Mary, Queen of Rock!
★★★★★ Gloriously loud
Assembly Rooms (Venue 20): Thur 1 – Sun 25 Aug 2024
Review by Cyril Langston
A celebration of loud women, Pretty Knickers Productions’ original musical, Mary, Queen of Rock! at the Assembly Rooms Ballroom all Fringe is special from the first note. The female-led Scottish theatre company have produced a standout.
Mary, Queen of Rock! reimagines Mary, Queen of Scots as a musician and star. A famous rocker from France, Mary and her ladies-in-waiting arrive in her homeland of Scotland to find that Presbyterian Records, headed by the uptight and musical theatre-loving record producer John Knox, has taken over the industry following a rebrand of Scotland’s music scene.
Mhairi McCall with her Ladies-in-waiting in Mary, Queen of Rock! Pic: Lucy Miller.
As Presbyterian Records tries to cleanse the country of rock & roll and convert Mary to pop music, Mary has to decide what to do and who to trust. This feminist retelling places Mary’s famous tale into a modern context and highlights that things might not be as different today as we’d like to think.
Co-writer Mhairi McCall’s Mary is boisterous, animated and, above all, overflowing with talent. McCall has powerful and well-controlled voice, which she shows off throughout the production, wowing from beginning to end.
Balancing Mary’s indignation at her situation with vulnerable moments and comic timing, McCall creates a fresh and loveable version of the Mary everyone knows. Her friendship with performer Rizzio (Cameron Banks) is authentic and sweet. She’s supported onstage by her Ladies-in-waiting, who provide exposition and energy in equal measure. Often venturing into the audience, all four Ladies have charm and excellent comic timing.
conniving and egotistical
Banks, doubling as Knox, and Cal Ferguson as Moray round out the talented cast with conniving and egotistical portrayals of two of Mary’s well-known foes. Knox’s puritanical quest to cleanse the country of rock & roll and live in a state of Musical Theatre propels much of the plot, running in tandem with Moray’s calculating schemes to manipulate Mary so he can assume power himself. The two actors are a joy to watch as they move the story along.
Promo shot for Mary, Queen of Rock!
The Ladies-in-waiting play triple-duty supporting Mary, engaging with the audience, and standing in as most of Mary’s betrayers.
Sarah Dingwall’s Darnley is a sexy and troubled rocker who seduces Mary in a club and uses her power to bolster his own standing. Dingwall is perfectly sleazy in the role and shows off some very effective accent work.
Mary’s security guard Bothwell, portrayed by Niamh Kinane, gets manipulated by Moray and caught in the crossfires of the power-struggle between Mary and her half-brother. Kinane’s Bothwell is opportunistic and naive, betraying Mary but to no avail.
loveable adversary
Tiana Milne-Wilson’s Marie de Guise is wonderfully chic, wise and French. During her ghostly visit to offer Mary guidance, a beautiful reprise shows off strong vocals.
Nicola Alexander’s pop-singing, fur coat-wearing, “My BF is G-O-D”-singing cousin Queen Lizzie threatens to steal the show. She’s a loveable adversary and her surprisingly gentle confrontation with Mary is a satisfying conclusion to their story.
While Mary, Queen of Rock! is a modern musical based on famous figures in history, comparisons to other examples in the genre would be doing this creative team a disservice – their show is fresh and unique. Intelligent writing by Mhairi McCall, Cal Ferguson, and Lewis Lauder blooms under the direction of Lana Pheutan and Jenny Tamplin, with Chanel Turner-Ross’s choreography and Jasmine Law’s lighting design bringing the vision to life.
Smart, heartfelt, loud and, maybe most importantly, just plain fun Mary, Queen of Rock! celebrates loud women and humanises one of Scotland’s most famous monarchs.
Whether you’ve heard Mary’s story a million times or wouldn’t know Mary from Lizzie, this rock musical full of exceptional talent, vibrant songs and the occasional singing baby is a welcome riff away from the dusty history lessons we’ve come to expect.
Running time: One hour and 20 minutes (no interval)
Assembly Rooms (Ballroom), 54 George St, Edinburgh EH2 2LR (Venue 20)
Thursday 1 August – Sunday 25 August 2024
Daily (Not Wed 7, 14, 21): 9.20pm.
Details and tickets: Book here
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