A biographical play on the painter Elizabeth Thompson and her poet sister Alice, it includes strong elements of song, drag, music hall and gender nonconformity (the script has the Academicians portrayed by drag kings and the historically cisgender Alice presented as and played by a trans woman).
[4] Thompson's The Roll Call finds great success at the 1874 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, with many calling for her to be the first woman elected a full Royal Academician (and the first female Academician since founder members Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser in 1768).
Though Queen Victoria disapproves of the proto-feminist precedent set by Elizabeth's success, she buys The Roll Call for the Royal Collection, whilst working-class non-binary Bessie from a factory town writes Elizabeth fan letters, hoping to become an artist themselves.
In 1879 Millais puts her up for election as an Associate of the Royal Academy, which he assures her will be a stepping-stone to becoming a full Academician.
[6] Another called the songs "strong", though critiquing the Lean In or girlboss feminism of "Bossy Women Unite", and praised "stonking performances" for saving the show "When its script falters".