Top streaming artist Matt Haughey debuts new musical at Edinburgh Festival Fringe
With more than 10 million music streams and a US wide tour under his belt, you'd be forgiven for thinking Matt Haughey has hit the big time.
Bringing his new, semi-autobiographical show The Greatest Musical The World Has Ever Seen By Randy Thatcher to the Edinburgh Fringe, however, Haughey introduces us to the highs, lows and pathos of modern creativity when being a social media rockstar means inviting the world into your teenage bedroom. You know, in the house you share with your mum. What could possibly go wrong?
Being a creative has always come with equal amounts of anxiety, bravery and isolation as you produce something that you’re not entirely sure anyone else will be interested in, let alone actually want to pay you for. Now, as more people than ever have easy access to the tools to make their own art, music and online content, there has been an incredible flourishing of creativity as people pile onto the web to share their work. It is at once dazzling and wonderous to see so much incredible talent in the world as well as completely overwhelming.
Matt Haughey is one of the few who has genuinely demonstrated a knack not just for writing and making music but finding ways to connect intimately with others and be heard above the din of all those other voices. And through The Greatest Musical The World Has Ever Seen By Randy Thatcher he shares that incredible journey. Haughey, who also stars as Randy Thatcher in the show, says :“I could not be more excited to come to the Edinburgh Fringe this year! I dreamt of moments like this as a 15-year-old kid writing elaborate musicals alone in my bedroom in New Jersey. If you’d have told teenage Matt that he’d get this opportunity, he’d have almost certainly cried. 25-year-old Matt also cried when he found out but we don’t have to get into that.”
He has also comfortably proved that it’s not just his mum that thinks he’s got a gift – which is a relief considering the prominent role his eponymous hero’s mother plays in the production, appearing frequently in Facetime chats and forming a core component of the story.
Haughey’s producer Molly Morris is almost as big a champion of the musician’s talent as a proud mother, saying: “It is rare to find such a refreshing and genuine voice emerge in musical theatre. Matt’s music is on the verge of representing the next wave of artists who are destined to have a following of fans devoted to his work and poised to make an impact. Presenting this musical at the Fringe feels like the chance to share something so special with audiences - an emerging artist sharing their own work with audiences on a stage. This is what makes the Fringe so exciting - that moment of discovery and being able to say that you saw an exceptional artist at the outset of their big break”
The Greatest Musical The World Has Ever Seen By Randy Thatcher is on at Pleasance Courtyard, Aug 2-5, 7-18, 20-25 at 4:40pm. Spotify Listen
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