Top Christmas shows at St Andrew Square

SPECTACULAR circus skills, hilarious pop parodies and men in their pants - just three of the highlights coming to St Andrew Square as the Paradiso Spiegeltent returns to the Capital, the focus of this year’s Edinburgh Christmas entertainment.

Built in Belgium in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the circular mirrored tent welcomes five top shows this festive season, including the return to the city of Fringe favourites Frisky And Mannish and Pub landlord Al Murray.

Scotch & Soda

CABARET, burlesque and live music. What more could you ask for? Scotch & Soda finds the Paradiso Spiegeltent transformed into a dusty bar where a rowdy mob of misfits determine to entertain.

Lose yourself in the extraordinary beauty and power of this production described as ‘a whisky-soaked evening of raucous circus, dance and music’.

Be transported by the phenomenal cast drawn from hit Fringe shows such as La Clique, Circa and Tom Tom Crew, as they merge physical feats with gypsy beats to turn the Spiegeltent into a jazz sound-tracked den of iniquity.

Opens tonight.

Tonight-21 December, 7.30pm, (Saturday matinees 3.30pm), £15.50-£31, 0844-545 8252

Stick Man

CHILDREN. If Christmas isn’t about the kids, what is it about? Touching, funny and utterly original, this adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s hugely popular children’s book, Stick Man features a trio of top actors and is packed full of puppetry, songs, live music and funky moves. Guarantees more fun than you can shake a stick at.

Tomorrow-4 January, 11am and 1.30pm, £14.50-£17.50 (family tickets £45-£55), 0844-545 8252

Briefs: The Second Coming

ONE for the adults, Briefs are billed as a boy-lesque troupe and come with the warning to expect the unexpected as the boys present a riotous evening of ‘intoxicating physicality’, unexpected stumbles, gob-smacking comedy and ridiculous showmanship.

Outrageous and naughty then, it’s for over 16s only.

18 December-4 January 2015, various times, £20.50-£41, 0844545 8252

Frisky & Mannish

THEY are back. Leading pop-mash-up-info-tainment experts, Laura Corcoran and Matthew Jones, aka Frisky and Mannish, bring their epic Yuletide extravaganza back to the city following numerous successful Fringe runs.

This time around they are going to reveal how the perfect Christmas song is created. You need innuendo, pathos, bells, don’t forget the bells... One thing that’s guaranteed is that it will be as camp as Christmas. Fitting really.

22-23 December, 9.30pm, £15.50/£16.50, 0844-545 8252

Al Murray: The Pub Landlord’s Festive Saloon

PERHAPS aimed more at the tourists who flock to the Capital at Christmas and Hogmanay, the ‘nation’s favourite’ pub philosopher turns pop-up publican, when he brings his unique satirical genius to the Spiegeltent, where he will be joined by a host of special guests each night.

The Hogmanay performance includes a ticket to the Street Party.

29-31 December, various times, £25/£42.50, 0844-545 8252