Edinburgh Fringe theatre reviews: Fringe! The Musical | A Time Traveller's Life | Fringe - The Musical

Gilded Balloon Patter House (Venue 24), until 26 August

★★★★

It’s a measure of what an institution the Fringe has become that it’s now possible to make a show about the Fringe itself. The tropes of Edinburgh in August are so recognisable that they can even be parodied in a musical.

Fringe! The Musical (at Gilded Balloon) begins on a US talk show at some point in the future when three-times Oscar winner Chantelle Duprée is asked to explain how she got her big break. Back we go to Edinburgh in 2024 where she is one of a clutch of characters hoping for that elusive Fringe stardust.

She’s doing a solo show (very) loosely based on her life. Edgar Messinpo, writer of one hit musical and several flops, is hoping to revive his fading fortunes, and Gem is a stand-up comic who quit after a bad gig in a 1980s bar. 

Written by Sarah Burns (lyrics) and Baden Burns (music), who also directs, the show has an infectious energy, catchy songs and polished (if somewhat generic) dance routines. The Fringe is so well observed - the flyering, the Silent Disco tours, the improv company with their inflatable banana - that the world is completely believable. Sarah Burns and Thomas Petts have outstanding voices, and they manage to weave in a human story which adds a poignant edge. The appearance of a stereotypical angry Scot in a tamoshanter is perhaps the one bum note.

Thanks to their energy and enthusiam, they manage to parody the Fringe while still embodying the hope and idealism which brings everyone here, year after year. The one remaining question is whether there is an audience for a show like this outside of Edinburgh in August.

A Time Traveller’s Life

Greenside @ Riddles Court (Venue 16), until 24 August

★★★

Meanwhile, Julia Bolden makes a solo show, A Time Traveller’s Life, based on her own experiences of Fringes past. Her first was in 1979, with a student company doing four shows in a church hall. The tickets were typed on a typewriter and the first night was cancelled after the curtain was tested by fire inspectors.

She returned with various young companies over the following three years, acting, writing, directing, and falling in and out of love. She has been a frequent visitor, again, in the last two decades, sometimes bringing her own shows, sometimes working in supporting roles. 

There is too much detail in Bolden’s show: she’s determined to give us everything, rather than picking out key moments to tell the story. And, frustratingly, when she alludes to specific productions she saw along the way, she rarely gives their names. But she is an engaging performer, and one can’t not applaud a woman in her sixties who is back at the Fringe again, with nothing but her purple hat and wheelie suitcase, celebrating what the Fringe has meant to her.

Fringe - The Musical

theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (Venue 53), until 17 August

★★★

In true Fringe style, there is not one but two Fringe musicals in the programme this year, the key distinction being that Fringe - The Musical (at TheSpace) has nothing to do with the Fringe. This show, written by Freya MacTavish and Sean Lomas and staged by Leeds-based Chevron Theatre with a cast of eight, is set in a family-run hair salon in Essex,

Darren is trying to keep the salon going after the death of his wife, but customers are thin on the ground and a London-based chain has opened a swanky rival down the road. Can Darren, his daughter Sam and their loyal stylists turn their fortunes around, and do warring radio presenters Baz and Stace have a part to play?

The scenario feels promising, and the camaradie of the four stylists is particularly well done. While it’s heartfelt and likeable, it doesn’t feel like there’s quite enough time to let the drama play out and, while there are some good voices in the company, they don’t quite have the skills and maturity to rise to the complex flourishes which the music demands.