Stephen Sondheim's Assassins is a fascinating exploration of the dark side of the American dream, taking as its subject nine of the men and women who have tried to kill Presidents of the United States.
This morning, at the Scotsman Award Ceremony in the Spiegeltent in St Andrews Square, award-winning children's author Katherine Rundell's debut play Life According to Saki won the coveted Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award.
The well-intended advice many will offer before a first date is to 'just be yourself," but that may not be easy for the crazily talented Christina Bianco, who's had major success being other people.
Join Christina as she presents her greatest hits, celebrating the music of the worlds iconic divas from today and yesterday. You can expect an eclectic selection of your favourite pop, standard & Broadway tunes, in her own voice as well as impersonations of the great divas of our time! With celebrity readings and unlikely musical interpretations, this is sure to be unlike any concert you've seen before. From Ariana Grande to Celine Dion to Barbra Streisand, no celebrity is safe!
Straight from selling out in London comes a King's Head Theatre play by Joe Dipietro. F*cking Men is a modern interpretation of Schnitzler's 19th-century play La Ronde. A play which caused great controversy at the time now retold through the lives of men who have sex with other men. Gay, Straight, Married, and Escorts, all interlinking characters have one connecting trait, they all agree "Why does any dude have sex with strangers? Because it feels fanfuckingtastic" as one character puts it. Three actors play the multi-character script, switching between roles like a well-oiled machine. Each is skilled and versatile, even though some very unnecessary badly chosen accents can leave you distracted.
Soddin' Flodden presents the life of King James the 4th, from his youth right up to his death in one of the most important battles in Scottish history.
The Surge is a new play from The King's Players of King's College London inspired by contemporary British politics. A new MP gets involved in a student campaign, as protests she speaks at turn to violence and the media accuse her of supporting riotous behaviour. She is then forced to consider whether she is able to make any sort of worthwhile change in a dismissive, uncaring Parliament.
Female duo Revan and Fennell return to the Edinburgh Fringe with their well-received 2015 comedy sketch show Fan Club, after recently placing fourth at the 2016 New Act of the Year (The NATYS).
Our House is a jukebox musical based on the hits of Madness. On the night of his sixteenth birthday, Camden lad Joe Casey breaks into a block of flats with his girlfriend. When the police arrive on the scene, the narrative splits, in the style of Sliding Doors, between the Joe that ran from the police and the Joe that stayed to face the music, before the two plots eventually converge in a dramatic finale. The score features a host of recognisable Madness hits, though the band's discography does not seem to have a truly adequate emotional range for a musical with much depth.
Scottish writer Ali Smith is best known for her short stories and novels, including three books shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Her 2005 play for Shell Connections, Just, offers a delightful example of Theatre of the Absurd that certainly deserves to be as well known as her other literary endeavours. In this delicious satire, a young woman discovers a dead body behind a bus stop, stabbed in the back with an umbrella. Moving to take a closer look, she is accosted by a police officer who accuses her of the murder. Soon enough, she is condemned by the local townspeople, and the sinister Mrs Wright, the blindfolded arbiter of justice, as the story begins to take on a darker turn.
New musical No Horizon has been garnering a good deal of attention, with airings on Elaine Paige's radio show, and Chris Evans dubbing it 'the Yorkshire Les Mis'. It would perhaps be fairer to say it is in the vein of The Theory of Everything, only with added Yorkshire charm. Based on a true story, No Horizon depicts the life of Nicholas Saunderson, a young Yorkshireman who was blinded by smallpox as a baby. Despite his humble origins and disability in a time before the invention of braille, his incredible mind leads him to success at Cambridge, where he becomes the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a post held by the likes of Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking.
Dame Nature - The Magnificent Bearded Lady, starring Tim Bell, is playing the Assembly George Square Theatre (Venue 8) Aug 16-29, presented by Havoc Theatre. BroadwayWorld has a first look at Bell onstage below!
On Monday, Andrea was in a supermarket, clutching a mini-carafe of don't-judge-me wine. By Friday she was musing: 'Should I get on the train, or jump in front of it?'. A surprisingly uplifting debut hour of medication, night sweats, stoned teenage philosophy and how putting on socks is life's most challenging and meaningless endeavour.
A city. Right now. A woman staggers home after a two-day bender. A finance worker preaches doom outside Cafe Nero. A priest who doesn't believe in God stares blankly at endless disasters on the TV news. In just one moment, all their worlds will end.
Pete Otway is a multi award-nominated comedian. Some time before all that he'd broken up with the girl he was meant to be with and got back with her a long time later. This is the story of the things that happened in-between
The Briefs brand is on the rise at the Edinburgh Fringe. After touring the acclaimed macho in mascara mashup original show Briefs in all its drag, circus and comedy glory, 2016 sees the introduction of the 5-star Hot Brown Honey, and this new late night addition Sweatshop.
The worldwide smash-hit is back. You're six years old. Mum's in hospital. Dad says she's done something stupid. She finds it hard to be happy. You make a list of everything that's brilliant about the world. Everything worth living for.
Strap on your boots, tie your horse up outside and get in line because the circus has come to town. Blowing in from London comes The Raunch. A naughty variety show with a cowboy twist.
One of the most wonderful things about the Edinburgh Fringe, and comedy itself, is the room for all types of acts and you don't know what to expect next. Off the wall comedians like Beth Vyse can test out material, free the silliness in all of us, and let their freak flag fly high.
Daily grind getting you down? Chauvinistic bosses passing you over? Ladies, fight back! Based on the cult 80s movie with the one-and-only Dolly Parton, 9 to 5 is a real feel-good musical.
Set in a dystopian future where English refugees have flocked to an independent Scotland, 2044's concept created expectations of a focus on UK politics. Instead, it neatly drew parallels with the rise of Donald Trump in America, and resulting issues of racism and the dangers of national exceptionalism.
