Edinburgh Fringe 2022

Seen 7 shows so far:

Unfortunate - 7/10 - Liked the songs, liked the characters, not a fan of all the jokes about mens genitalia- 1 or 2 are OK, but this had loads
Showstopper - 10/10 - Brilliant, chaotic fun. We had a musical set on a roundabout in Milton Keynes. Ruth Bratt was particularly funny
Kathy and Stella- 9/10 - Best of the scripted shows I’ve seen. Really catchy score with some great voices. Very funny throughout as well
Fantastically Great Women - 8/10 - really liked this but the schoolgirl character is so unbelievably annoying. Catchy score - favourite songs were Rosa’s song and the finale.
Don’t Say Macbeth - 7.5/10 - very cheap compared to some of the other shows I’ve seen, but I really enjoyed this. Loved all the musical references and one of the witches was very funny.
Mischief Movie Night - 10/10 - i knew I’d love this and was right. A very funny period drama featuring a gibbon, a music box singing an S Club 7 megamix and some great action sequences
Mindmangler - 8.5/10 - pretty sure this was basically the same sequence as in Magic Goes Wrong but slightly extended. Audience were brilliant for this which made for some great banter and ad libbing by Henry Lewis.

If the worst you've seen is a 7 then

Either
You're not trying hard enough
Or
You need to set yourself us as a agent - I could be your first client!

My recommendations are:

Land: A New Scottish Musical. From the sane mind as Islander from 2019 that went onto run in Southwark. Fabulous music, intimate and personal story, deserves another life.

Police Cops: The Musical. Hilarious 80s rock musical silliness.

Comedy wise, Alistair Beckett King, Eleanor Morton, The Delightful Sausage, and (possibly a bit big for fringe these days) Nish Kumar were fabulous.

Really enjoyed Grace Petrie who I've loved as a folk singer for years but has made her exquisite fringe debut doing a mix of spoken word and stand up.

And a special shout out to Kites which although not the best show ever it deserved a far more sizeable audience than the four of us who attended today. They performed this two hander with confidence despite the small house number and I applaud them for that.

greeny11 We were at the same performance of Showstoppers the other night! I saw Mind Mangler on Wednesday evening and enjoyed it so much more than the segments in the tour of Magic Goes Wrong. I thought they'd refined the concept and character well. Henry Lewis is a master of audience interaction and Jonathan Sayer's cameos were very funny. It was a very enthusiastic audience who gave a standing ovation at the end. You can feel the love for Mischief in the room at every show they put on.

firefingers I saw Police Cops last night on the strength of word of mouth. Audience behaviour was not so good (which stands out at the Fringe where it's usually excellent) but the show itself is a riot! They must have one of the hardest working casts at the Fringe. I'm seeing Land: A Scottish Musical this afternoon which I'm rather excited about.

Other highlights from the past couple of days include "The Importance of Being ...Earnest?" at Pleasance Courtyard, a show which takes audience participation to a whole new level, as the actor playing Earnest fails to show and someone from the audience then has to take on the role! As more cast members become incapacitated for various reasons, more and more audience members are called into the fray! I imagine it's a quite different viewing experience each day depending on who is selected (and generally the cast seemed to check each time that the person chosen was okay going up on stage) but Wednesday's performance was very entertaining.

I also really enjoyed Notflix, an improvised musical, where we were treated to a musical loosely inspired by Kill Bill. I thought the original musical numbers were incredibly impressive. If you're a fan of the Showstoppers, the Notflix troupe are well worth checking out at Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose for more musical comedy.

One of my favourite shows from the past couple of days is a student production. LS6 Theatre, a student theatre company from Leeds, have brought two shows to the Fringe this year, the second of which, Freedam, is now playing at theSpace on North Bridge. For pure escapism, this was hard to beat. A whimsical and surreal 50 minutes of fun, silliness and laughter! Expect cheesy puns galore, karaoke, wigs and funny characterisations. The cast looked to be having a blast and their enthusiasm was infectious. I guess you could say Freedam is the brie's knees!

By Fringe standards, Edinburgh does seem to have been relatively quiet in the past day or two. After a very busy first week, there does seem to have been a bit of a fall in visitor and audience numbers now the Scottish school holidays have finished, but hopefully a very busy last weekend is to come.