Having already seen Peter Marchant take on Freddie Mercury in Night Owl’s The Legend of Queen, I was intrigued to see what he would do with another of rock music’s most distinctive performers. The answer is something rather different, and wisely so.
Night Owl Shows’ The Bowie Story is not an impersonation. Marchant makes little attempt to reproduce all those flamboyant, flowery twists Bowie could introduce into a vocal line. His delivery is straighter and very much his own, allowing the songs to speak for themselves while the show traces the extraordinary succession of transformations that defined Bowie’s career.
Marchant is in great form towards the end of this Fringe run, and he is surrounded by musicians operating at the top of their game. The playing throughout is excellent, as is the sound balance. In particular, Marchant’s vocal is beautifully crisp and clear, sitting perfectly above the band.
Between songs, he provides an engagingly written journey through Bowie’s life, charting the transformations into Ziggy Stardust, the darker period of addiction, the move to Berlin and the remarkable sequence of reinventions that followed. There is a lot to fit into 50 minutes, but the biographical material gives some context to songs that, for much of this audience, already carry decades of memories.
And this is certainly a trip down memory lane. Looking around Symposium Hall, the demographic suggests that quite a few of us remember this music first time around.
A particular highlight is the stripped-back Life on Mars? With Marchant accompanied only by keyboards, there is nowhere for the voice to hide. It is an exposed choice and an effective one, demonstrating that underneath all the storytelling and rock-show trappings there is a very fine singer here.
My one reservation is the lighting. Symposium Hall is one of the nicest and most comfortable venues I have visited this Fringe, but I would prefer the performance lighting to be considerably more directional. The general wash leaves too much of the audience visible when I would rather see the room fall into darkness and the focus pulled firmly towards Marchant and his musicians.
It is a relatively small criticism. Night Owl know how to put these musical biographies together, and by this stage of the run the band are playing with the assurance of musicians who know precisely where everyone else is going.
Marchant doesn’t try to become David Bowie, and I think the show is stronger for it. Instead, he and some excellent musicians celebrate the songs while giving us enough of the man, the changes and the contradictions behind them to make this more than simply another greatest hits set.
With Space Oddity, Life on Mars? Heroes, Ashes to Ashes, Let’s Dance and all the good stuff to draw upon, the source material isn’t exactly shabby.
If you’re a Bowie fan, what’s not to like?
Playing until August 30th 2026, https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/2026BOWIEST
Reviewer: Greg Holstead
Reviewed: 27th August 2026
North West End UK / Theatre Muse UK Rating:
Running time – 50mins
Emma or Emily, written and directed by Moon Kim, with music by Ábel Misha Gille…
On Thursday evening, I sat for an hour at the Hull Truck Theatre, watching three…
Take a chance on the fantastic touring production of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ ‘Mamma…
Some Explicit Polaroids, written by Mark Ravenhill and directed for Tower Theatre by Nick Edwards,…
Sufficient Merit is a new play by Emma Paige Baker. This short play focusses in…
Last night I had the delight of being invited along to the wonderful Leeds Playhouse…