Fangirls aren’t silly, they’re powerful says playwright Yve Blake

The hit musical premiered in 2019 in Blake’s home country, Australia, and has been met with critical acclaim across three runs.

Its stint at the Sydney Opera House was awarded five stars by Time Out, external, which said “it deals with the exquisite pain of being a teenager, of having little agency and lesser respect from the world around you”.

In a four-star review, the Guardian, external called it “witty and agile” and said it “balances serious social reflections with a loving twinkle in its eye”.

Blake says the show “retains its fearlessness, cheekiness and naughtiness from Australia, but the screws have really been tightened”.

She is both excited and nervous about bringing the show to the Lyric theatre in Hammersmith, west London.

“Brits are definitely a lot more repressed than Aussies, so I don’t know if they can match the energy of previous runs,” Blake says.

At one point in the show, the stage is transformed into a concert venue and audience participation is encouraged.

“Theatre is so polite normally, but Fangirls is about unleashing your feral excitement and screaming like you’re 14 again.”

In Australia, Blake had no problem getting the audience involved – she tells the BBC that an older lady in the front row accidentally flashed the actors because she “was so in the moment and excitedly dancing”.