Who Do Ya Love?, Sell Me, A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson, Cyrano and Janie Dee at 2024 Edinburgh Fringe

Who Do Ya Love?, Sell Me, A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson, Cyrano and Janie Dee

Getting into my stride on Day Three with six shows. Meta theatricality, strong women, gender-bending, lost little boys, activism, and musical hit-makers are amongst some of the common themes.

Cyrano ★★★★★

This Down Under hit adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, now receiving its European premiere, is a delight. Writer Victoria Gay, who also impresses in the gender-flipped title role, updates Rostand’s 19th-century French classic and strips it right back to its rom-com essence.

Here a six-strong cast – the love triangle aided by a scene-stealing chorus trio – capture the thrill of the chase, the pain of unrequited love, and the pulling power of language (not least in the balcony scene ventriloquence).

There are also music interludes, streamers and party hats. Even better, unlike the tragic original, no one goes off to war and – no spoilers – there is a happy ending.

Fave line: “What’s the job of a poet? To make something more obvious and less obvious at the same time.”

Traverse Theatre until 25 August 2024, then transferring to London’s Park Theatre 11 December-11 January.

Sell Me: I’m From North Korea ★★★★

There’s nothing subtle about the title of Sora Baek’s one-woman show – naming is a key part of marketing at the Fringe – but it’s a fair summary of what unfolds onstage. North Korean teenager Jisun is so desperate for money to buy medicine for her dying mother that she sells herself as a slave to a Chinese broker.

But once over the border, her starved body proves worthless. Her attempts to find food and safety and overcome years of brain-washing and Dear Leader devotion make for a harrowing watch.

Baek herself is a second-generation North Korean refugee, and the piece is inspired by other stories of real-life defections. She aims to raise awareness about the plight of North Koreans living under dictatorship

Pleasance Courtyard until 25 August 2024.

Janie Dee’s Beautiful World Cabaret ★★★★

Also on an awareness-raising mission is two-time Olivier Award winner Janie Dee. She had an epiphany performing Follies at the National Theatre while her children were on the streets marching for climate action.

She went on to found the London Climate Change Festival, programme Song for Nature for Sky Arts, and now use cabaret to further focus audience minds.

Fittingly, the hour starts with Dee’s spine-tingling rendition of On a Clear Day, followed by a mix of Sondheim, Shakespeare, dance and data illustrating how the planet’s clear days are numbered. Janie wants each of us to ask: How can each I live differently, more harmoniously with nature?

Pleasance Dome until 26 August 2024.

Who Do Ya Love? ★★★

Despite being American and long familiar with KC and the Sunshine Band, last week I would have struggled to name any of their hits. But, oh boy, did they crank out some dance floor classics: That’s The Way (I Like It), Give It Up, Please Don’t Go, Boogie Shoes.

And in an hour at Assembly George Square, those and about 16 more come at you thick and fast, performed to the highest vocal standard, with oodles of energy by the young cast, led as the eponymous KC by Fionán O’Carroll (who seems, to the delight of many in the audience, to spend long swathes in his underpants).

The audience needed little prompting to get up for the Get Down Tonight finale. Plotting, beyond exposition about musical conventions, will no doubt come later with any post-festival iterations.

Assembly George Square until 25 August 2024.

One-Man Musical ★★★★

I have a lot of affection for Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was US productions of Joseph, Phantom and Cats that first made me fall in love with theatre as a child. And, at a crucial point professionally, he and his wife Madeleine backed my theatre media business.

But it’s hard not to succumb to the mirth of musical comedy duo Flo and Joan’s pisstake. And George Fouracres as the man himself, performing opposite a bag of rice (yes, as in Tim), gives a stellar turn as modern Britain’s most renowned theatrical export.

Fave line: “He [Tim Rice] looked like a rock god, I looked like a rock collector.”

Pleasance Dome until 25 August 2024.

A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First ★★★★

What drew me to this new play about American boys growing into men as the Vietnam War looms on the horizon of their 18th birthdays?

According to the press release, it draws on co-writers and performers Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland’s “own upbringings in military families and being taught that the USA was the greatest country in the world”. This was my upbringing too as the daughter of a US Army soldier who served three tours in Vietnam.

This visceral two-hander, segueing from nostalgia to melancholy for lost innocence in a nano-second, struck a deep chord in me.

The Space at Niddry Street until 24 August 2024, then London’s King’s Head Theatre 4-14 September.