It concerns 14-year-old Edna, a diehard fan of the biggest boy band in the world, True Connection (a parody reference to One Direction), and its lead singer Harry.
", Yve Blake said that she was first inspired to write a musical about fangirls in 2015 when Zayn Malik abruptly departed the boy band One Direction.
In the talk, Blake noted that mainstream media outlets were using mocking words like "hysterical" and "crazy" to describe the response of One Direction's fans to the news.
And if girls grow up in a world that tells them that they are designed just a bit crazier than the boys, then isn't that a little bit like telling them that they are born less capable of rationality than men, less capable of reason and unworthy of the same intellectual respect as their brothers?Yve Blake began writing Fangirls in 2016 while in residence at the Australian Theatre for Young People, after being awarded the inaugural Rebel Wilson Theatermaker Scholarship.
Together, they kill her, and after disposing of the body in a nearby bin, turn to each other and begin a duet about their eternal love and devotion ("Let Them").
The couple are interrupted when Caroline, single mother and nurse, yells for her fourteen-year-old daughter Edna to come join her for dinner.
Edna believes that Harry is being forced by his management to take drugs like "Britney Spears" was to keep him in the band and is desperate for a way out of his life as a pop star ("Nobody").
Edna laments her changing friendship with Jules and Brianna, and sings of her determination to meet Harry and set him free in order to prove that everyone is wrong about her ("Wait and See").
Left alone, Edna appears with a coil of rope and unlabelled household chemicals in hand ("Don't Exist") On the night of concert, Jules and Brianna get ready at Jules' house; Brianna is hopeful that the photos she takes that night will transform her image and people will finally think she's hot.
At the same time, in Edna's bedroom, we learn why she's collected the rope and chemicals: in her room she has a blindfolded, bound, and gagged Harry ("The Reveal").
At work, Caroline grows concerned for Edna when she sees a news story about grieving fans ("Life or Death").
At the vigil, fans share their grief, which quickly turns to rage when they see how their feelings are being mocked by the media and society writ large ("Justice").
Brianna wants to immediately call the police, but Jules forbids it and begins aggressively flirting with Harry while perching on his bound-to-a-chair lap.
Jules yells in pain, and when he won't let go, Brianna panics and hits him over the head with Edna's laptop, which knocks him out cold.
Jules suggests killing him, but Brianna proposes they should just drug him and dump him in "the woods", to which Edna offers to drive them in her stolen van.
While they spin themselves into a panic, Caroline walks into the room and discovers the missing global pop star in her daughter's bedroom.
They bond over their shared disbelief in his story that he was kidnapped by a fourteen year old fan and agree it must be fake because of how implausible it is.
Edna, Jules and Brianna reflect on how much has changed since the day they met, much they have been through, and how happy they are that they've come through it and they are all stronger friends and more confident in themselves for it.
[4] The original production was directed by Paige Rattray, with a cast including Yve Blake, Aydan Calafiore, Kimberley Hodgson, Chika Ikogwe, Ayesha Madon, James Majoos, Sharon Millerchip and Melissa Russo.
Fangirls returned to Sydney in 2021 at the Seymour Centre featuring Karis Oka as Edna, Shubshri Kandiah as Brianna, Tomáš Kantor and Shannen Alyce Quan as swings, and Aydan Calafiore, Chika Ikogwe, Ayesha Madon and James Majoos reprising their roles from 2019.
[6] In July 2024, the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith co-produced a new production with Sonia Friedman, again directed by Paige Rattray.
This new production follows the same story with some new additions, such as a newly written solo song Learning to be Lonely sang by Edna toward the beginning of Act 1.
[7] The Sydney Morning Herald described the show as "loud and funny and raw, with a powerful message delivered with sass and joy".
[9][10] It was named Best Musical or Cabaret at the Queensland Matilda Awards in February 2020, as well as nominations for Best Mainstage Production and three other categories.
[12] Fangirls received a Melbourne Green Room Award for New Australian Writing for Music Theatre in July 2022.
[13] In the Green Room Awards' Music Theatre category it was also nominated for Production of the Year, Stage Direction, Music Direction, Design (Davis Fleischer, costume), Leading Artists (Karis Oka) and two for Supporting Artists (Danielle Barnes and Chika Ikogwe).