Hit pop musical Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World has landed in Greater Manchester for Christmas.

The cast of Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World last week visited Hazel Reeves’ award-winning statue ‘Rise up, women’ at St Peter’s Square. Affectionately known as ‘Our Emmeline’ the bronze statue depicts Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 – 1928) the political activist and leader of the suffragette movement in the United Kingdom.

The statue was created following a five-year campaign and was unveiled on 14^th December 2018, marking the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act, in which some women first won the right to vote in Britain.​

The incredible cast, including Manchester-born Jennifer Caldwell who plays Emmeline Pankhurst in the award-winning musical Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World visited the statue before taking to The Lowry stage for the festive season.

This empowering pop musical, from one of the producers of the worldwide sensation SIX, is based on the popular book by Suffragette relative Kate Pankhurst.

Remarkable – and often forgotten – women from history are lifted from the pages of Kate Pankhurst’s beloved book and brought gloriously to life on stage, including Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, Marie Curie, Mary Seacole, Frida Kahlo, Jane Austen and Pankhurst’s own relative Emmeline. 

When inquisitive heroine Jade breaks away from her school trip to the local museum to peek at the Gallery of Greatness, she meets iconic women from the past, whose actions and lives changed the world as we know it, including explorers, scientists, artists and secret agents. 

This enthralling, heartwarming musical is full of incredible characters, inspirational moments and a soundtrack that packs a popstar punch. 

The fantastically great cast includes Elena Breschi (Kindertransport, Nottingham Playhouse, SIX, Norwegian Cruise Line; Locked Up Abroad, National Geographic); Jennifer Caldwell (SIX, UK tour; American Idiot, UK tour; Mamma Mia!, West End); Georgia Grant-Anderson (Secret Life of Boys, CBBC; Demon Dentist, UK tour; Beauty and the Beast, Lighthouse Poole); Chlöe Hart(Wicked and Kinky Boots, West End; SIX, UK tour; Girlfriends, ITV); and Leah Vassell (West Side Story, Krizanke Theatre; SIX, West End).  Millie Kiss (White Christmas, Liverpool Empire; The Cursed, LD Entertainment; The Date, Candid Broad Productions); Summer Priest (Get Up Stand Up!, West End; Heathers, UK tour) and Rachel Seirian (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, West End and Los Angeles; Strictly: It Takes Two, BBC; A Christmas Carol, RSC) round out the cast.

The creative team behind this uplifting stage show consists of renowned dramatist Chris Bush (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, National Theatre; Faustus: That Damned Woman, Headlong); with music by UK No.1 hit songwriter Miranda Cooper, whose songs include Sound of the Underground, Round Round and The Promise, and Jennifer Decilveo, and live arrangements by Jen Green (Beverley Knight; Pixie Lott).

The director is Amy Hodge (Mr Gum and The Dancing Bear – The Musical!, National Theatre), designer Joanna Scotcher (Emilia, Shakespeare’s Globe/Vaudeville Theatre), choreographer Dannielle ‘Rhimes’ Lecointe (Dick Whittington, National Theatre), lighting designer Zoe Spurr (Emilia, Shakespeare’s Globe/Vaudeville Theatre), sound designer Carolyn Downing (Summer & Smoke, Almeida/Duke of York’s Theatre) and co-sound designer Rob Bettle (Frozen: The Musical, Theatre Royal Drury Lane; Billy Elliot, UK tour; One Man, Two Guvnors, Theatre Royal Haymarket).