EDINBURGH 2023: Phillipe Coquet Q&A
Hi Ho Hi Ho, It's Off To Work I Go comes to Edinburgh this August
By: Natalie O'Donoghue Jul. 13, 2023
BWW caught up with Phillipe Coquet to chat about bringing Hi Ho Hi Ho, It's Off To Work I Go to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Tell us a bit about Hi Ho Hi Ho, It's Off To Work I Go
Hi Ho Hi Ho, It's Off To Work I Go is a biographical burlesque, a confessional cabaret, and a musical memoir. Phillipe will sing and dance you through his boyhood on the Broadway stage, teenage nights in the discotheques of 1970's Hollywood, 20 years in a New Age spiritual cult, and a surprising midlife career as an erotic masseur, while investigating through song the wild history of sex workers as portrayed in musical theatre.
Why bring it to Edinburgh?
My life in the theater for the last ten years has been Fringe focused, in my chosen home town of Asheville, North Carolina. I've been very successful writing, directing and acting in Fringe stuff. When I premiered Hi Ho last year, my fans and friends all told me I needed to go on tour with it...and the first thing I thought of was Edinburgh... a good friend, Mary Jane Wells had just done her show "Heroine" at Fringe last year, and it led to bookings in great places.
What sets it apart from other shows at the festival?
Having not been to the Fringe before, I can't honestly say what sets it apart...except that everyone who's seen it says they've never seen anything like it. And I don't think the subject matter, Whores in Broadway Musicals, has ever been tackled anywhere.
Who would you like to come and see it?
I would love to have my niche audience there, the sex workers, who've not seen themselves celebrated in such a way before. And then there's the folks who pay for sex, which could include just about anybody, from any walk of life. Musical theater lovers, and all of the other of my queer tribe around the world. And anyone who's survived a wild ride in life, and come out singing and dancing. Or might need to come out singing and dancing.
What would you like audiences to take away from it?
I want my audience to be entertained, delighted, and moved, surprised by a story that might be outside their experience, but nonetheless feels universal, intimate and connected. And ultimately hopeful about humanity's evolution towards acceptance, sovereignty, inclusion and compassion .
Tickets are available here:
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