Musical Theatre Review’s Edinburgh team have chosen their ‘Pick of the Fringe’ to highlight some of the outstanding musical theatre productions of 2023.
In a one-off departure, the popular Edinburgh Festival Fringe Best Musical Award is being postponed, owing to the unexpected illness of Edinburgh editor, lead reviewer and award organiser Fiona Orr.
MTR founder and editor Lisa Martland said: “Fiona is absolutely central to our Edinburgh coverage. She writes a minimum of one in five of our Edinburgh reviews, identifies the shows other people would miss and handles the immense task of coordinating a team reviewing scores of shows in just four weeks. On top of that she administers the Best Musical Award on the ground, presenting the winners with their certificates in person at the end of a performance.
“Without her key presence, we simply can’t do justice to the event because the danger is while we would certainly find a deserving winner, we would run the risk of missing out on deserving nominees. So, the best solution – for this year only – is to honour the best of the shows we are able to review. Thanks to Fiona and the team, we will still be able to provide a comprehensive coverage and spotlight previously unrecognised talent.”
For Pick of the Fringe 2023 from Musical Theatre Review:
- Flo White has picked Too Big For Her Britches at theSpace at Triplex – Studio
- James Bryce has picked Benjamin Scheuer’s A Mountain for Elodie at the Gilded Balloon Patter House – Big Yin
- Mark Kydd has picked Never Trouble Trouble (Till Trouble Troubles You) at Tynecastle Park – Hearts Museum
- Julie Watterston has picked Lena at the Assembly George Square – Gordon Aikman Theatre
- Gregor Firth has picked Public: The Musical at Pleasance Courtyard – Pleasance Two
Musical Theatre Review’s Best Musical Award was created in 2017, the 70th anniversary of the Fringe, to recognise excellence in the challenging form of musical theatre and to highlight the best of the genre in that year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme. These productions are essential to the genre’s future (and the development of new work), so the more MTR can do to highlight and recognise emerging talent, the better.
The 2022 Best Musical Award went to Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder at Roundabout @ Summerhall; a new expanded version of the show has returned to Edinburgh this summer before playing dates in Bristol and Manchester. This was the second occasion writers Jon Brittain and Matthew Floyd Jones had won MTR’s prize, the first time was for A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad).
Despite being unable to run the MTR coverage and the awards event, Orr has still been coordinating the review timetable from her sick bed. “I am incredibly grateful to Fiona for all she has achieved,” Martland added, “And I would also like to thank all the reviewers who have done a fine job in seeing such a wide range of musicals being staged at this year’s Fringe – Mark Kydd, Greg Firth, Flo White, James Bryce and Julie Watterston.
“It’s been a very difficult decision to postpone the MTR Best Musical Award this year, but we wouldn’t want to make a half-hearted attempt at running the event either, we respect all the musical theatre practitioners at the Fringe far too much. We shall continue to see as many productions as possible as the Fringe draws to a close, and the good news is that the Award will be back bigger and better than ever in 2024.”
To check out Musical Theatre Review’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023: CLICK HERE.
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.