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Scotsman
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Wait, don't I know you? Five debuts from performers you already know this Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Miss Frisky Yes, it is Frisky of Frisky and Mannish fame and yes it is solo Frisky this year as the Queen of pop-mash-parodic-stereophonic-vaudevillian-infotainment returns to the Edinburgh Fringe with her own band. Better still, the band are all Scottish based performers at the top of their game – what's not to love. Frisky promises the same quick quips and amazing three octaves of talent but places control into the hands of the audience. Frisky's Reshuffle is just that, a new playlist each night decided by yours truly. While Mannish aka Matthew Floyd Jones popped off to compose and provide musical direction for such smashes as Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder!, Frisky has been one of the most in demand cabaret emcees across London, with residencies around Europe and gigs the world over. Barnie Duncan But not as you know him. Cut DJ and calypso and soca expert Juan Vesuvius built up a following in the 2010s with Calypso Nights; Juan, Two and I am your Deejay, and in 2025, the man hiding under the samba sleeves, Barnie Duncan, steps onto the stage for his debut stand-up show. In the comic's surreal and subversive style, Oooky Pooky takes down the manosphere with playful, physical comedy as performed for NZ Prime Minster Jacinda Arden. Michael Elsener If you're a fan of a late-night Edinburgh Fringe line-up show, or Russel Howard, you will already know Michael. But, despite having the nickname 'the Swiss John Oliver' – this may be your introduction to the political comedian who asks if his secret Swiss recipe can save the world. Fresh from supporting Russell Howard on his European Tour and Winner of Best Solo Show at the Swiss Comedy Awards 2024, Michael Elsener holds the keys to paradise. Will you join him there? Jonny Woo Legendary East End London performer Jonny Woo heads to arts venue Summerhall with a new show, Surbubia, about his life growing up, the stories of queer elders who weren't afforded the respect they deserved. A return to his spoken word, storytelling and performance art roots, Suburbia brings audiences on a heady journey from the Medway suburbs, through the streets of New York and. And not shying away from how we usually see Jonny Woo, in Night at the Musicals with Le Gateau Chocolat or in a drag line up show - of course, there's a musical number or two. Dangerous Goods Just shy of 10 years ago, a cohort of incredible women took the festival by storm, selling out show after show with audiences meeting them across the city in their recognisable tracksuits sharing 'smash the patriarchy' moments with fans. They were Hot Brown Honey. The creative team behind Hot Brown Honey, including co-creator, director and performer Lisa Fa'alafi are back with Dangerous Goods. Hot Brown Honey conquered Glastonbury, the Southbank Centre London, Freedom Festival Hull and Dublin Fringe all from the initial outpouring of love they experienced at the Edinburgh Fringe. The co-directors Fa'alafi and Leah Shelton say: 'Depending on who you ask, different voices throughout history have been seen as dangerous. The systems that govern our everyday lives are often the ones defining this notion and we see it still today molding our opinions of each other.' This new show claims to be empowering, unapologetic, hot-as-hell cabaret. All tickets available now from 1 . Contributed Miss Frisky returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a new band and a her new Reshuffle show Photo: Submitted Photo Sales 2 . Contributed Jonny Woo returns to the Fringe, at arts venue Summerhall Photo: Submitted Photo Sales 3 . Contributed Michael Elsener is no stranger to the Fringe but this is his first one hour show How To Live In Paradise Photo: Submitted Photo Sales 4 . Contributed Miss Frisky is back at the Fringe and asks the audience to build a new show each night with her Photo: Submitted Photo Sales Related topics: QueenSummerhall
Times
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Classical Pride review — queer composers, a drag queen and the LSO
I never imagined that I would see that fastidious composer George Benjamin sharing a platform with Jonny Woo, a voluminously bewigged drag queen who served as the concert's presenter and easily looked around seven feet tall. But that was the wonder of London's grand finale to this year's edition of the LGBTQ+ showcase Classical Pride, which highlights queer composers both past and present. It was an event so joyful and welcoming that a packed Barbican Hall couldn't stop clapping, whether the London Symphony Orchestra was playing emotionally tumescent Tchaikovsky (the suite from Swan Lake) or the rarefied sensuality of Benjamin's Dream of the Song, a 2015 song cycle for lyrical countertenor, gently wafting women's voices and a small ensemble. The audience indeed leapt into applause before this had finished, possibly keen to move the concert on toward something more user-friendly. But even if Benjamin's crystalline undulations wouldn't have been everyone's cup of tea, it was easy to appreciate that the countertenor Cameron Shahbazi was a superb singer; that the LSO, conducted by Classical Pride's founder Oliver Zeffman, was being very refined; and that the voices of Tenebrae added their own magic, weaving and wafting in the background. • Nothing stayed in the background, of course, with the powerful American mezzo Jamie Barton, famous waver of the Pride rainbow flag at the Last Night of the Proms in 2019. Each of her three numbers, nonetheless, struck a different musical note. First came the premiere of a commissioned song from fellow American Jake Heggie, forming the third in his cycle Good Morning, Beauty, exploring a love relationship's evolution over time. Written in dramatic cabaret style, Or Am I in a Rut (words by Taylor Mac) made an immediate impact. So, in the operatic vein, did an aria from Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila, even though Barton's urgent delivery finally became more shrill than winning. No miscalculation, happily, disturbed her sensitive account of Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz. What else? There was Jennifer Higdon's blue cathedral, a reflective and ultimately uplifting tone poem, triggered by the death of Higdon's younger brother, although the best LSO showcase remained the Swan Lake suite, dashingly conducted by Zeffman, with some gorgeous harp finery from Bryn Lewis. I should note as well the early evening half-hour song recital that usefully paraded talented young artistes (soprano Harriet Burns, baritone Jonathan Eyers, pianist/composer Edward Picton-Turbervill), but also reminded us that the shape and acoustic of a sparsely filled Barbican Hall make clearly hearing the words being sung close to mission impossible. ★★★★☆ Barbican, London @timesculture
