Top (l to r): Tricity Vogue, Miss Behave, Christeene, Twonkey. Middle (l to r): Lady Rizo, EastEnd Cabaret, Wilfredo, Lynn Ruth Miller. Bottom (l to r): Dixey, Dandy Darkly, Frisky and Mannish, Mr B.
June has come which means one thing: Edinburgh time again! Sure, the Fringe itself doesn’t get underway till August but this year’s programme was launched last night and, for those involved in the fest, the next two months are basically spent bracing for the onslaught.
In recent years, I’ve covered cabaret at the Fringe for Time Out but since there’s no longer a Time Out cabaret section to write for, this year will be different. I’ll be reviewing some shows for The Scotsman, which I’m just a bit excited about, and others on here, bolstered by some more general coverage if time permits, and of course tweeting galore @not_television.
I’m also hosting a weekly panel event, Cabaret Chinwag, on Wednesdays at 2.30pm at Fringe Central (August 6, 13 and 20). Expect chummy interviews, heated debates, irrelevant interjections and a lo-fi performance or two, with a chance for a mingle afterwards. The first event is followed by the Fringe’s official cabaret mixer – with free gin!
There isn’t yet a definitive answer on whether TO&ST, the Time Out & Soho Theatre Edinburgh Cabaret Award, will be returning for 2014. Keep you posted on that.
So here, in alphabetical order, are 33 cabaret shows to watch out for at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe. They’re listed in the Cabaret section unless otherwise noted; some might not be strictly cabaret but I’m interested in them anyway. Details (venues, dates, times and prices) can be found via the Fringe homepage.
Abandoman: Hot Desk
The Irish maestros of hip-hop improv just keep going from strength to strength with their funny, ingenious riffing on audience contributions. (Listed in Comedy.)
Ben Hart – The Vanishing Boy
This assured young magician blends charm, mischievous storytelling and astonishing dexterity to terrific effect. Spidery fingers.
Bob Downe: Bob, Sweat and Tears
Australia’s ‘clown prince of polyester’ is back – a good laugh if you’re up for a bit of hi-camp gurning but really fun when he lets himself go off-piste.
Boris & Sergey’s Astonishing Freakatorium
The leathery lowlife bunraku puppets land with a new escapade. Uncanny, raucous and adventurous, with surprisingly good chemistry for inanimate objects.
Camille O’Sullivan: 10
After a decade at the Fringe, O’Sullivan remains its favourite chanteuse with smokey, heartfelt takes on Waits, Cave et al. It ain’t broke. (Listed in Music.)
Chap-Hop Superstar: Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer
Just because Michael Gove likes him, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. There’s no denying the ingenuity and proficiency of the original banjolele gansta.
Christeene: The Christeene Machine
This is probably the single Fringe show I’m most excited for. Christeene is a smeared-out Texan ass witch, a feral sacrificial lamb, a broken bottle full of love. Ferocious alt-drag look, ridiculously compelling stage presence, formidable rap and songwriting and supertight stagecraft.
Circa: Beyond
Wunderkammer was one of last year’s best circus shows – sexy, moving, technically astonishing. Beyond promises vaudeville, ‘Rubik’s cubes and rabbit heads’. Bring it. (Listed in Dance, Physical Theatre and Circus.)
The Creative Martyrs: Cabapocalypsaret
In last year’s After the Apocalypse, the Martrys – a sort of Brechtian Laurel and Hardy – invited audiences to help create a new world. Now it’s the morning after…
Dandy Darkly’s Pussy Panic!
Flamboyant rococo campery, Southern sissy charm, fairy-tale grotesquery and hugely accomplished storytelling in rhyming doggerel. Unique and transporting.
Dixey: Where Gentlemen Are Always Immaculately Undressed
A boylesque show starring pioneer of the form Tigger!, directed by Dusty Limits (who isn’t performing at this year’s Fringe) and produced by Sean Mooney (Beyond the Cabaret)? Yes please.
EastEnd Cabaret: Sexual Tension
They’ve migrated to the Comedy section but the clue’s in the name. A fabulously freaky co-dependent duo with deliciously dirty taste and serious musical chops. (Listed in Comedy.)
Eggs Collective Get A Round
Dance, comedy, witches’ covens, Robbie Williams, EastEnders, package holidays… Eggs Collective are a perf-art posse with chip-shop chic. (Listed in Theatre.)
Fascinating Aïda: Charm Offensive
The past masters of well-turned ditties with a mucky lining bring their latest tour de force to the Fringe. Adele Anderson’s Prisoner of Gender is a highlight.
Frisky and Mannish: Just Too Much
The pop pasticheurs par excellence were on hiatus last year; this marks their “barely-conscious recoupling”. Don’t call it a comeback… (Listed in Comedy.)
Holestar presents Sorry I’m A Lady
London’s fave ‘tranny with a fanny’ presents a journey through her truly remarkable life, touching on the army, Vienna, dominatrix work and health challenges.
Kim Noble: You’re Not Alone
Kim Noble’s last show was about suicide. This one is about connecting with people. Expect a lot of wit, formal inventiveness and squirming. (Listed in Theatre.)
Lady Carol: Lost and Found
Somehow both ethereal and cheeky, the Irish ukulele singer is a Fringe stalwart with a fine line in self-deprecation alongside her yearning, powerful music.
Lady Rizo
Winner of the 2012 TO&ST award and already a welcome Ediburgh staple, this NY chanteuse is the real deal: funny bones, great pipes, charisma out the wazoo.
Lynn Ruth Miller: Not Dead Yet
The preposterously entertaining 80-year-old brings a new set, with songs by Sarah-Louise Young and Michael Roulston, who aren’t performing cabaret this year. (Miller also reprises last year’s TO&ST award-winning show, Granny’s Gone Wild.)
Miss Hope Springs
The only-slightly-faded showgirl makes her Fringe debut with a limited run. The big-haired persona is darling, the original torch songs something special.
Miss Behave’s Gameshow
This cardboard-heavy masterclass in lo-fi hi-jinks is the perfect antidote to soulless big-budget inanity. It’s all about the craic, the audience and their phones.
Matt Roper: Wilfredo Deconstructed
High of waistband, drooling of mouth, gargantuan of ego and gorgeous of larynx, you can’t help yourself falling for the deliriously deluded Iberian love god. (Listed in Comedy.)
Paul Dabek: Liar Liar
If old school is new school, Dabek’s at the head of the class. Cracking magic, effortless comic patter and oodles of charm.
Richard Gadd: Breaking Gadd
Last year’s Cheese and Crack Whores was an intense, intoxicating mix of comedy, narrative, multimedia and public breakdown. More please. (Listed in Comedy.)
Show Off: Figs in Wigs
The pun-happy five-strong deadpan comedy dance troupe – Pina Bausch meets Carmen Miranda meets Buster Keaton – takes on digital-age narcissism. (Listed in Theatre.)
Simon Munnery Sings Soren Kierkegaard
If anyone can breathe new life into the tired cliché of Danish existentialist lounge singing, it’s ceaselessly experimental absurdist Simon Munnery. (Listed in Comedy.)
Stories About Love, Death and a Rabbit: Samantha Mann
This beguiling, ultimately uplifting storytelling show is something like the secret life of Miss Prism imagined by Alan Bennett and performed by Hinge or Bracket. (Listed in Comedy.)
Tina T’urner Tea Lady
An act that pretty much does what it says on the tin. I’ve only ever seen her do very funny short turns – be intriguing to see what shape a full-length show takes.
Tomás Ford Stop Killing People
An especially tantalising one. Ford’s interactive electro cabarets are intense, discombobulating, exhilarating experiences. This new show promises a spy-thriller plot, south-east Asian settings and video craziness.
Tricity Vogue: Songs for Swinging Ukuleles
After last year’s terrific boudoir-intimate Calamitous Liaisons, the ukulele doyenne gets butch (in a very dapper kind of way) to channel Sinatra in a set of original tunes with a gender-bendy vibe.
Twonkey’s Private Restaurant
Stories, songs, beards, puppets, a ship’s wheel of knickers and a dining experience with no food. It can only be the latest bout of brilliant nonsense from Paul Vickers.
The Wau Wau Sisters’ Death Threats (and Other Forms of Flattery!)
Superbly interweaving circus, satire, music and nekkidness, the Wau Waus don their “bullet-proof birthday suits” to face a homicidal religious backlash head-on.
Look out too for some returning shows well worth catching if you didn’t see them last year: there’s inspirational crowd-baiting from outrageous clown Red Bastard and exemplary, chucklesome gentleman-juggling in Mat Ricardo: Showman (both listed in Comedy); Michael Griffiths channels Madge to dry, sly effect in In Vogue: Songs by Madonna; and La Clique still turn out a top-notch variety showcase.
NB 2014 sees the Dance and Physical Theatre section expand to become Dance, Physical Theatre and Circus, so be sure to check that out. And don’t forget Forest Fringe, this year featuring work in progress from the ever-eyebrow-raising Bryony Kimmings and Brian Lobel‘s latest opus, which involves binge-viewing Sex and the City.
Finally, don’t take the absence of a show’s title above as a sign I’m not interested in it – I’m sure to have overlooked some crackers so do let me know below what else shouldn’t be missed.
Blimey. Knackered already after that, and two months to go… But can’t wait!
