheme as she dreams of escaping expectation and taking the success that belongs to her, whilst act 2 is the adventure itself, rapid in speed and rollercoaster in style.

Whilst ‘Fanny’ will have you laughing throughout and grinning wildly as you walk away, important messages are cleverly interwoven between the laughter. A woman can be more than just one thing, she can be a wife, a mother, an artist, whatever she wants to be, and never stop dreaming, it’s all there and it’s all important to remember.

This run of ‘Fanny’ may be coming to an end, but I doubt that this will be the last we see of this clever, witty comedy of music and girl power.