Listings Mon 11 – Sun 17 Sept 2023
What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week?
The post festival hiatus continues with very little in the way of theatrical pickings on offer this week with the biggest and almost the only show in town the arrival of the big touring Broadway production of The King and I.
There is also a quartet of one-day wonders, although no straight theatre. Instead there is conversation and laughs for fans of Still Game, tunes for Doris Day fans, more conversational comedy for Lynn Ferguson fans and for those who like big guitar licks, an evening of rock anthems.
Annalene Beechey and Jose Llana in the 2019 tour of The King and I. Pic: Johan Persson
The King and I (tickets here) is at the Playhouse all week, Tuesday to Saturday. It sees the first of a four-week residency with the touring production of Broadway star Brian Rivera, who has been in the Lincoln Center production and US Tour of the show. He reprises the title role of The King of Siam in Edinburgh and then in Plymouth, Woking and Oxford.
Rivera joins Annalene Beechey who is reprising the role of Anna Leonowens – the ‘I’ of the title – which she played when the show was in town in 2018, in a production which our reviewer said “deserves to be remembered for years to come” (★★★★★ Fit for a King).
There’s a load of local interest on stage in the show on Friday and Saturday, when local Edinburgh girl, Nikita Wong, will feature in the cast as one of the Royal children.
Doris Day fans should head for the Church Hill Theatre on Sunday afternoon for Que Sera Sera (tickets here), a musical celebration of her life from professional touring company EHP Theatre. Tickets don’t appear to be selling like hot cakes, so you can probably pick up on the two for one deal if you act fast.
Still game
Followers of Still Game are in for a braw treat at the Festival Theatre on Wednesday with People Huv Tae Know (tickets here). There’s almost a surfeit of talent on stage, with Gavin Mitchell, Paul Riley, Sanjeev Kohli, Jane McCarry and Mark Cox (that’s Craiglang’s Boabby, Winston, Navid, Isa and Tam).
Astonishingly it is 21 years since Still Game first hit Scotland’s TV screens – 26 years since it stepped up from a Pulp Video, sketch to become a full-blown Edinburgh Fringe show. This is a chance to join the faces behind the make-up as the five celebrate and share memories of the award-winning comedy. There will be prizes, apparently, for the best dressed audience members…
Mark Cox, Gavin Mitchell, Paul Riley, Jane McCarry and Sanjeev Kohli on stage in People Huv Tae Know. Pic: Derek Gerrard Photography.
Still at the Festival Theatre, Thursday is a chance to whip out and dust off your old Air Guitars with The Ultimate Classic Rock Show (tickets here). And down in Musselburgh, Lynn Ferguson is at Loretto School (tickets here) on Saturday, with her confessional show Storyland.
Listing
Click on the Book here link or the name of the show to go to its ticketing site.
Church Hill Theatre
33 Morningside Road, EH10 4DR.
Que Sera Sera
Sun 17 Sept 2023.
One show 2.30pm.
A show that pays homage to Doris Day, celebrating the lady and the music as it takes its audience on a factual musical timeline through Doris Day’s career in music and film. They start at the beginning of her career during the big band days and then take you on a ‘Sentimental Journey’ to the Hollywood movies that made her the legend that is Doris Day. Book here.
The Brunton @ Loretto School
Loretto School Theatre, Millhill, Musselburgh. Phone booking: 0131 665 2240
Lynn Ferguson’s Storyland (Gilded Balloon)
Sat 16 Sept 2023.
Evening 7.30pm (Loretto School Theatre).
Award winning, writer, performer, Moth host, professional show off and voice of Scottish plasticine chicken, Lynn with the help of the audience shows how the casual tales we tell reveal who we really are. Part chat show. Part stand up. Part confessional, and 99.9% honest. Book here.
Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
People Huv Tae Know
Wed 13 Sept 2023
Evening: 7.30pm.
Craiglang’s Boabby, Winston, Navid, Isa, and Tam first graced our television screens twenty years ago! Join the faces behind the make-up as the five friends get together on stage to celebrate and share memories of Scotland’s award-winning comedy Still Game. Book here.
The Ultimate Classic Rock Show
Fri 15 Sept 2023
Evening: 7.30pm.
Dust off your air guitars for an evening of the very best classic rock anthems from legends past and present… A roller coaster of classic rock nostalgia, performing hit after hit, live with stunning accuracy and high energy accompanied by an incredible light and projection show. Book here.
Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014
The King and I
Tue 12 – Sat 16 Sept 2023
Evenings: 7.30pm; Mats Thurs, Sat: 2.30pm.
The multi award-winning Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I returns to the UK, following its critically-acclaimed sold out season at The London Palladium. The greatest musical from the golden age of musicals – with one of the finest scores ever written. Book here.
ENDS
