Vagabond Skies: The Van Gogh Musical – Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Picture: Greg McVean

Vagabond Skies: The Van Gogh Musical continues at Auditorium at Gilded Balloon at the Museum until 21 August 2025.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

This is the Van Gogh musical – not one Van Gogh, but two; for arguably Vincent would not have become as celebrated as he is without the support of his brother Theo. They were joined at the hip.

The audience enters to a screened timeline of Vincent’s life up to the point at which the show begins, which is, surprisingly, with a chorus of coalminers.

This is a through-written musical, which takes the audience through Vincent’s life in a series of vignettes. All to a backdrop of Vincent’s paintings, which brushstroke ingeniously from one scene to the next, beautifully designed by David Fricker.

It’s a wonderfully slick production.

The music – by Tony Norman and musical arranger Mark Edwards – is ravishing, spilling from one genre to the next; and the cast reads like a who’s who of musical theatre: Alex Bloomer (The Lion King) as Vincent, Richard Dawes (Stiletto) as Theo, Jordan Frazier (Hamilton) as Agostina, Francesca Leyland (Les Misérables) as Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, Patrick Jennings (Kinky Boots, Matilda the Musical) as Gaugin, Maren Ovida (Matilda the Musical) as Sien and Anna Unwin (I Should Be So Lucky, Aspects of Love) as Rachel. The songs are glorious.

The show, directed by Sarah Dormady, is sensational. but goes at such a pace, that one longs for a moment’s breathing space. However, this intensity is perhaps explained by the fact that the Fringe version is a distillation of the full two-hour show. Were it not for the relentlessness, this would have had five stars.

That said, it’s a stunning production. Pathos, shock, comedy and by the end gut-wrenching. The audience were ecstatic. I look forward to seeing the full version.

James Bryce