Tomorrow Maybe at C Nova, until 29 August. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Crammed into a tiny venue space, the audience sits cheek-by-jowl with the performers – eavesdropping on the lives of the people who come to Rosa’s coffee shop. Sylvia Medina plays Rosa with a calm assuredness, an antidote to the harassed world her patrons […]
Tag Archives | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Confessions of a Justified Songwriter – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Assembly Checkpoint
Confessions of a Justified Songwriter at Assembly Checkpoint (Venue 322), until 28 August – even dates only. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ A well-crafted piece, taking us into the often vulnerable underbelly of the music business. A team of young writers are building new material together, under the guidance of Rachel, an experienced writer. A hit […]
Daffodils (A Play with Songs) – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Traverse Theatre
Daffodils (A Play with Songs) at the Traverse Theatre, until 28 August. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ This company from New Zealand reaches new heights in ‘Gig Theatre’ – a three-piece band back the two performers, Colleen Davis and Todd Emerson. They tell us the story of Rose and Eric: “This is my […]
Mairi Campbell – Pulse – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Mairi Campbell – Pulse at Summerhall (Venue 26), until 28 August. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ For those unfamiliar with traditional Scottish music of the people – not the bagpipes and drums on the battlefield or the Royal Mile – but the intimacy of a voice creating amazing sound; this show is an education waiting to be found. What […]
Tamar Broadbent – Get Ugly – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Tamar Broadbent – Get Ugly at the Laughing Horse @ Espionage (Venue 185), until 28 August. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ PLEASE – someone – spot this amazing young woman and give her a venue that is somewhere on a par with her talent! Firstly – a head’s up… It’s better to enter Espionage from the Grassmarket/Cowgate – it looks […]
Adam & Eve and Steve – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – C venues
Adam & Eve and Steve at C venues – C (Venue 34), 3-29 August (excl 15). Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ This is not just good – it’s GREAT! From the get-go, the show is slick, brilliantly cast and the performance of each and every individual is perfection. Fresh from being crowned the best new musical […]
Horse McDonald – Careful – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Horse McDonald in Careful at the Gilded Balloon at the Museum (Venue 64), until 29 August. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “When I sing, I am strong and unafraid.” Few who have heard Horse McDonald sing would argue with that. This is a lavish talent who can add ‘mesmerising theatre performer’ to her list of […]
Stack – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Bedlam Theatre
Stack at Bedlam Theatre (Venue 49), 7-15, 17-28 August. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Billed as ‘A very silly musical play’, perhaps more than a little self deprecating. True – it’s silly, but proper laugh-out-loud silliness – a Boy’s Own Adventure updated to the world of today. It’s a brilliant meeting of talent and form, creating something […]
Edinburgh Festival 2016 Preview – ten musicals to look out for
So here we are – on the brink of the 2016 Edinburgh Festival and Fringe. A remarkable year for musical theatre as there are productions both in the EIF (Edinburgh International Festival) and of course, the Festival Fringe, writes Fiona Orr. * Wonderman, presented by National Theatre Wales in collaboration with Gaggle Babble, promises a tasty glimpse […]
Katie and the Mona Lisa – Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
Katie and the Mona Lisa was presented at the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ This is a show with a great deal of charm, but by staying faithful to the book by James Mayhew, Adrian Brown’s text is anchored in London, so when the heroine, Katie, visits The National Gallery with her […]
Musical Theatre Network Development Award goes to Middle Child Theatre
Musical Theatre Network has announced that the winner of its first ever Development Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been won by Middle Child Theatre with the show Weekend Rockstars. The award was announced as part of the Scotsman Fringe Awards ceremony; and a real boost was provided to the winners with the news that an […]
Broken Windows – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Broken Windows at the Pleasance Courtyard. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ So here we were – the final day of 2015 Edinburgh Fringe and Piu’s last performance of their show which they were still keen to have reviewed. We were welcomed into the Bunker and invited to join in singing ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ by Caitlin Ince, […]
Bette Midler… and Me – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Bette Midler… and Me continues at the Gilded Balloon until 31 August. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ This must be one of the most packed hour shows at Fringe 2015 – studded with an impressive catalogue of Bette Midler songs, this is a super cabaret style evening with three impressive ladies. The stage evokes what Giles […]
Poppies – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Poppies continues at The Space Triplex until 29 August. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ This piece is beautiful – mainly for the music. There are several really strong songs and all are performed very, very well. Beginning in the summer of 1914, three girls and three boys rehearse for playing at their local […]
Macbeth – Youth Music Theatre UK – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Macbeth, presented by Youth Music Theatre UK with the Lyric Theatre Belfast, continues at the New Town Theatre until 30 August. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ On entering the theatre, an eerie soundscape fills the air; the stage is an enclosed area defined by large fences such as in West Side Story. As […]
China Doll – A Neuropera in Four Seasons – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
China Doll – A Neuropera in Four Seasons continues at the Pleasance Dome until 31 August. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ Jakob Robertson’s heady mix of aesthetic charm and exquisite score shines in this re-imagined folk tale at the Pleasance dome. Greeted by a simple but beautiful set which blossoms and wilts with the seasons, this production is […]
Promise and Promiscuity – A New Musical – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Promise and Promiscuity – A New Musical by Jane Austen and Penny Ashton continues at Assembly George Square until 30 August. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ Penny Ashton has travelled all the way to Edinburgh from New Zealand and is clearly made more than welcome. This solo romp is delightfully packed with practically every character from Pride […]
Thrones! The Musical! – A Parody of Game of Thrones – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Thrones! The Musical! – A Parody of Game of Thrones continues at Assembly George Square until 30 August. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ A group of friends gather together to watch the last ever, ever episode of Game of Thrones on TV. One of the friends confesses he has never actually watched the show […]
The Pie-Eyed Piper of Hamilton – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Pie-Eyed Piper of Hamilton continues at Assembly George Square until 30 August. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ This is one for the natives – or at least those who THINK they know Scotland!! Penned by Dave Anderson, this summer pantomime storyline is bang up-to-date and bursting with catchy tunes and snappy, witty dialogue. […]
Sing For Your Life – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Sing For Your Life continues at the Underbelly, Cowgate until 30 August. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ The Edinburgh Fringe is guilty of many things, but conventionality is not one of them. It’s one of the only points in time and space where a musical sporting a cast of actual real life I-kid-you-not taxidermy […]
The Cupboard – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Cupboard continues at Paradise in The Vault until 29 August. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ The premise that our castaway inanimate objects take on life when out of the sight of unwitting humans is not a new one, but this Turn the Key production manages to breathe a pleasantly eerie twist into the concept. Writer and […]
Hannah and Hanna – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Hannah and Hanna continues at Assembly George Square until 30 August. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ This production has been revived in response to the rise of UKIP and its attitude towards migrants and asylum seekers, in particular. Set in Margate, the views of Hannah, who was born and bred in Margate, and views of […]
Muse – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Muse continues at The Space Triplex until 29 August. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ Based on the story of Jean Ross, said to be the inspiration for Christopher Isherwood’s Sally Bowles of I Am a Camera and Cabaret fame, this one-woman show sees Sophie Jugé in a series of short scenes explore the life and times […]
CD Review – Love Birds – Original Edinburgh Cast
LOVE BIRDS – Original Edinburgh Cast 2015 (SimG Records – SimGR-CD028) What a hoot! This brand new musical from the pen of Robert J. Sherman is a hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015 and from this recording you can understand why. Totally infectious – in a good way – and one of those CDs you […]
Brave New Girl – Tamar Broadbent – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Brave New Girl continues at Cowgatehead until 29 August. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ Returning to the Free Fringe, the amazingly talented Tamar Broadbent has created a show loosely based on her travels over the last year. Suffering from middle-class angst at the frustration of unexpected items in her bagging area that sparked […]
Nailed It! – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Nailed It! continues at Assembly Roxy until 17 August. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ Here’s a lovely quirky and talented duo from Australia who are sadly only performing during the first half of the Fringe, which will be a disappointment to their growing fan base. Personable and witty, this well-turned out pair of bespectacled young […]
Willy’s Bitches – Royal Conservatoire of Scotland – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Willy’s Bitches, performed by students from the Royal Conservatoire Scotland, continues at Assembly Checkpoint until 30 August (in repertoire, alternating with Under the Ground). Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ A clever idea by Shannon Thurston (an MA student at RCS) creates a series of arias for some of Shakespeare’s female characters. It’s sometimes said […]
Urinetown – Royal Conservatoire of Scotland – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Urinetown, performed by students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, continues at Assembly Hall until 31 August. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The phenomenon of Urinetown made a bit of splash in London last year and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland production bursts with enthusiasm here at the 2015 Fringe. The piece is very […]
Ushers: The Front of House Musical – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Ushers: The Front of House Musical continues at Momentum Grand at St Stephen’s until 30 August. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ To start with, these are great ushers – it’s not often you’re made so welcome to a Fringe show – shown to a seat and given a cast list… This is a show that owes […]
There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis continues at Momentum Playhouse at St Stephen’s until 30 August. Star rating: two stars ★ ★ It’s 3 March 1960 and word is out that Elvis Presley will be on a plane landing at Prestwick to refuel. For the ladies of the Kilmarnock Elvis Presley Fan […]
Goodstock – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Goodstock continues at Pleasance Courtyard until 31 August. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Time is ticking… As the audience enter Lost Watch’s Attic space in the Pleasance, a metronome marks the seconds – evenly paced and assured. As Rianna Dearden takes up her place with percussion, that rhythm that was so predictable and even […]
The Best of Burlesque – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Best of Burlesque presented by Chaz Royal and World Burlesque Games runs at the Assembly George Square Gardens until 30 August. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ This evening of burlesque is a throwback to a bygone era, with some surprises in between. It boasts gifted and determined performers, but doesn’t manage to add […]
Eejit of Love – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Eejit of Love continues at Greenside @ Nicolson Square until 29 August. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ Somewhat of a summer pantomime, Eejit of Love tells the tale of small-town duo Billy and Eileen’s romance and dreams of ‘making it’ in the music business. A cowboy narrates this tale with a country and western twang, […]
Shout! The Mod Musical – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Shout! The Mod Musical continues at Momentum Grand at St Stephen’s until 30 August. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ My mother always said it was unlucky to open an umbrella indoors. Shout! The Mod Musical opens with five 1060s ‘dolly-birds’ twirling rainbow brollies through the air. Here – it certainly does NOT bring bad […]
Shit-Faced Showtime – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Shit-Faced Showtime presented by Magnificent Bastard Productions continues until 31 August at the Underbelly Med Quad. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ This was one of the wildest, most unpredictable nights of theatre I’ve ever had. The same people who brought us Shit-Faced Shakespeare are now tackling musical theatre and the results are […]
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical continues at the Pleasance Courtyard until 30 August. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ Putting together a one hour musical in front of your eyes is no mean feat, and Showstopper! manages to do it every night with fantastic results. I can’t help but compare them to Baby Wants Candy, another improvisation musical […]
We Can Make You Happy – House of Blakewell – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
We Can Make You Happy by House of Blakewell continues until 31 August at the Assembly George Square Gardens. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ Part cabaret, part performance art, part musical comedy, House of Blakewell’s new show is hard to describe, but whatever you call it, it’s very good. We are greeted by an eerily cheery […]
The Iraq Pack – Live from Das Vegas (or Dead) – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Iraq Pack – Live from Das Vegas (or Dead) plays until 29 August at The Voodoo Rooms. Star rating: two stars ★ ★ This uneven show is a Rat Pack style tribute featuring famous mass killers of the 20th Century. You meet the likes of Dean Stalin, Frank Sanazi, Saddami Davis Jr and Osama Bin Crosby. […]
Baby Wants Candy – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Baby Wants Candy: The Completely Improvised Full Band Musical continues until 30 August at the Assembly George Square Studios. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Have you ever heard of the musicals ‘Mary Poppins has Ebola’, ‘Thespionage’ or ‘When gingers ruled the world’? Probably not, since they opened and closed on the same night. […]
Christina Bianco – Party of One – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Party of One, performed by Christina Bianco, continues at Assembly George Square Gardens – Spiegeltent Colombino until 16 August. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ The New York-based Christina Bianco possesses a powerful and thrilling voice, but it is ironically the voices of other artists that people have come to enjoy. Bianco is a very […]
Love Birds – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Love Birds runs at the Pleasance 2 until 31 August. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Robbie Sherman – the third generation of songwriter in the successful Sherman clan – keeps the spirit of his father and grandfather alive in a new family-friendly show packed with parrots, penguins and plenty of toe-tapping tunes. Love […]
Interview – Robert J. Sherman reveals new musical Love Birds at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe
ROBERT ‘ROBBIE’ J. SHERMAN is the son of Robert B. Sherman (1925–2012), one half of the Academy-Award-winning songwriting partnership (with brother Richard) responsible for the unforgettable numbers in classic movie musicals such as Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Jungle Book, The Aristocats and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. His grandfather Al Sherman also enjoyed a successful […]
Edinburgh – Musical Theatre Network Awards shortlist revealed
Musical Theatre Network has announce the shortlist for its 2014 awards. The awards are now in their eighth year and reward the very best in musical theatre on the Edinburgh Fringe, raising the profile of the work and opening up the conversations about what musical theatre can be. The shortlisted shows are: Alba – A New […]
Land of Smiles – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Land of Smiles continues at the Assembly George Square Studios One until 25 August. On the face of it, a musical taking on the subject of human trafficking does not seem a sure-fire structure for telling the story. Land of Smiles does just that. This powerful, compelling piece of theatre respects both the story of […]
Mission Drift – The National Theatre Shed
Playing at The NT Shed, London until 28th June. Mission Drift exploded into the UK in 2011 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it blew critics and audiences away. So convincing was its force that those who hadn’t seen it – including me – fell upon the news of a London transfer like ready-made disciples. […]
