Edinburgh Fringe Musicals and Opera reviews: BANNED the Musical | No Regrets | Scissors Dance | Draft My Life – A Concept Musical | Our Little Secret: The 23andMe Musical | Alfie

Fluid gender dynamics, the bewitching songs of Edith Piaf and the Hong Kong housing market all feature in our latest round up of Fringe musicals

Gender and sexuality are explored dynamically in BANNED the Musical

BANNED the Musical ★★★★

Greenside @ Riddles Court (Venue 16) until 10 August

Denise’s husband has started wearing women’s clothes. Ana has surprised herself by falling for male-identifying gender guru Carl. Above all, Theo wants to capture their eight-strong gender identity group’s lives and loves in a brand new musical, to be staged at a prestigious international festival (sound familiar?).

There’s no denying the sheer ambition of April Alsup’s big, bold musical, in terms of its web of intertwining storylines, its eclectic and diverse characters, and the sensitive issues of gender and sexuality it attempts to address. There’s no denying, either, the sheer panache and energy with which it’s pulled off by its eager, energetic, ten-piece Denver-based company – no fewer than nine actor/singers, plus Alsup delivering an impassioned keyboard part. 

Alsup’s songs are strong and memorable, in nicely complex arrangements too – tunes are swapped back and forth in complicated ensemble numbers, and the cast offers glowing harmonies as well as vivid solos. Eli Harvey is a troubled and vulnerable Ana, with a voice as honest and open as her character, while Tracy Denver makes a petulant Denise, at first horrified at her husband’s new apparel interests though later easing reluctantly towards acceptance. Online dating gets a merciless take-down, while the pleasures of sex are dutifully celebrated.

Despite the stage-filling collection of disparate characters – nicely choreographed by Heather Westenskow – there’s nonetheless a convincing overall story arc, as well as fulfilling individual plotlines for several of them (even if others inevitably feel a little underwritten). Best of all, however, BANNED offers a deeply human perspective on issues of gender and sexual identity, its flawed characters navigating their own mistake-filled routes through pronouns, preferences and plenty more. It’s a complex, compassionate show of missteps and misunderstandings, and one that warmly applies the tolerance it requests of others onto its own damaged but likeable characters. David Kettle

 

No Regrets ★★★★

Pleasance @ EICC (Venue 150) until 10 August

Christine Bovill returns to the Fringe with her lauded Edith Piaf tribute for the first time in nine years, adding new songs and stories but retaining the must-sing old favourites. This is a personal odyssey for the Glasgow-based singer who (rightly) announced as a teenager that she was a chanteuse.

Hearing Piaf was an epiphany for Bovill, unlocking an exotic, obsessional musical world and instilling a love for the French language which she passed on to others in her years as a French teacher before chucking in the steady job for the fulfilment of a full-time singing career.

 

 

Admittedly, the sterile comfort of the EICC is not particularly a venue to conjure impressions of the Parisian street corners and nightclubs that were Piaf’s milieu, so Bovill must do it with her richly husky voice, her facility for the cadences and spirit of the French tongue, her interpretation of Piaf’s evocative lyrics and the occasional lubricating swig of “Ribena”.

Bovill does not impersonate Piaf but digs into her words and stories. She switches effortlessly between the crisp, even cheeky expression of the original French and the smoothly plaintive English translation of Je m’en Fous Pal Mal (I Shouldn’t Care), with spry accompaniment from pianist and accordionist Duncan Ritchie and former Young Traditional Musician of the Year Charlie Stewart on violin and double bass.

Elsewhere, Bovill is the forlorn café owner relating the tragedy of Les Amants d’un Jour, the besotted admirer of L'Accordéoniste and the enraptured lover of La Vie En Rose and Hymne A L’Amour, recently belted by Celine Dion at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. Bovill jokes that she passed up that gig to be with us in Edinburgh. As she climaxes with Piaf’s showstopper Je Ne Regrette Rien, her audience are the clear winners here. Fiona Shepherd

Scissors Dance ★★★

Greenside @ George Street - Forest Theatre (Venue 236) Until 10 August

At school, most of us were probably told to never run whilst holding scissors. Sone Sone, a South Korean theatre company dance with them.

The lack of subtitles makes it hard to follow specifics but you can detect the important story beats, a testament to the universal humanity pulsating beneath the surface: fathers who want the best for their rebellious daughters, daughters who want to resist overbearing paternal confines. Sam Soon dreams of a life of stardom. Her father Huh just wants to connect with his daughter.

Bombastic percussion injects Scissors Dance with beaming vivacity. The titular dance is sparky fun and Smin Chung-Ga, a traditional folk song about yearning for the memory of a long lost mother, is a curiously heartstring-tugging moment in amongst the technicolour frivolity. Cross-cultural references poke irreverent fun at the language barrier. You can’t fault the tongue-in-cheek humour – somehow Sam Soon and Huh end up on Britain's Got Talent – even if the story is a little flimsy. Alexander Cohen 

Draft My Life – A Concept Musical ★★★

Greenside @ George Street (Venue 236) until 17 August

A musical about the struggles of young Hong Kongers to find suitable independent housing might sound somewhat unprepossessing. Indeed, some of Draft My Life’s discussions of square-footage versus monthly rent are downright baffling. But there’s plenty to recommend this admittedly rather slight offering from the We Draman theatre company. 

Performances are slick and well-drilled: Hei Tung Wong as lead character Clara, in particular, has wide-eyed charm and a beautifully liquid voice, which she uses to great effect in the catchy, poppy tunes by composer Alfred Chan (who also plays her sweet but overbearing father). There are also crisp moves in the show’s elaborate, energetic dance routines from its six-strong cast. And while its storyline of Clara’s attempts to establish a home of her own might find resonances among young people right across the world, it’s harder to tell what message the show’s rather anticlimactic conclusion has about a compulsion for independence. 

Chan’s numbers zip along with sparkling energy and verve, but he provides little opportunity for insights into his characters’ inner lives, nor their frustrations or disappointments. A little more darkness in among Draft My Life’s bright, ever-smiling optimism might have made the show a more provocative and revealing offering. David Kettle

Our Little Secret: The 23andMe Musical ★★★

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Venue 24) until 26 August

With his love of being the centre of attention in front of a roomful of strangers, quips Our Little Secret’s solo star Noam Tomaschoff, who’d guess he was an only child? Except, as his autobiographical musical quickly reveals, Tomaschoff’s family circumstances aren’t quite as simple as they might once have appeared. His father blanches when the young man reveals he is about to take a discounted DNA test, just for the fun of it – and his parents belatedly reveal the “little secret” that gives his show its title.

Noam Tomaschoff in Our Little Secret: The 23andMe Musical | Zach Terry

Energy fairly blazes off the stage in Tomaschoff’s vivid, clearly heartfelt performance, and there’s no shortage of foot-tapping earworms in composer Ryan Peters’s brisk, breezy score. If anything, however, Our Little Secret feels a little too relentlessly upbeat, and could probably do with more introspection or reflection. Tomaschoff doesn’t offer much in terms of insights into the fallout of his parents’ revelations on them or himself, nor the new identities each navigates as a result. Nonetheless, Our Little Secret is a generous hour of exuberant song and storytelling that transforms what might have been a dark secret into a transformational light. David Kettle

Alfie ★★

Paradise in Augustines – The Sanctuary (Venue 152) until 10 August

Unsurprisingly there isn’t a musical version of All Quiet On the Western Front. Adapting a harrowing tale of death and destruction into a schmaltzy musical would be like trying to square a circle.

Drunk on stories of his grandfather’s neurotic second world war sentimentalism, eponymous father-to-be Alfie is shipped off to Afghanistan only to become disillusioned. His subsequent death at the hands of a suicide bomber leaves an emotional black hole in his village.

A cloyingly saccharine score and static performances incongruously clash with the gravity of the themes, sometimes with eyebrow raising consequences. But the big-hearted intentions to raise awareness of PTSD shine through regardless, even if the incompetent staging leaves a lot to be desired. Alexander Cohen