Playing Dungeons And Dragons may make you uncool to some, but to others it’s the coolest thing you can ever do: exploring new worlds, fighting dragons, having a project with your friends that can span for years! The only issue is, the D&D life style doesn’t always suit those around you and eventually real life is going to threaten to get in the way. For this group of soon to be graduates that’s exactly what’s about to happen.
Here There Be Dragons: A Musical Quest is a brand new musical centred around a group of young adults who are all about to graduate college and play their final game of D&D together. We get to see the true thrill of the game and the undeniable cringe that can come with it from an outsiders point of view. We get to see the confidence playing another creature/ person can bring some people and the flip side of it all: the effect a prolonged campaign can have on your relationships outside of the game. When a proposal goes wrong and a breakup ensues the team of brilliant nerds decide to change their finale quest and make it all about getting that relationship back. Through friendship and their own imaginations they battle goblins (security guards), an evil wizard (a party DJ) and their own insecurities and secrets in this feel good and hilarious musical.
The music in this show is well written and enjoyable and the casts impressive vocals serve to bring it to life. The script is also very well written and flows well. Over all this musical shows real potential, as does it’s young performers, unfortunately the actors needed to strain their voices to be heard over the overpoweringly loud music and so we missed some of the lyrics here and there, although this is something that would be very easily fixed by turning the backing music down or supplying the cast with microphones.
This a very talented cast, and they should feel incredibly proud of the product that they have created. The musical itself is fun, witty and shows a lot of potential and I hope to see it return in the future and go on to bigger and better things. If you’re a fellow D&D nerd like myself then you will love this little musical.
Here There Be Dragons plays until the 10th August at Greenside @ Riddles Court – Thistle Theatre every day at 20:00.
Buy Tickets at: Here There Be Dragons: A Musical Quest | Theatre | Edinburgh Festival Fringe (edfringe.com)
Reviewer: Beth Eltringham
Reviewed: 6th August 2024
North West End UK Rating: