EdFringe Review: Showstopper - The Improvised Musical at Pleasance Grand

Showstopper: The Improvised Musical

Pleasance Grand

Running Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Reviewed on Sunday 14th August 2016

★★★★

On Sunday evening the Pleasance Grand was packed, with the audience eagerly awaiting to see fringe favourites The Showstoppers. Fresh from their Olivier Award-winning West End run, the company have returned to Edinburgh for another summer of spectacular improvisational madness as they create a new musical each night. 

EdFringe Review: 9 to 5 at Assembly Hall

9 to 5
Assembly Hall
Running Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Reviewed on Sunday 14th August 2016
★★

Based on the 1980 film, 9 to 5 premiered on Broadway in 2009 before making its UK premiere with a UK tour in 2012. This summer the show, which features Dolly Parton's music and book by Patricia Resnick, is being staged at the EdFringe starring musical theatre students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

EdFringe Review: Verge of Strife at Assembly George Square Studios

Verge of Strife
Assembly George Square Studios
Running Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Reviewed on Sunday 14th August 2016
★★

Verge of Strife stars former In The Heights and EastEnders actor Jonny Labey as eccentric WWI poet Rupert Brooke. Based on Brooke's letters and poetry, Verge of Strife is an interesting piece with some beautiful moments, but ultimately the show falls flat.

EdFringe Review: Adele is Younger Than Us at C nova

Adele is Younger Than Us

C nova

Running Time: 1 hour

Reviewed on Sunday 14th August 2016
★★

Adele is Younger than us is an hour long musical comedy revolving around Sally and Rhiannon’s realisation that they are not, and sadly never will be, Adele.

EdFringe Review: Anna Morris - It's Got to Be Perfect at Voodoo Rooms

Anna Morris: It's Got to Be Perfect

Voodoo Rooms

Running Time: 1 hour

Reviewed on Saturday 13th August 2016

★★★★

I’ve been to a few weddings over the past few years, but none as perfect as this...

I was thrilled to be invited to one of the twenty-two rehearsal dinners that Georgina was hosting in preparation for her perfect wedding. Funny, ridiculous and shockingly crude (all against Georgina’s will as she boasts that she has never sworn in her life), Anna Morris: It's Got to Be Perfect is a genius new invention of theatre. The show had the audience roaring with laughter at every aspect of Georgina’s disastrous rehearsal dinner.

EdFringe Review: The School for Wives at C nova

The School for Wives
C nova
Running Time: 55 minutes
Reviewed on Saturday 13th August 2016
★★

Based on Moliere’s play, The School for Wives by Roll-up Theatre is a shaken up, fifty-five minute version of the classic. The story follows Arnolphe, who has set his mind on marrying the intentionally ignorant Agnes, yet she has other ideas as she falls in love with a more suitable man, Horace. 

EdFringe Review: Tomorrow, Maybe at C nova

Tomorrow, Maybe

C nova

Running Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Reviewed on Saturday 13th August 2016

★★★★

Tomorrow, Maybe is the opportunity to people watch under a magnificent, musical microscope. You are invited into Miriana’s café on a normal day, and follow the normal lives of her regular customers. The charming factor of this new musical is that it is so normal – it’s real and identifiable. Each character is facing relatable problems and climbing normal everyday milestones.

EdFringe Review: Swansong at the Pleasance Courtyard

Swansong 

Pleasance Courtyard

Running Time: 1 hour

Reviewed on Friday 12th August 2016 

★★★★

Funny, raw and real, Swansong follows four characters as they toy with the tipping scales of life and death as the only four people left alive. Aside from being mildly attacked by paint (serves me right for sitting in the front row), I loved Swansong. The story begins when the rain has stopped and four strangers are left floating in a swan shaped pedalo. Writers Sadie Spencer and Tom Black have created characters that fit together like a perfectly mismatched jigsaw puzzle. 

EdFringe Review: Agent of Influence - The Secret Life of Pamela More at Underbelly Cowgate

Agent of Influence: The Secret Life of Pamela More

Underbelly Cowgate

Running Time: 1 hour

Reviewed on Friday 12th August 2016

★★★

Agent of Influence: The Secret Life of Pamela More is like stepping into a time machine and travelling to the height of the Second World War where we meet our glamorous and fabulously endearing heroine, Pamela More, Socialite, Journalist… and now a spy. The design cleverly transports the audience back to the 1940s; it literally felt as if we were sat in an air shelter.

EdFringe Review: Aaaand Now For Something Completely Improvised at Pleasance Dome

Aaaand Now For Something Completely Improvised
Pleasance Dome

Running Time: 1 hour

Reviewed on Friday 12th August 2016

★★★★★

Racing Minds are back at the Fringe with their sell out show, Aaaand Now For Something Completely Improvised, which does exactly what it says on the tin. The comic quintet is made up of five brilliant minds with remarkably brilliant funny bones.

EdFringe Review: Tamar Broadbent: Get Ugly at Laughing Horse @ Espionage

Tamar Broadbent: Get Ugly

Laughing Horse @ Espionage 

Running time: 1 hour

Reviewed on Thursday 11th August

★★★★★

It feels ironic that a show called Get Ugly can be so beautiful. It is beautifully honest, beautifully brutal and filled with beautiful moments of ‘it’s not just me? Oh thank god for that’.

EdFringe Review: Airswimming at Sweet Grassmarket

Airswimming
Sweet Grassmarket
Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Reviewed on Thursday 11th August
★★★

Airswimming follows the story of two women, Dora (or Dorph, played by Tanya Chainey) and Persephone (or Porph, played by Alison Nicol), as they each lose their mind whilst trapped inside St Dymphna’s Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

EdFringe Review: Sally Phillips and Lily Bevan - Talking to Strangers at the Soho Theatre

Sally Phillips and Lily Bevan: Talking to Strangers 

Soho Theatre
Reviewed on Wednesday 6th July 2016
★★★★

If, like myself, you are already a fan of Sally Phillips and Lily Bevan, it will come as no surprise to you that a show written and starring the duo is outrageously funny. Before jetting off to Edinburgh, Phillips and Bevan’s hysterically awkward play Talking to Strangers played a few performances at the Soho Theatre.

EdFringe Review: Bump at the Gilded Balloon

Bump

Gilded Balloon (Venue 14) ​

11:00 / 50 minutes

★★★

Created by Buckle Up Theatre, Bump explores the relationship of two 20-somethings who accidentally bump into each other and get a little crazy. The piece is fast paced and high energy but, on occasion, feels a little forced.

EdFringe Review: Angel in the Abattoir at the Gilded Balloon

Angel in the Abattoir 
Gilded Balloon (Venue 14)
12:00 / 1 hour
Reviewed on Monday 10th August 2015
★★★

Questioning the role of 'the hero' in today's society, Angel in the Abattoir is an intense one-man show. Phil Nichol plays a Spaniard in Edinburgh who goes to extreme lengths to care for the love of his life - even when he gets screwed over by her father, becomes her pimp and delivers her baby

EdFringe Review: Fully Committed at Underbelly Potterrow

Fully Committed
Underbelly Potterrow (Venue 358) ​
14:00 / 1 hour 10 minutes

Reviewed on Monday 10th August 2015

★★★★

Last year Becky Mode's one-man play Fully Committed was revived at London's Menier Chocolate Factory to celebrate the venue's tenth anniversary. Now the production has transferred to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, starring comedian Marcus Brigstocke. 

EdFringe Review: UKIP! The Musical at theSpace @ Surgeons Hall

UKIP! The Musical
theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (Venue 53)
15:10 / 1 hour 10 minutes
Reviewed on Sunday 9th August 2015
★★★★

A show called UKIP! The Musical is guaranteed to raise eyebrows and intrigue many at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Written and directed by RADA graduates, this production is welcoming packed audiences for all the right reasons. 

EdFringe Review: Broken Windows at the Pleasance Courtyard

Broken Windows
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) ​
13:30 / 1 hour
Reviewed on Sunday 9th August 2015
★★★

Featuring moments of stunning storytelling, Broken Windows is a raw piece of new writing about what it's like to be young and female in today's world. Matthew White has composed some highly effective tunes to accompany the piece which is based on verbatim interviews with teenagers from across the UK.

EdFringe Review: Back to Blackbrick at the Pleasance Courtyard

Back to Blackbrick
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) ​

15:30 / 1 hour

Reviewed on Monday 10th August 2015

★★★★

Patch of Blue's latest show is a beautifully hand-crafted piece for all the family. In Back to Blackbrick we meet a lovely Irish lad called Cosmo who's trying to manage at home with his granddad who has dementia. Cosmo takes the audience back in time and meets the younger more sprightly man his grandfather once was. 

EdFringe Review: Dillie Keane at Underbelly, George Square

Dillie Keane
Underbelly, George Square (Venue 300)
18:05 / 1 hour 5 minutes
Reviewed on Sunday 9th August 2015
★★★★

Warm, charming and slightly crazy, I want Dillie Keane to be my best friend. Fascinating Aïda were supposed to be playing the fringe this year, but sadly following Adèle Anderson's cancer diagnosis their show was cancelled. Keane has stepped in and created a new solo show in which she premieres some brand new numbers and performs some old favourites that she has co-written with Anderson