MUSE: The Shakespeare Mayhem Musical –  ★★★★☆  – Ambitious Muse 5-30 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   MUSE: The Shakespeare Mayhem Musical  from emerging music artist Hanna Andréa is a high energy, hallucinogenic dive into the mind and characters of struggling writer Shakespeare, who in his quest to choose only a single play for his would-be publishers to put to print, must face his creations and hear what they have to say about it— and him.    The basic premise (meeting your own characters in a dreamworld aside) is entirely ahistorical. Shakespeare did not write for publication, and nor did the publishing industry or author-ownership exist during his life in forms that would be recognisable to today’s industry. The order in which Shakespeare’s plays  were  first published is entirely ignored, and an apparent reference to the posthumous collection that would come to be known as the First Folio ignores that there is no evidence that Shakespeare ever i...

Midsummer! –  ★★★★☆  – Vibrant CMU Center for New Work & Play On Shakespeare 6-19 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Midsummer!  from the Carnegie Mellon University Center for New Work in partnership with Play On Shakespeare is a slick, madcap, high-energy romp, filling the Bijou tent in St. Andrew Square with light and noise.   In Athens (aka, Golden Age Pittsburgh), Hermia and Lysander want to get married, but her father insists that she marry Demetrius— the erstwhile paramour of Hermia’s best friend, Helena, who is hopelessly in love with Demetrius. Hermia must declare her final choice on the wedding day of the wedding of Duke Theseus and his betrothed, Hippolyta, sending she and Lysander flying into the woods to escape, hotly pursued by both Demetrius and Helena. Meanwhile, a group of amateur actors are met in the woods to rehearse a play for the wedding, and it isn’t going terribly well. Unbeknownst to the mortals, these woods are the home of the fairy king ...

An Island of Bad Ideas: The Tempest -  ★★★★☆ - Sprightly theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9): Fri 7 – Tue 11 August 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 10 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Edinburgh Youth Theatre return to the Fringe with another condensed Shakespeare,  An Island of Bad Ideas: The Tempest , which brings Shakespeare’s tale of shipwreck, vengeance, sorcery and love in under an hour. Directed by Chloe Kay and Steph Wynne,  Island of Bad Ideas  works hard to abridge the original script, blending Shakespeare’s dialogue with some slightly more modern inventions, and adding a few dance breaks (choreographed by Kay) for good measure. The result is something approachable and accessible, leaning heavily into the comedy inherent in the piece, even if all the threads of the story get a little tangled at times. The cast of An Island of Bad Ideas: The Tempest. Pic: EYT. Visit All Edinburgh Theat...

On Some Far Shore –  ★★★½  – Reflective Cross Keys Productions 7-22 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   On Some Far Shore , a new musical from Cross Keys Productions, is a quiet, reflective exploration of grief in parental loss, and figuring out how to carry on.   Set on the eve of his mother Helen’s funeral, the musical opens with Euan trying to write her eulogy. Despite being a talented writer, he’s stuck, unsure how to capture her story, and all the stories she told him that have shaped who he is. With the aid of his girlfriend Isla, he begins to pick through the pieces, striving towards the unknown shore of the future— and of a past whose memories are irrevocably touched by loss. Promotional image: Thomas Perry (Euan) and Francesca Knoop (Isla). Pic: Cross Keys. Written by Louis Benneyworth and Madi Bouchta, with a score by Benneyworth,  On Some Far Shore  tackles its difficult subject matter with care. The focus is on Euan’s internal struggle and relationshi...

Gagula: The Panto With Teeth! -  ★★★☆☆ - Energetic Greenside @ Riddles Court (Venue 16): Fri 7 – Sat 15 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 10 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Pig’s Ear Productions are back with another panto, this year moving away from Shakespeare and into another classic art form: drag,  Gagula: The Panto With Teeth! . Written and directed by Mackenzie Galbraith,  Gagula  riffs on Dracula, meta-theatre, and pantomime itself in a production that, while not as cohesive as it might have been, is still a snort-worthy good time. Gabrielle Mann as Mina Murray and Buster Van Der Geest as Van Helsing. Pic: PEP. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Next to Normal –  ★★★★☆  – Beautiful agony Bare Productions 7-15 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Bare Productions brings the Scottish premiere of  Next to Normal  to the Fringe for a limited run at Paradise in Augustines, in a production that tackles the musical’s complicated material with heart and sensitivity.   The musical opens on an early morning in the Goodman house, with parents Dan and Diana, daughter Natalie, and son Gabe all preparing for the day ahead: Gabe, home late after curfew, Natalie having pulled an all-nighter studying, and Dan and Diana finding a moment for physical intimacy. It all seems like an ordinary, if frenetic, sort of scene, until with a rushing build in the music Diana begins assembling sandwich after sandwich on the floor, losing herself in focus on the task until Dan pulls her back to reality. The company of Next to Normal. Pic: Ejay Freeman. This is the first overt crack in Diana’s façade, but it quickly crumbles. The audience...

Dogberry and Verges Are Scared –  ★★★★☆  – Clever Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Slippery Trout Productions 5-30 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   From Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Slippery Trout Productions, the world premiere of  Dogberry & Verges Are Scared  arrives at the Fringe clothed in equal parts reverence and irreverence, a Shakespeare-inspired romp in the best tradition of combining humour with moments of emotional clarity.   The title of the play is a riff on Tom Stoppard’s  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead , which follows the off-page misadventures of its titular minor characters throughout  Hamlet . Similarly,  Dogberry & Verges  follows its hapless protagonists through the backstage of  Much Ado About Nothing , where Hero, daughter of Leonato, the Governor of Messina, is supposed to be getting married— but someone has played a nasty trick, making her fiancé Claudio think her unfaithful and jilt her ...

Broadside –  ★★★☆☆  – Underdeveloped   April Alsup Productions 7-15 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Packing a fifteen-strong company into the intimate Willow Studio at Riddles Court, April Alsup’s  Broadside  asks its audience to consider an overlooked aspect of Revolutionary American history: the broadsides themselves, and how these short, printed documents acted as the social media networks of their day, spreading viral messages from hand to hand like wildfire.   The musical is an ambitious proposal, bringing with it a full-scale cast and weaving in traditional tunes (such as “The Liberty Song” and the ancient refrain of “Derry Down”) alongside creator Alsup’s original compositions. Unfortunately, however, it is the production’s great ambitions that are its greatest weakness. A scene from Broadside. Pic: April Alsup Productions.   Broadside ’s stated focus is intriguing, but the broadsides themselves get little more than a mention throughout the h...

 Brave Macbeth -  ★★★★★ - Smashin’ Assembly @ St Andrews Square (Venue 172): Fri 7 – Sun 30 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 7 Aug 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Captive Theatre romps into the Bijou tent at St. Andrew’s Square with  Smashing Shakespeare: Brave Macbeth , a children’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy that’s heavy on charm and cheek and entirely without condescension. Cutting Shakespeare for performance is always a tricky business, but trying to pack the entire story into one hour, make it intelligible and fun for little ones, and make it a musical? It’s a tall order, but Captivate comes through, stripping Shakespeare’s play back to the barest of bones, most essential characters, and highlights of plot points. Jorgey Scott-Learmouth, Lucy Pedersen, and Ollie Heimann. Pic: Captivate. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

The Hunchback of Notre Dame -  ★★★★★ - Splendimum Edinburgh Academy (Venue 70): Wed 5 – Sun 16 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 7 Aug 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Captivate Theatre tackle the towering stage adaptation of Menken & Schwartz’s  The Hunchback of Notre Dame  with scale, beauty, and outstanding commitment to a score that demands nothing less than divine inspiration.  Adapted from the Disney film, Hunchback centres on the story of Quasimodo, the bellringer of Notre Dame. The orphaned son of Jehan, the rogue younger brother of the cathedral’s Archdeacon Claude Frollo, Quasi has been taken in by his uncle and kept out of sight. Alex Fraser as Quasimodo. Pic: Rosie Sco. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !