This review was originally written for The Reviews Hub: https://www.thereviewshub.com/fanny-kings-head-theatre-london/

If you have been to a wedding, chances are you have probably heard Felix Mendelssohn’s Wedding March, but what about the music of his talented sister Fanny? It is she, the gifted and overlooked, sister of the famous German composer, who at last gets to be the centre of attention in this searing and complex comedy, spearheaded by an exceptional Charlie Russell in the lead role.

Fanny centres around composer Mendelssohn’s talented musician sister, who is pushed aside by her scheming, ambitious brother Felix (Daniel Abbott) in pursuit of classical music stardom, courting the admiration of Queen Victoria in the process, but with his sister’s piece, Italien, rather than his own. It is a fictionalised version of the Mendelssohns’ lives, though laced with some truths, and sees Fanny, furious at her brother’s betrayal, abscond to London to stake her claim to the Mendelssohn music the Queen so loves, against a backdrop of fierce oppression and constraint for single women like Fanny in the mid-19th century.

As the eponymous Fanny, Charlie Russell oozes confidence in this leading role. It is a fierce and fiery portrayal of a woman facing a crossroads as her personal and creative aspirations collide, and Russell, who serves as a creative advisor to the production, shines in the lead role. This comes to the fore particularly during the play’s climax, as Fanny appears poised to seize her greatest opportunity, with the play’s motif of Fanny conducting, a powerful symbol of her resilience, effectively conveyed through Russell’s strong portrayal. This is a stunning leading performance from Russell, who demonstrates the ability to not only do the comedic bits well, but also to shine in conveying Fanny’s shocking emotional collapse..

Alongside Russell, Daniel Abbott’s Felix is devilishly duplicitous, which Abbott crafts nicely during the play’s exposition, as Felix wrestles with his own creative aspirations while also contending with the notion that his sister might just be the better musician. It is a little on the nose, but the portrayal of Felix, while maybe slightly unfair, is necessary in helping elevate Fanny to a character that can be quickly rooted for. Katie-Ann direction aides this during Felix’s chaperoning of Fanny and Wilhelm’s first date, loitering upstage or to the side, silently plotting, to good effect.

Rounding the play’s sextet, Kim Ismay, Jeremy Lloyd, and Danielle Phillips initially create the chaotic wider Mendelssohn household, from Ismay’s domineering matriarch Lea, Lloyd’s daft Paul and Phillips’ increasingly erratic Rebecka, the latter pair portraying the lesser-known Mendelssohn siblings. The play is much stronger when it focuses on the family’s complicated dynamics, which the trio help to enforce, before the piece’s muddled second half, which sees a lot more performer doubling.

Calum Finlay’s script initially strikes a fine balance between comedy and fierce family drama. The piece throws us quickly into the musical hub that is the Mendelssohns’ home, and includes a wealth of puns, quick one-liners and fiery exchanges to bring the play into life. This is countered, though, successfully with the cruel backstabbing that Felix appears to do with ease, callously manipulating his sister’s potential love match with the pun-slinging artist Wilhelm, performed by an energetic Riad Richie.

It is a production, though, that suffers a little from bloating. Following a punchy first half, the second is far more disjointed. The call-and-response routine, turning the audience into Fanny’s orchestra, is well-meaning but feels a little too panto-esque.  Slapstick jostling, as well as the language barrier gags on a horse-drawn carriage, which feel never-ending and would not be out of place in ‘Allo ‘Allo!, mark an odd shift from the more witty content of the first half. Finlay’s script does rescue this creative detour by the play’s conclusion, which includes a well-earned emotive finish, as Fanny reconciles with life constrained by traditional roles for a wife, which she soon finds herself in, but it is a shame that the play has such an identity crisis after a strong opening hour.

Sophia Pardon’s set design, meanwhile, works hard to achieve a flexibility that takes the play from Berlin to London and back again with minimal changes. It is a sensible choice to keep the piano centre stage, representing what is driving the schism through the family, and while the ripped wood panelling, violently exposed by an enraged Fanny during a terrific conclusion to Act One, is a neat if not slightly obvious way to communicate the protagonist’s desire to tear down the barriers that surround her.

Nevertheless, Russell’s portrayal of a woman caught in the crossfire of creative ambitions and the fiercely rigid social restrictions for women is triumphant, delivering a powerful and deft portrayal of Fanny’s resilient character. The play’s humour mostly lands and, despite a chunk in the second half, is largely balanced with the play’s larger questions about gender, artistic merit and straddling the roles society expects women to play with great success. Although advertised as a comedy, Fanny is far more complex than that, and much like the Mendelssohns’ music, layered with a raw emotion that makes the piece completely engrossing.

While it is brother Felix who has gone down in history as the recognisable Mendelssohn maestro, it is Fanny, it seems, who is the real star.