Sylvia - A Musical Revolution
Kate Prince (book, lyrics), Priya Parmar (book), Josh Cohen & DJ Walde (music)
The Old Vic, Zoonation
Lowry, Salford (only northern date)
October 19-24, 2026; 2hrs 40mins
Sylvia, a relatively new, hip-hop musical biopic telling the story of Sylvia Pankhurst, one of the less well-known daughters of Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. The latter's statue has stood in Manchester’s St Peter’s Square since 2018, and the musical about her daughter, deserves to sell out its run this week at the Lowry's immense Lyric Theatre.
The show is written in hip-hop style and includes some gentle R&B, soul and funk. The energy is huge: it’s largely sung-through and the pace strongly drives through the first act as the Manchester-founded Women’s Social and Political Union - the WSPU - gains strength in numbers and momentum in campaigns.
Initially, the organisation asks nicely for votes for women. Some male supporters, with varying degrees of power, make promises they can’t keep, while others only offer derision and harassment.
The Suffragettes, as they become known, move to more direct action, setting out to disrupt and to damage property. Their resulting imprisonment is accompanied by hunger strikes, force feeding, and the cruelty of the "Cat and Mouse" Act.
Beverley Knight plays Emmeline - mother to Christabel, Sylvia, Adela and the youngest, Harry. With powerful singing, expert timing and vivid dancing she is perfect for the role, very much dominating the stage throughout the first act - just as Pankhurst dominates her children and the political movement she founded. Sylvia, whose story is less-well-known, is beautifully given heart, voice and soul by Naomi Katiyo.
The writing is consistent and recognisable, as Sylvia is torn between the love for her family and respect for her mother and her growing maturity and independence, which leads her on a divergent path.
The whole cast is strong. Ellena Vincent as elder sister Christabel and Kirstie Skivington as a younger sister, Adela, also give voice to the conflict of loyalty and individuality - found in many families, but particularly those leading a challenge to power.
Uzuzao O'David, as the only Pankhurst son, is beautifully written and engagingly performed. In this family, it’s the males whose voices are rarely heard.
For most of the show, set and costumes are almost monochromatic, apart from the red scarf of Keir Hardie, leader of the Labour Party. The set is bold and functional, leaving plenty of room for dancing, seating when necessary, and providing a backdrop of film, placards, dates, and essential information.
The music fits the narrative. A lengthy first act never flags as the women’s movement transforms from writing letters and asking polite questions into a vehement, sometimes violent, drive against the state until the natural justice of votes for women is achieved.
By the interval, we’ve seen the horror of force feeding, and the brutal treatment women protesters faced on the street, the latter performed with powerful subtlety.
My knowledge of the Suffragette movement and the Pankhursts was formed by a brief section of my school course in history, later massively expanded by the BBC's 1974 six-part series Shoulder to Shoulder, which included an episode on Sylvia, her split from her mother and Christabel, her friendship with Keir Hardie, and her enduring work as an artist, pacifist and what would now be called an activist, working alongside and empowering the women of the East End.
Many in the audience will be unfamiliar with the story of how the Pankhursts' campaigning diverged, but this musical does a brilliant job of explaining it.
The second act is more difficult. A Hollywood version would probably have votes for women being achieved in one fell swoop after World War I, and a reunited family celebrating victory together. Instead, the show sticks with reality: votes for some women were achieved in 1918, with equality in 1928 - and the Pankhursts remained divided.
In the second act, The quality of the music and storytelling still stands up and the quality of the acting remains superb, even heightened. The show is a little too long, but don’t let that put you off. Accuracy requires detail.
Sylvia is fun, determined, classy, invigorating and entertaining, while reminding us of the importance of our recent history. It's still less than a hundred years since women eventually gained the same voting rights as men. At the interval I heard women talking about wanting their husbands and their sons to see the show. A very good idea...
More info and tickets here
