Musicals & Opera review: Prom Kween

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: In 2016, Matthew Crisson became America's first non-binary prom queen (non-binary meaning not identifying as simply male or female). That is the peg for this buzzy, poppy, semi-satirical high-school musical full of snappy, empowering numbers about being yourself and following your dreams.

Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61)

***

The book is by Rebecca Humphries, whose show Dizney Rascal was a Fringe hit in 2014, and there are plenty of Disney references here, alongside such pop-cultural touchstones as Mean Girls, Spielberg and RuPaul’s Drag Race – indeed, RuPaul (William Donaldson) serves as the show’s charismatic narrator-cum-spirit guide.

The other cast members (Humphries, Daniel Miller, Lucy Pearman and Sam Swann) energetically fill a multitude of roles, from high-school archetypes to gay icons and American grotesques. They take turns playing Matthew – an elegant concept for embodying unconventional gender identity. But the conceptual is one thing, the personal another: as a character, Matthew is devoid of personality and sensibility. Nor, despite its inspiration, does Prom Kween make any attempt to convey the lived experience of non-binary subjectivity. It’s a show about taking pride in being yourself that’s built around a blank slate, sassily trumpeting the value of self-determination yet uninterested in the specific texture of distinctively marginalised lives.

Until 27 August. Today 8:35pm