Fanny & Stella
Book & Lyrics: Glenn Chandler
Music: Charles Miller
Garden Theatre, Eagle, Vauxhall
3 – 25 Aug 2020
Fanny & Stella is a lively musical telling the true story of Ernest Boulton and Frederick William Park, two Victorian men who performed in drag as Fanny and Stella and became notorious figures in London society. After enjoying fame, parties and admirers, they were arrested in 1870 and put on trial for dressing as women and conspiring to commit sodomy. The show follows their rise, scandalous arrest and gruelling trial, combining comedy, music and Victorian music-hall style with a story about identity, freedom and challenging social conventions.
“Fanny & Stella is important, educational and a whole lot of fun… Steven Dexter has done a wonderful job and Nick Winston’s staging/choreography is wonderfully theatrical with nods to Fosse”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Broadway World)
“A fast paced theatrical treat and a wonderful joy from start to finish. Gloriously camp!”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (BOYZ)
“Hooray, hooray, hooray: live theatre has returned to London and with five-star magic. High-octane fun with a serious underlying streak and its shock ability level is high. Camp but high”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (G Scene Magazine)
⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Fanny and Stella plots a course for pure fun and reaches its destination with ease and panache. A great night of bawdy and captivating fun”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Musical Theatre Review)
“This hilarious production is a high-energy, funny yet timely tale. With high-octane music hall songs and grade-A performances, it’s impossible not to be charmed”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (The Upcoming)
“The show is a light and frothy bit of fun”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (The Spy in the Stalls)
“This hilariously camp, and fairly filthy show, brings London theatre back with a bang (from behind)”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Break a Leggers)
“Goodness me, it’s very witty, it begins camp with a capital C… and stays there right to the end!”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (LondonTheatre1)
“Wow! This is what we’ve been missing: fringe theatre is back alive and (high) kicking with Nick Winston’s choreography adding footwork and flounce!”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (British Theatre Guide)
“Move over RuPaul! Fanny (Kane Verrall) & Stella (Jed Berry) are sashaying into town! Playing outdoors and socially distanced, this is a little gem of a show with a top-notch cast”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (London Living Large)
“What entertainment! A winning combination of laughs, pastiches of music-hall balladeering and a smattering of LGBT history, an evening of slight frippery, but look closer, and a tale of immense depth and character”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (The Reviews Hub)
“This musical comedy is filled with heart and charm… if positive change is this musical’s message, ‘Fanny and Stella’ is the perfect tonic during these uncertain times”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (London Theatre Reviews)
“Director Steven Dexter brings a light-hearted energy to this production, which is a perfect tonic for these humid and unsettled days. ‘Fanny and Stella’ is a funny, bawdy light-hearted musical that is frothy, refreshing and much needed”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (View from the Outside)
“Sexy, sassy and slick, Fanny and Stella is the pitch-perfect production to usher in a new dawn of live performance. It would be criminal to miss it.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (The Crumb)
⭐⭐⭐
“‘The Sound of Music’ it ain’t … but ‘Fanny and Stella’ with a saucy book and lyrics is deliciously camp and big-hearted, with triple-X-rated Kenneth Williams-ish innuendo!”
⭐⭐⭐ (The Daily Mail)
“Outdoor theatre returns to London in flamboyant style with as many salacious innuendos as Julian Clary would stuff into the Palladium panto — it’s droll, perky fun”
(The Daily Telegraph)
“Of all the tiny cultural lifeboats popping up in gardens, parks and courtyards over the UK, Fanny and Stella is one of the more polished, and certainly the most fun”
(View from the Cheap Seats)
“Theatre is back! ‘Fanny and Stella’ … was fantastic, absolutely superb stuff!”
(BBC Radio London)
“The campness is delicious and by golly it was good to be back in a theatre space. ‘Fanny and Stella’ is well directed by Stephen Dexter and Nick Winston’s musical staging provides compelling dance routines complete with smouldering looks and sexy shivers”
(Sardines Magazine)
“Jed Berry and Kane Verrall, who fill the open-air setting of the garden at The Eagle in South London with considerable amounts of charisma and attack.”
(What’s On Stage)
“In a purgatorial summer, this boisterous, camp and chaotically charming musical is a tonic. It’s a winning combination of slick and slapdash”
(The Arts Desk)
“This show is musical theatre with a capital T, deliciously camp and uproariously funny”
(UK Theatre Network)
CAST
rnest Boulton / Stella: Jed Berry
Frederick William Park / Fanny: Kane Verrall
Lord Arthur Clinton: Kurt Kansley
Louis Charles Hurt: Alex Lodge
Mr Grimes: Mark Pearce
John Safford Fiske: Joaquin Pedro Valdes
CREATIVES
Book & Lyrics: Glenn Chandler
Music: Charles Miller
Director: Steven Dexter
Musical Staging: Nick Winston
Musical Director: Aaron Clingham
Designer: David Shields
Casting: Anne Vosser
Producer: Peter Bull for LAMBCO Productions