Review: Beverley Knight is magnificent in Sylvia at the Hippodrome

Sylvia, the musical about the suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, has opened at Birmingham Hippodrome to a five-star review, with particular praise for Beverley Knight as Emmeline Pankhurst.

The production runs at the Hippodrome until Saturday 10 October, with a fundraising gala performance on Thursday 8 October.

The story

Sylvia tells the story of the rebellious middle daughter of the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst. While her mother and her sister Christabel became the best-known figures in the campaign for votes for women, Sylvia developed her own vision of a fairer society, fighting for working-class women, the poor and people whose voices were often ignored, even when that meant breaking with her own family.

"Bold, funky, funny, fiercely political"

BirminghamWorld's reviewer called the show "bold, funky, funny, fiercely political and full of heart", and said it was "not a dusty history lesson or a traditional period drama in which everyone stands around delivering speeches in elaborate costumes".

Instead, the production is "a full-throttle explosion of hip hop, funk, soul and contemporary theatre". The score, by Josh Cohen and DJ Walde, was described as "an absolute triumph", bringing "a sense of urgency, attitude and rhythm to a story that could so easily have felt worthy but heavy".

Beverley Knight

The review saved its highest praise for Beverley Knight, the Wolverhampton-born soul singer, as Emmeline Pankhurst. "She has the sort of voice that fills a theatre effortlessly, but what makes her so special is that she can make a vast auditorium feel intimate, as though she is singing directly to you," the reviewer wrote.

As Emmeline, she is "commanding, formidable and utterly compelling", portraying a woman who was determined, militant and unyielding in her pursuit of change.

The reviewer said they came away "entertained, uplifted and, importantly, having learned so much more about a remarkable woman whose story deserves to be told".

From the Old Vic to Birmingham

Sylvia began life at the Old Vic in London, created by the choreographer and director Kate Prince with her company ZooNation, and has been developed into a full-scale musical. It brings a story from more than a century ago to life with music drawn from today's streets and clubs.

Birmingham and the suffragettes

Birmingham played its own part in the campaign for votes for women. Suffragettes held meetings and protests in the city, and in 1909 women imprisoned at Winson Green prison, now HMP Birmingham, went on hunger strike and were force-fed, cases that caused national outrage.

What's next at the Hippodrome

Sylvia is followed by Matthew Bourne's The Car Man, from 13 to 17 October, with Blood Brothers and Cats later in the autumn, before The Nutcracker returns for Christmas. Tickets for the last performances of Sylvia are available from the Hippodrome box office and website.