Review of The Pleasures of Fanny at Brick Lane Music Hall: Come for the Murder, Stay for the Singalong

Elena Leo is the Culture & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.

A play within a play, a touch of whodunnit and a generous helping of old-school music-hall mayhem — The Pleasures of Fanny is nostalgia served with slapstick, songs and a generous dose of naughtiness.

It’s not easy to review anything that Brick Lane Music Hall does, because how do you review nostalgia? It’s like giving an honest opinion about a strange patterned sweater your Nan gifts you for Christmas — the sweater is not the point, but the warm, fuzzy feeling of intergenerational love is.

Throw everything in — a precarious walk from the remote DLR station (because the Brick Lane Music Hall is closer to London City Airport than Brick Lane), an unpretentious dinner, a taxidermied bear family and a sort of entertainment you thought died with Benny Hill — and you might wonder why you should spend your hard-earned pennies.

But then, what’s the price of time travel?

If you must know, from £45 to £55.99, precisely, depending on whether you’re having afternoon tea or dinner.

Brick Lane Music Hall is 34 years old, founded in 1992 by Vincent Hayes MBE, who, at 81 years young, is still performing. Hayes was already an experienced variety performer by then, having started out putting on shows in the back room of the Lord Hood pub in Bethnal Green. From there it went to the former Truman’s Brewery on Brick Lane, then Shoreditch, before rising rents and landlords eventually sent it looking for somewhere else to go. In 2004, it landed in an unlikely place: the former St Mark’s Church in Silvertown, where it has stayed ever since.

And so, despite being nowhere near Brick Lane, it continues to carry both the name and the tradition: the raucous, communal spirit of British music hall, with old singalong songs, comic numbers, slapstick, audience participation and a heavy dose of naughtiness.

The titles rather give the game away. Brick Lane Music Hall isn’t one for misleading appearances: recent pantos have included Pinocchio and His Wooden Whopper and Jack and His Giant Stalk, while next year brings the very grown-up Sleeping Beauty and the Little Prick. All three were written by Vincent Hayes’s daughter Lucy, who has now moved from growing up backstage to running the place and writing its rude pantos.

The apple, it seems, fell directly into the prop cupboard.

Currently on the menu is The Pleasures of Fanny, a murder-mystery musical written by Shannon Rewcroft and Jack Pallister and directed by Jordan Langford. Rumour has it that a version of The Pleasures of Fanny was performed at Brick Lane years ago, based on an old paper script whose author nobody seems to know, found covered in handwritten notes. The new team has taken that forgotten Fanny, added murder, music and audience participation, and given her a full-blown revival on a Newham stage.

At first glance, the plot is typical music-hall comedy: Fanny is an upbeat, naive young woman who arrives in London with a suitcase and dreams, but nowhere to stay. Like every fair maiden, she meets her Prince Charming — Willy Boyle — seemingly principled, well-mannered and ready to lead her to safety. But she is intercepted by Nun the Wiser, who collects money for charity and lost souls for the House of the Rising Spirits. Of course it’s not quite the charitable refuge it first appears to be — turns out…

There’s another twist. Fanny’s story is a play within another play: in fact, we are watching a rehearsal by the SLAGs — the Silvertown Lovies Amateur Group. And the competition within the troupe is fierce enough that, before long, someone must die. One murder becomes two, the show comes off the rails, and the question changes from what happens to Fanny to the rather more pressing: who dunnit?

The audience is told they will get involved in solving the murder. In reality, midway through the show, we are given an envelope and asked to put one name down for who we think did it. Which makes The Pleasures of Fanny more of a music-hall show with a murder mystery bolted onto it. Still, technically, we are detectives now.

And naturally, with a play within a play, the actors get to double up. Shannon Rewcroft makes Fanny bright, innocent and vocally assured, while Ross Tomlinson’s Willy Boyle is the charming Irishman who gets his own moment with an Irish dance. Lucy Reed’s Mary Garden is Fanny’s glamorous rival, and the two make the rivalry particularly entertaining in Sisters, singing in harmony while simultaneously trying to beat the living daylights out of each other. Andrew Robley gets to switch between the wonderfully named and alarmingly orange Nun the Wiser and Madam Anita Tinkle, with the wardrobe malfunction and physical comedy adding to the fun. Vincent Hayes himself pops up as a perpetually drunk MP Sir Drew Peacock, while Jack Pallister is the Director and Anabelle Fage the Stage Manager, trying to keep the whole unruly lot vaguely on track. There is plenty of talent here, and despite the chaos, the cast have the stage presence to hold the room and the knack of making an audience feel part of it.

But it’s the songs where the place really comes alive. Daisy Bell, The Lambeth Walk and Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner are old favourites and, given half a chance, the audience is more than happy to join in. This, rather than the murder mystery, is where the real audience participation happens. People clap, sing, sway and generally seem to forget that they came here to find a murderer. It is all rather heartwarming and, despite the double entendres, surprisingly wholesome.

The action is chaotic, but there is a useful safety net built into the whole thing: we are supposedly watching an amateur group rehearse, so if a prop goes astray, a cue is missed or someone looks as though they have lost the plot, it can all be part of the show. It is almost impossible to tell where the carefully choreographed chaos ends and an actual mishap begins. Either way, there is always someone singing, dancing, shouting and falling over, and the show carries merrily on.

If you live around the Docks, there is absolutely no excuse not to visit this House of Chaos at least once. And for those not inclined to travel far and wide across town for their night out, there is something rather brilliant about being able to catch a daytime show at Brick Lane Music Hall and be at London City Airport ten minutes later. That could be a hell of a farewell.

I’ll be booking for the next panto, Sleeping Beauty and the Little Prick, which runs unconventionally from January to March — what a bunch of old-school rebels.

The Pleasures of Fanny: A Murder Mystery Musical

Brick Lane Music Hall
443 North Woolwich Road
London E16 2DA

2–6 October 2026

Website: https://www.bricklanemusichall.co.uk/