Footballers’ Wives director Anthony Banks on bringing the ‘ferociously funny feminist piece’ to Edinburgh Fringe

It’s nearly time for kick off at Footballers’ Wives: The Musical!

Based on the iconic early ’00s ITV show when Premier League football was the new rock ‘n’ roll, and the drama wasn’t only on the pitch, it follows the scandal, sass, and secrets of the players’ wives.

Anthony Banks is on directorial duty for the new musical by Kath Gotts and Maureen Chadwick, while WhatsOnStage Award winner Arlene Phillips is set to choreograph. As the show prepares to premiere at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, we had a chat with Banks. 

Please note, this interview has been edited for clarity and length.

It has been over 20 years since Footballers’ Wives was first seen on screen, and a number of years since the show was workshopped. Why is now the time for a full staging?

Maureen Chadwick and Kath Gotts asked me to direct their new musical during lockdown in 2020. I’d been distracting myself from Boris by reading Jacobean revenge plays, so when I read Footballers’ Wives and realised Tanya Turner was a descendant of the noirish femme fatale, I immediately signed up to help bring her story to the stage. It’s a ferociously funny feminist piece. It’s about all the wives of all time. It’s about what happens in partnerships when people stop being reasonable and think only of themselves.

You’ve directed Steel Magnolias, Girl on the Train, and now Footballers’ Wives – all heavily featuring women with very different lives! What attracts you to these titles, do you think? 

It’s true I have directed a lot of shows which present stories of strong-willed women fighting toxic male behaviour. Since the days of Medea, Cleopatra, and Nora, wives have been avenging their no-good husbands onstage – but rarely have they done so in song or laugh-out-loud humour as these wives do!

I’m drawn to these women and their stories because I think they still need to be told, in so many ways, the world we live in is still not balanced, and I sometimes find that within the theatre profession itself. If you walked around the West End this evening, you’d find you can count the number of shows written by women on one hand. Why is this? It baffles me. So we’re doubly lucky with this show in that it’s a world premiere of a new musical written by two women. It’s a rare treat to direct a show that is wholly original, dramatically provocative, and packed with catchy tunes.

What was the thought process behind premiering this show at the Fringe? 

It was producer Laura Elmes’ idea to launch in Edinburgh. So many established theatres habitually revive classic musicals or produce jukebox shows – the Fringe seems the most vibrant landscape in which to present this new show.  

What’s your relationship like with Edinburgh Fringe, and your views as a whole on the new musical landscape at the moment? 

The Edinburgh Fringe – in sunshine or showers – is creatively fabulous every year. There seems to be never-ending angst about the plight of the new British musical within our profession. Given how much we know audiences love the form, it does seem nuts that it isn’t supported more by the state. Governing bodies that decide what children learn seem suspicious of musicals, perhaps because they’re a combination art form, rather than a purely singular one, which makes them easier to “measure” when it comes to assessment.

In other words, I think the challenges begin within the curriculum. Edinburgh is a fantastically open and politically fair cultural landscape – anything can happen – tickets are considerably cheaper, cliques are less hazardous, and festival goers take their destinies – and the destiny of the shows – into their own hands.

Murder, mischief, mayhem – did you watch the original series, and why do you think the material lends so well to a musical?  

I remember the original series but I haven’t rewatched it, as the musical is a different thing, and I want to keep ideas fresh. Also, it’s part of the director’s job to fathom how to present something set in the past in a way that makes sense in the present! The stakes are high; every character has dreams and disappointments. There’s love, betrayal, revenge, marriage, and murder – it’s musical theatre gold!  

Will the musical be rooted in the ’00s? And what can we expect visually?  

Yes, it’s set in 2002 on the wave of Cool Britannia, which in some ways feels recent but in other ways so long ago! It’s been fun working with costume designer Susan Kulkarni and the cast on the looks. There’s been a lot of “I had that dress; I remember those shoes,” etc.  

For some audiences, there will be a nostalgic factor with the story and the characters. But do you think the idea of “WAGS” and football celebrity has changed today?

The obvious change is that we now get news delivered instantly into our hands on mobile phones. In those days, you had to wait for the papers to be printed the next morning for the latest headline scandal. It’s not only the tempo that’s changed, but the following of fashion and celebrity culture has become multi-directional through social media. Where once Hello and OK magazines were inert printed magazines, those stories are now continuously updated and commented upon through the use of advanced technology. To attain or retain power within that orbit these days requires a different cunning than it did when the news-traffic was all “one-way”.  

We’ve had many high-profile football-based theatre shows, including Dear England and a football-themed revival of Much Ado About Nothing. What is it about the world of football that is attracting theatre-makers and audiences today, do you think?  

The experiences for the audience contain so many similar ingredients: winners, losers, suspense, loyalty, and the communal roar of the crowd as they follow the twists and turns of the players. 

You’ve assembled a great company, including WOS favourite Leesa Tulley. What’s the casting process like for a new musical?  

For this show, we advertised, received 1500 applications, met 200, and from those meetings chose our cast of 12.   

I know this isn’t your first world premiere, but as a director, what are the challenges and rewards of being at the helm of a new production?  

The challenge, which is the same as with any show, is the responsibility to create a good experience for the audience. The continuously rewarding thing when working on a new piece is having the writers with you in the room at every stage of the process – it’s a richer collaborative leadership process than doing a revival of an old piece. I guess the bonus of a tried-and-tested old show is that you know audiences like it, and if you wish to take them, there are references on how it could be performed, designed, etc. With a completely new show like this, every atom of the show springs from the imaginations of the artists involved in its creation.