In January 2012, three weeks after my 15th birthday, I saw One Direction live in concert and left with one fact sure in my head: I loved Harry Styles more than anything in the world, including my own family. On paper, Fangirls , Yve Blake’s musical about the teenage fangirls obsessed with Harry (Thomas Grant) of fictional British boy band Heartbreak Nation, is made for former fans like me. Yet the show doesn’t discriminate; it’s a campy, impassioned defence of anyone who’s been made to feel like their feelings are “too much”.
There will be some, I’m sure, who ascribe those two words to Fangirls (the show) too. In the first five minutes alone, we’ve had strobes, sequins, and a fantasy sequence involving a surprisingly violent sexy motorcycle chase. It sets the tone immediately: don’t expect realism from Fangirls .
The “too much”-ness is worn on the show’s sequin-bedazzled sleeve. Not everything works perfectly, but trust me: there’s nothing in London’s theatre scene like it. The excess of the show exists in direct opposition to our protagonist Edna’s life at home in Sydney.
She lives in a working-class, single-parent household, and is drifting from mum Caroline (Debbie Kurup) and the friends at her all-girls school. The only time Edna (Jasmine Elcock) feels excitement is when she opens up her laptop and her fellow Heartbreak Nation fans from across the globe appear. Read Next The star of the official Harry Styles village walking tour is its younge.