Greg Holstead, Author at North West End UK

The Grand Old Opera House Hotel – Traverse Theatre

18Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Grand Old Opera House Hotel – Traverse Theatre

A technical Tour De Force, and certainly the most lavish production by the Traverse at this year’s Fringe, with a knock-out set and costumes by Ana Ines Jabares-Pita . Set in an old haunted Opera house, turned 21st century hotel we follow, Aaron (Ali Watt) who has just started working at the hotel, but quickly discovers that hidden just beneath the magnolia painted walls lies the original spook-ridden opera house. It is not long before he meets and falls in love with a strange opera-singing girl, Amy (the wonderfully gifted Karen Fishwick) and he also finds his own opera voice. Once the ghosts and the guests all find their singing voices the real fun starts, let the panto-farce-opera commence. There is some hilarious re-wording of opera favourites, which at least some of the audi...

Otto & Astrid’s Joint Solo Project – Assembly George Square Gardens

18Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Otto & Astrid’s Joint Solo Project – Assembly George Square Gardens

A stunning little music tent with beautiful raked, ancient timber and leather curved seating, in a prime time slot in a perfect location, what could possibly go wrong. Well, no audience for one! Maybe it is the wordy title or perhaps a total lack of self-publicity, I don’t think they care one way or the other, because they are going to have fun! If they can just sort out Astrid’s Public Liability Insurance! And that is the attitude that carries through the show: Anarchic, chaotic and absurd fun. Come ready to rock out to their latest anthems, ‘I Want To Be Your Kitten’, and ‘Tasty Snack’, with hilarious lyrics sung to a heavy metal soundtrack, and some very funny moments. I hope you are getting this picture, because it is not exactly easy to sum up! This is a hidden gem of a show...

Magic Bones: Soulful Magic Volume Two – Underbelly Bristo Square

17Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Magic Bones: Soulful Magic Volume Two – Underbelly Bristo Square

This venue, squeezed in the gap between Teviot Hall and McEwan Hall at Bristo Square is slightly awkward to find, but well worth seeking out for this hit show by all-rounder Richard Essien, AKA Magic Bones. With a triple threat of magic, humour and break-dance, Essien brings this brand new show to Edinburgh fringe, and by the end has the audience eating out of his hand. Britain’s Got Talent finalist in 2020, described there as ‘the, best-presented magic act I’ve ever seen’, Essien gives a unique mixture of high octane, high energy, but in turns gentle and transfixing performance, which has you leaning in right from the start. One of the hottest acts on the British magic scene, we are treated to plenty of top quality extraordinary tricks, illusions and misdirection, flips and danc...

Julia Bullock & Bretton Brown – The Queens Hall

17Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Julia Bullock & Bretton Brown – The Queens Hall

Julia Bullock is an American Soprano, from Missouri, the New York Times have described as, ‘An impressive, fast-rising soprano…poised for a significant career’. This was a real concert of two halves, the first section being more classical and almost funereal in places, and the second after the interval, being much more lyrical and almost playful, albeit with a serious message. And perhaps pointing towards the dual personality of Bullock herself; extremely serious about her music, with many years of Classical training, on the one hand but clearly also very passionately involved with the plight of sisterhood and Black America. I particularly liked the tenderly sung, Billy Holliday number, ‘Our Love Is Different’, which also included some beautiful Jazz solos by pianist Bretto...

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Mariza – Festival Theatre

Despite the language barrier there is no doubt at all that this is a heck of a show, and a display of superlative singing power and grace, from the statuesque Portuguese star Mariza returning to the Edinburgh International Festival in style after a ten year hiatus. At times dropping the mic and singing without amplification in the vast hall, shows the immense power of her voice, and her confidence in it. Singing songs in Portuguese, in the Fado (translated as destiny or fate in Portuguese) tradition, a style thought to have originated in Lisbon in the 1820s, often associated with pubs and cafes, and renowned for its expressive and profoundly melancholic character. Launching into Loucura, the first song from her first album all of 24 years ago, she reminisces that at that time the...

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Macbeth – Greenside @ Infirmary Street

Gosh! Where to start on this highly unpleasant Macbeth mash-up. This is my 3rd instalment of my Macbeth marathon of the Fringe and an undoubted low point. Comparison is a wonderful tool! But at least you got one star! That’s for your Macbeth, the undoubted star of this particular show, who shone with hope and ambition in a sea of troubles. Unfortunately, there is no possibility to name-check said star because you didn’t care enough to provide that information! A show which shows no hand of a director, and the barest story and which has actors crossing each other, talking in unintelligible whispers with their back to the audience, and generally running around like headless chickens. A show which shows scant respect for their paying audience or for the craft of acting. Adding to...

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Intimacy – The Space @ Venue 45

This new two women play from writer, Sarah Nelson (Letter to Bodda) for Watershed Productions, sees Chloe in search of answers to female sexuality (or more likely her own), for her Masters thesis, and Nel as her more than willing, and highly experienced, respondent. The two actors come with significant credentials and are both excellent, Chloe is played by Caitlin O'Ryan – Lizzie Wemyss in the international TV hit Outlander. Nel is played by Imogen Greenwood, the writer and producer of award-winning film Natural Causes. In something of a cat and mouse performance it is never quite clear where this is going, or how it will end, until the final climax, where it all comes together with a bit of an aha moment of realisation. The linear Q & A structure is initially limiting and...

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Anna Vanosi Jazz Trio – The Jazz Bar

Escaping the bagpipes, the ticket pushers, the crowds and the traffic, to rest at peace for a quick hour and bathe in a little pool of jazz bliss with the Italian Diva herself, Anna Vanosi is just about perfect. Set below ground in the subterranean bunker that is The Jazz Bar, near the Museum, in Central Edinburgh’s melee, Vanosi ushered us through quite a quick catalogue of songs, mostly above love or lost love in the language of love, Italian. And some in the much less romantic English. Either language was fine with me, Vanosi’s voice was nectar in both. This is Vanosi’s second show at the Fringe this year, at the same venue, having completed a run of shows last week entitled, Late Bloomers Tales, which I also thoroughly enjoyed, but in a different way. The previous show is ...

Letter To Boddah – The Space @ Surgeons Hall

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Letter To Boddah – The Space @ Surgeons Hall

Taking inspiration from Kurt Kurbain’s suicide note to his imaginary friend Boddah, characters Billy (Kyle Fisher) and Tink (Jordan Reece) must decide whether to continue with their ill-conceived plan to explode a bomb in Tescos, killing themselves and countless other shoppers, or man -up and return to the reality of their dull and pointless existence. Kurbain finished his famous final note with the mantra that it is Better to Burn out than fade away, and that’s the big question at the heart of this explosive piece by writer, Sarah Nelson for Watershed Productions. Can Tink really blow up the nice lady on the hot food counter, who gave him an extra chicken drumstick, and does he really want to blow himself up on the day that his mum is cooking steak and kidney pudding, his favourite?...

The Billy Joel Story – The Space @ Surgeons Hall

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Billy Joel Story – The Space @ Surgeons Hall

A fantastic night of live music from artist Angus Munro, who channels the life and music of the Piano Man himself, Billy Joel. This is a brand new show for the Night Owl franchise, delivered in their winning docu-style formula, and works particularly well with the animated Munro filling in the blanks and projecting video and playing audio clips from Joel’s back story. There may have been a bit of roughness around the edges in some areas, but what saves this is the level of goofy, likeable humour that Munro brings, he actually reminds me a little of Jim Carey. There is also the superb musicianship of the Night Owl band, who are as usual fantastic and note perfect. Don’t expect a full concert with a grand piano, this is no more than a morsel, a quick flick through the back catalogu...