Liberace and Liza – A Tribute – Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Liberace and Liza – A Tribute continues at Ermintrude at Underbelly, Bristo Square until 30 August 2026.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Standing out as one of the best and most sheerly enjoyable shows at this year’s Fringe, Liberace and Liza – A Tribute sees co-creators David Saffert and Jillian Snow taking two performers who never actually shared a stage to construct an imaginary encounter. In retrospect, it seems almost inevitable, creating a truly believable chemistry between two showbiz icons who never even met.

Saffert’s Liberace is a glorious confection of dizzying piano virtuosity, vanity and camp, while Snow’s Liza possesses the powerhouse vocal belt, physicality, amazingly made-up eyes and slightly dangerous comic edge that make the fantasy so convincing.

Having already travelled from a Best Show-winning run in Brighton through a West End engagement and other major venues, the confidence of the finished product is evident, particularly in the comradery between the two performers that elevates the production far beyond a mere impersonation act.

Alongside the expected renditions of ‘Cabaret’, ‘Theme from New York, New York’ and ‘Over the Rainbow’, there are wonderfully unlikely excursions into Britney Spears (‘Toxic’), the Spice Girls and Lady Gaga (a hilarious ‘Shallow’).

This results in a knowingly outrageous yet never cruel celebration of two great entertainers by artists who clearly understand why their particular brands of theatrical excess were so compelling.

Camp, affectionate, musically accomplished and very funny, this tribute – here given a Scottish flavour with Liberace wearing a sequinned kilt – serves as a reminder that the Fringe at its best can make an apparently absurd idea feel like something that absolutely had to exist. Can’t wait for a return engagement of the full show in the West End.

  Patrick Honoré