OUTTA THE BOOKS Comes to the Edinburgh Festival Digital Fringe Next Month

Outta The Books is a new innovative family show combining pop music with classic fairy tales to bring storytelling to the streaming generation.

Coming to the 2021 Edinburgh Festival Fringe digital stage in August, Outta The Books will retell these classic tales in a full-length online show featuring a series of four-minute StorySongs sung by some of musical theatre's most exciting performers, including Hamilton star Karl Queensborough.

Families are led into the magical world of Once Upon A Time, guided by the musical characters they find within. This intriguing bunch include Trixie the Witch, C Major the Wolf, Melody the Blue Fairy and the Librarian, a magical cat who brings the band together on a quest to save her library of beloved fairy tales from disappearing.

In a flash of inspiration, The Librarian at The Treasury Of Tales - where every fairy tale is catalogued and stored - has launched a kingdom-wide talent search to discover a spellbinding performer to turn classics like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and The Ugly Duckling into great songs.

By using the power of music and the wisdom of fairy tales, Outta The Books helps kids answer universal questions like - What is right? What is fair? How can I be a good person? Why do I feel like this today?

Inspired by the timeless themes of hope, friendship and bravery found in these tales, award winning composer and producer Brian Banks set to work developing a fun and unique way for these themes to be explored by a new generation.

Fairy tales are an invaluable resource which invite both children and adults alike to look again at how we can best work together as a society. "As we get more and more influenced by social media, and glued to our phones - lost in our own private, anonymous worlds, we forget that we are part of a bigger society," Banks explains, "Fairy tales remind us of who we are as people in a society, how societies should work, and teach us to embrace the unfamiliar and the unexpected."

Originally set to debut as a live one-hour musical at last year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe which was sadly cancelled due to the pandemic, the StorySongs production team quickly transformed Outta The Books into an engaging online show - perfect for at home teaching and play.

The team worked tirelessly across different continents using Zoom to write and produce the series and are delighted to finally be bringing it to the Edinburgh Festival Digital Fringe, where viewers can enjoy the series as a full-length online show for the first time.

Through catchy songs and spellbinding characters Outta The Books explores the human experience, capturing love, loss, independence and honesty in a funny, empowering and uplifting show.

Outta The Books is available on demand for free from Friday 6 August to Monday 30 August on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Digital Stage.

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