Festival Theatre
Hamilton
★★★★★ The storm’s eye
Event theatre has arrived in Edinburgh with the major production of Hamilton at the Festival Theatre, where it will sit down for nearly nine weeks in a run that was all-but sold out before it even opened.
Graham Simpson, unsung hero
Festival Theatre usher surprised at Night of Musicals
Graham Simpson, who has been an usher at the Festival Theatre for 30 years, was the surprise winner of the Unsung Hero Award at The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals 2024.
The Pantomime Adventures of Peter Pan
★★★★☆ Highflying
The Pantomime Adventures of Peter Pan turns out to be about 98% pantomime and 2% Peter Pan, but is tremendous fun nevertheless.
Edinburgh Gang Show 2023
★★★★☆ Riding high
Boasting a cast of (nearly) thousands and as much entertainment as you could wish for, the Edinburgh Gang Show 2023 hits the odd wrong note but in the end its sheer momentum brooks no argument.
Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning
★★★★☆ Angry
You can’t keep a good vampire down for long, and the story of Dracula keeps coming back to the stage, with its depictions of transgressive behaviour making it a constant candidate for reinvention.
Sister Act
★★★★★ Joyful
For an evening of laugh out loud entertainment which will send you home singing, look no further than the UK tour of Sister Act, playing all week at the Festival Theatre.
2:22 A Ghost Story
★★★☆☆ Spooky
On tour after an award-winning (and still-current) London run, Danny Robins’s 2:22 A Ghost Story at the Festival Theatre is an entertaining horror story. It largely justifies the confidence displayed in putting the word ‘ghost’ right up there in the title.
SB’s Cinders! surprise
Male Cinderella for Scottish Ballet Xmas production
Scottish Ballet’s new show, Cinders!, which comes to the Festival Theatre in January 2024, is to feature gender-swapped roles for Cinderella and Charming – but only in half the performances.
People Huv Tae Know
★★★☆☆ Homely
Twenty years on from its first television outing, Still Game has enough followers to pack out theatres, as could be seen from the record-breaking runs of the stage adaptations at the Hydro. Indeed, there was a play before there was ever a television version. So a theatre event featuring the cast would seem to be a no-brainer.