The ten shortlisted Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 shows contending for Musical Theatre Review’s Best Musical Award have been announced and they reflect the wide variety of musical styles on offer at this year’s event.
The Fringe has returned to full strength this year and since day one the Musical Theatre Review team, led by Edinburgh Editor Fiona Orr, has been on the lookout for contenders. The award was created to recognise excellence in the challenging form of musical theatre.
MTR publisher Lisa Martland said: “It’s been so exciting to witness the Edinburgh Festival Fringe back in all its glory and for so many musicals to feature in the programme. All examples of musical theatre in the 2022 line-up demonstrate just what an incredible genre this is. The stereotype of what a musical is, and can achieve, has been blown out of the water once again by the talent and creativity at play. Congratulations to all the MTR Best Musical nominees.”
In the following week, the nominated shows will be assessed by the voting panel. The winner will be revealed during the final weekend of the Fringe.
The nominees, in alphabetical order, are:
AMERICANA: A MURDER BALLAD
Pepperdine Scotland and Morna Young; Assembly Checkpoint – run ended
Morna Young and Davey Anderson have created a thoughtful and impressive musical story telling the tale of one fictional high school shooting and the young people involved. The murder ballad as a genre was exported to America from other countries, notably from Lowland Scots, so it is somewhat appropriate that the form is used in this Pepperdine Scotland collaboration. Anderson’s folk and country and western inspired music is impressive and skilfully delivered by the cast of actor-musicians.
BLODLINA: THE VIKING MUSICAL
VNM Musicals/Graham & Townley Productions – Pleasance Dome: King Dome
Norse mythology meets sword fighting meets singing and rock music score to create a spellbinding blend of skills and talent with very good storytelling. Marcus Wood (composer and co-lyricist), Nathan Rees (book and co-lyricist) and Vicky Clubb (orchestrator and arranger) have created an epic show delivered by a first-rate cast.
BLOOD HARMONY
ThickSkin, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Watford Palace Theatre, Wales Millennium Centre – Traverse Theatre
Written by Matthew Bulgo and co-directed/choreographed by Jess Williams and Jonnie Riordan, this is as fascinating a show as you will find. Full of beauty, wonder and a deep understanding of how to convey familial relationships, this production cannot be recommended highly enough.
DON’T SAY MACBETH
GOYA Theatre Company – ZOO Playground: Playground 2
The writers, Sam Woof and Màth Roberts, know exactly what they’re doing with a showtune. Farcical, witty and increasingly complex, this talented group of young actors deliver an hour of top-notch nonsense.
GRANDMOTHER’S CLOSET
A Wales Millennium Centre and Luke Hereford Production – Summerhall: Cairns Lecture Theatre
Luke Hereford’s biographical show is an homage to his relationship with his Nan. Marking her 90th birthday, Luke recalls the support and understanding that helped him through some troubled times on his way to being openly gay. A lovely, funny, touching show that makes you wish that all those kids being bullied and trodden on because they dare to be different had a Nan like Luke’s.
The ten nominees for the Musical Theatre Review Best Musical Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022
KATHY & STELLA SOLVE A MURDER
Francesca Moody Productions – ROUNDABOUT @ Summerhall
Book by Jon Brittain who among others also wrote A Super Happy Story About Feeling Super Sad (winner of our Best Musical Award) and music and lyrics by Matthew Floyd Jones, known as one half of comedy duo Frisky & Mannish (also the composer and lyricist for A Super Happy Story About Feeling Super Sad) on paper, this has to be one of the most talented creative teams in Edinburgh. This show is the hottest ticket in town with such a talented, fun cast – a real killer of a show.
LIZARD BOY
Creative Endeavor Office and Blair Russell Productions – Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose: Big Yin
Justin Huertas, who also plays the title role, has written a sweet, heart-warming and accomplished musical about acceptance and loving oneself. The winning cast is sharp and full of energy, providing their own accompaniment on various instruments and using elements of the set and their feet as percussion. The songs’ lyrics are sharp and the book has its charm, coupled with a score that embraces a wide range of genres.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Alex Roberts & Co. – Pleasance Dome: 10Dome
Co-created by performer Alex Roberts and director Cameron Carver, this one-man piece speaks to a new generation of theatre-goers through beat poetry and rap, telling a story drawn from the nightclub world. Technically pushing the boundaries of working with full-scale projections, Roberts delivers a charismatic performance that matches the stage invention.
RAPSODY
Vision Production Company and the Pleasance – Pleasance Courtyard: Above
This piece is dark, it’s in your face, but it opens a window into a real world of opportunities missed, opportunities that never existed; of doing what you need to do to get by, whether that’s selling drugs, taking drugs, making music or going to church. Each character has their way of coping. Relationships are abrasive, selfish, desperate. But it’s the rap that connects them. When it gets beyond what they can say, they rap. And when they rap, revelations abound. Rap is all about the words and occasionally, they get lost, but mostly they hit their mark with rhythmic perfection, driving their harsh truths until they crash all around us.
SEX WITH FRIENDS (AND OTHER TINY CATASTROPHES)
GOYA Theatre Company – Pleasance Courtyard: Upstairs
This is a gem of a show – just what fringe-goers hope to find. Sam Woof, the writer and composer, is one to watch. The music is clever, played brilliantly on piano by co-composer Màth Roberts. It’s like Mozart and Sondheim got together to give each character their moment in counterpoint to the opposite view of another character and channelled it through Woof for us to enjoy. There are no cheap gags here. Every laugh is earned, and the humour is of a very high quality indeed. This is a glimpse of where musical theatre as a genre is heading.
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