Review
9 to 5 The Musical
★★★★☆ Fit for work
After 545 days of darkness, the Playhouse stage lit up last night with a crisp and swinging production of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 The Musical, which is playing through to Saturday.
SLO Sings For the King’s
★★★★☆ Pure Theatre
Southern Light Opera burst back onto the stage after the Covid hiatus in full celebratory mode with a portmanteau show of songs from its back catalogue which refuses to be obvious, while rounding off the night with a fanfare of show stoppers.
Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age
★★★☆☆ Mixed bag
Given the honour of closing the Edinburgh International Festival that so nearly never happened, Alan Cumming responds with his trademark gusto and skill. Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age at the Old College Quad is, however, an odd combination of the delightful and the infuriating.
Playing With Books – the Long Drop
..and other recent Book Festival events
The Book Festival continues in its new home at the Edinburgh College of Art on Lauriston Place, and also continues to offer events of interest to theatre-goers.
Jack Docherty – Nothing But
★★★★☆ Oddly serious
Jack Docherty – Nothing But in the Gilded Balloon Wine Bar showcases Fringe veteran Docherty, in a piece of deceptively serious dramatic monologue. It draws on his comic roots and showbiz history, but ends up delivering something more troubling and rewarding.
Slings and Arrows
★★★★☆ Hard hitting
There is raw emotion on display in Slings and Arrows, a disabled led dram from Raised Voices at theSpace@ Surgeons Hall – but there is also humour, stagecraft and real hope.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
★★★★☆ Genuine
The Return of Sherlock Holmes is an enjoyable and convincing entertainment at Gilded Balloon Teviot and another convincing literary adaptation from Nigel Miles-Thomas and Fringe Management.
Sophia
★★★☆☆ Revealing reminder
The conflicting demands of professional ambition and personal happiness are brought into stark focus in Sophia by Frances Poet.
Hunt for Treasure Island
★★★☆☆ Novel hunt
In Hunt for Treasure Island, Not Cricket Productions return to the Fringe with an enjoyable romp of a treasure hunt round the New Town, seeking out the stolen manuscript of Robert Louis Stevenson’s latest novel.
SKANK
★★★★☆ Clever
SKANK at the Pleasance Courtyard is a thoroughly successful and engaging one-woman show that is smart, funny and unexpectedly touching.
