Amy Hanson - Page 5

Four young singers in an American close harmony group - the eponymous Plaids - were killed in a car accident just as their careers were taking off, and as their style of music was about to give way to the British Invasion of the Beatles.  The quartet are given the chance to return to earth for one night only to give the concert they never got a chance to perform.  This is the idea behind Forever Plaid, a musical revue that premiered off-Broadway in the late eighties, and which now comes to Edinburgh.

Pub quizzes, that delightful hallmark of British drinking culture and the ruin of many a friendship, perhaps so popular because they appeal to our desperate need to be celebrated for being a know-it-all.  It is this form of entertainment that has inspired Alex Love's show at The Stand this year.  Part stand-up, part quiz show, How to Win a Pub Quiz is an hour of trivia and laughs.

If you've ever thought that what the fringe needs is a room full of people cheering numbers on a rolling dice, then your search is over. Paul Flannery, known to nerdy Fringe-goers as Treguard from Knightmare Live, is our guide through an hour of role-playing and comedy in The MMORPG Show.  MMORPG, or Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game, is something of a misnomer in the title, as this is usually applied to the likes of World of Warcraft or Everquest.  Instead, this production is far more in the vein of Dungeons and Dragons and other dice-based tabletop role-playing games.

Axis of Awesome, the Australian comedy rockers behind such viral hit songs as '4 Chords', return to the Fringe after a two year break with their latest show Won't Ever Not Stop Giving Up.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Hector Hugh Munro, better known as Saki, a writer of delightfully improper short stories with all the wit of Oscar Wilde. His life and death are commemorated in a new play written by Katherine Rundell and brought to the Fringe by Atticist Productions.

Truly, playing to the Buzzfeed generation of nostalgia fans seems to be a winning theme at the Fringe, with Get Your Own Back: Live! following in the footsteps of the likes of Knightmare Live with a live action Edinburgh show.  Complete with Benson Phillips at the helm, who seems hardly changed from childhood memories, all neon shirts and wisecracks and demonstrating all the energy and charm that made him a hit first time round, this is a show Fringe goers of a certain age are flocking to experience.

You awake to find yourself in Edinburgh in August.  What do you do?  Well, if you're the sort of person who enjoys innovative, interactive, nerdy comedy, you go to see John Robertson's The Dark Room: Symphony of a Floating Head.  

2015 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the end of 1984/5 miners' strike, an event that has left a huge social legacy and provided a rich seam of material for many artistic works since, including both the film and musical versions of Billy Elliot, and Matthew Warchus' wonderful 2014 hit Pride.  It's fair to say that Undermined has big boots to fill, but it certainly manages to stand tall in them.

Probably the most meta-theatrical musical ever made, Title of Show, or [title of show] as it is often represented, tells the story of its own creation.  Two friends want to enter the New York Musical Theatre Festival, but the deadline is only three weeks away, so they begin to jot down whatever they say, rope in a couple of actress friends, and set out to achieve their Broadway dream.  In other words, it's a musical about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical.  

Tony's Last Tape, by Andy Barrett, takes style and situation from Krapp's Last Tape, and reinvents it by replacing its protagonist with the late great left-wing legend Tony Benn.  One might be justified in imagining that the Edinburgh Fringe is the only place you could expect to see a show melding Samuel Beckett to the life of a veteran (what they call socialists when they're old and dead according to the central character) Labour MP, but the Nottingham Playhouse production has already had successful runs in both Nottingham and London before arriving in Edinburgh this August.

After a TV appearance on Faking It where he learned the magician's craft from the likes of Penn and Teller, Kevin McMahon abandoned his career as a scientific researcher to astound and amaze the public with spellbinding illusions.  Now, his former occupation is making a comeback in his Fringe show Quantum Magic, bringing together magic with maths and physics

You don't have to be enough of a Trekkie to know your Romulans from your Cardassians to enjoy it, as it's a show that will resonate with anyone who has ever had a passionate appreciation for something.  However, for those of us who always wanted to go where no one has gone before, What Would Spock Do? is the only logical show to see at the Fringe this year.

The noted Australian comic and celebrated American indie wrestler reunite for another month of snarking at the worst of sports entertainment in the show with the longest and most literal title on the Fringe: Brendon Burns and Colt Cabana Sit in a F*cking Yurt at 11pm and Provide Comedy and Commentary to Bad Wrestling Matches

Have you noticed loud groans emanating from the area of the Assembly Rooms this month?   No doubt that's down to the fabulously deadpan Stewart Francis, as seen on Mock the Week and Live at the Apollo, who is bringing his painfully hilarious oneliners and shameless puns to the Fringe in his latest show, Pun Gent.

Aptly introduced by the cast as an hour of 'singing, dancing and titting about', this two man musical comedy takes it name from the viral music video hit of the pre-YouTube era, praising the many virtues of the ZX Spectrum and its ilk.

The Bumper Blyton Improvised Adventure uses audience suggestions to inspire an improvised performance in the style of the English pre-war middle class adventures where a group of kids are unable to set foot outside their front door without being drawn into a range of implausible situations, while still getting home in time for tea.

Zanna, Don't is your typical high school rom com, with a slight twist.  There are all the traditional elements - quarterbacks and queen bees, cliques and crushes - but in the upside-down universe of Zanna, Don't, chess players are sex symbols, musical theatre is super cool, and gay relationships are the norm.

Improvisation is a tricky thing to get right on stage, but what happens when you also have to improvise full band accompaniments, a cappella harmonies and dance routines? The Showstoppers, a talented troupe of improvisers as heard on BBC Radio Four, manage to do just that in their show at the Pleasance Courtyard.

A tribute and a continuation of the famous Scottish classic The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil, this new work from Caught Red-Handed is a fun and engaging trip through recent Scottish history.

A fresh and funny take on the show within a show concept, The Drowsy Chaperone is a delightful treat for anyone with a fondness for showtunes. A love letter to the musical theatre form, it is full of immediately likeable tunes and marvellous jokes that draw on both a pitch-perfect parody of old time musicals and more than a dash of post-modern humour, in a combination that is as much heartwarming as it is hilarious.