The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013 is up and running, here’s the fourth of a number of updates about musicals and cabarets being staged at the international event.
Miles & Coltrane: Blue (.) at C Venues, Edinburgh
Miles & Coltrane: Blue (.)
3–26 August, C Venues (Venue 34).
United States-based artistic collective Concrete Generation has travelled to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to present its production, Miles & Coltrane: Blue (.). This work tells the story of two of the most influential and controversial figures in jazz: Miles Davis and John Coltrane, taking the audience on a journey through the lives and legacies of these artists.
The piece captures the galvanising energy of the 1950s, an age when American society was rapidly changing. During this era, jazz was the soundtrack to a new social revolution, and at the forefront of jazz music was trumpet-blaring Davis and skilful saxophonist Coltrane.
Award-winning artists Concrete Generation and the Stephen Gordon Group articulate this shift in music history with a range of genres including poetry, music and dance.
Sinatra: The Final Curtain
August 9–24 (not 12, 19), at Whitespace (Venue 116).
New musical drama Sinatra: The Final Curtain, produced by Kingdom Theatre Company, written by John Murray and directed by Tony Delicata, debuts this year on the Fringe. Vocalist Moray Innes appears as the ageing Sinatra, alongside actress Sadie Paton as his wife Barbara and Alan Murrie as the young Frank.
Now poorly in hospital, Sinatra looks back on a lifetime of entertainment and reflects on the triumphs and heartaches. He sees his former self as a young crooner, slim and confident, and hears the songs that touched a generation. He tells his young nurse of some very good years and reprises his greatest songs for one last time as he faces the final curtain.
Last Embrace
12–25 August at Sweet Grassmarket (Venue 18), (touring in October).
Tree Shadow Theatre Productions Ltd brings its brand new folk musical Last Embrace to the Fringe, mixing live music from a mix of actor/musicians with storytelling (a clash of Catholics and Protestants in 1970s Northern Ireland). The company aims to create performances with a conscience, specialising in new writing and adaptations. Last Embrace takes on the form of both, with an original, modern language interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. Three writers and musicians have collaborated to bring a fusion of musical theatre and folk to this political backdrop.
www.edfringe.com/whats-on/musicals-and-operas/last-embrace
A Little Piece of Heaven
13–18 August, Paradise in Augustine’s (Venue 152).
Duckegg Theatre Company presents A Little Piece of Heaven (book by Haley Cox and music by Phil Collingwood), a new rock musical exploring the information age, conspiracy theories, the necessity of lycra in athletics and the dangers of being a sheep.
The company has its roots in North Lincolnshire and is dedicated to the creation of new writing with young people at its heart. Based on a true story from that area, the show follows the story of Shanie, a shy teenager who leads a double life. Shanie is an internet sensation with hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide, a dedicated online video blog and her own staff of believers – a collective known as ‘heaven’. Impressive for a timid, unpopular 14-year-old schoolgirl.
It is the eve of the London 2012 Olympic ceremony and as the country prepares for a summer of sport, Shanie’s believers prepare for the New World Order. She has become leader of her very own Zion, but with great power comes great responsibility.
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