There is something stirring at the heart of Edinburgh Days, a new sung-through musical that plants its feet in 19th-century Scotland and tries to tell a story of love, loss and survival against the hardships of the city. It has ambition and flashes of real quality. It also has problems.
The creative team is a serious one, Edinburgh-born composer Brian Spence, director Bob Tomson (Blood Brothers), and choreographer Caroline Inglis. That pedigree shows in places: the Celtic-rock inflected score gives the show its own colour, and some of the cast deliver performances of real power. Debbie McKenna, as Mary, is outstanding, a husky-voiced presence who can belt with thrilling intensity. She grounds her character with emotional truth, and her songs are some of the evening’s highlights. Colin Chisholm, as the menacing MacGregor, is equally compelling: his sly asides to the audience, Fagin-like in style, give the show a thread of menace and humour, while his voice opens up magnificently in the later numbers.
The problem, though, is structure. Where Les Misérables has revolution, justice and redemption to hang its anthems on, Edinburgh Days has smaller, more domestic themes: prostitution, exploitation, survival. These are human and important, but the lack of a galvanising narrative means the show never quite generates the epic sweep it is aiming for. Too many songs feel like character studies rather than story engines. As a result, the emotional momentum falters.
Technical issues compounded matters. On the night I attended, microphones repeatedly failed, either cutting out, falling off, or howling into static. The production started twenty minutes late, with the director apologising in advance for the sound. That might be forgivable in week one of the Fringe, in week three it just looks amateurish. I’ve reviewed sixty shows this August and not one of them has had technical problems on this scale. To suffer them with reviewers in the room is frankly inexcusable.
And yet, there is something here. Several songs lodged in the memory, the performers gave it their all, and the attempt to root a big, sung-through musical in Edinburgh’s own history is bold. The show clearly has legs: with stronger narrative clarity, sharper lyric writing, more ensemble power, and a professional technical setup, it could grow into something genuinely special.
Right now, it feels underdeveloped. But if the team can learn from this run, strengthen the book, and match the ambition of their score with the scale of their themes, Edinburgh Days could become more than just another Fringe experiment. It could be a Scottish story with universal appeal.
19:30 Daily Till 24th August
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/2025EDINBUC
Reviewer: Greg Holstead
Reviewed: 18th August 2025
North West End UK Rating:
Running time – 2hr 15mins (with interval)
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