With the world’s largest arts festival returning to Edinburgh next week, we’ve taken a look at the best musical shows coming to town for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
From break-ups and banjos to Danes and drag queens, we’re showcasing 14 unmissable musical shows for you to enjoy at this year’s Fringe, including a tribute to Elton John.
See the gallery below for the best musical treats on offer at the Fringe this year, including a composer and soloist from Seoul, a banjo player, a pop act, and a collection of drag superstars including Gigi Zahir, who is in Edinburgh fresh from supporting American pop superstar Chappell Roan.
1. Penelope
Penelope waited 20 years for Odysseus to return from the Trojan War. Now she's ready to share her side of the story – but she’s going to need a drink first. Starring Broadway’s 'phenomenal' Grace McLean (New York Times), this contemporary chamber musical brings one of history's greatest epics to life through a Richard Rodgers Award-winning folk-pop score. Sharp, funny and unexpectedly moving, this is The Odyssey as Penelope always meant it to be told. Penelope, at Underbelly Cowgate, Belly Button. 3.45pm, August 5-30. | Michelle Mangan Communications and PR
2. The Breakup Variety Hour
A glitter-soaked, pop-powered one-woman experience tracing the six steps of getting over heartbreak through live music, comedy, and immersive storytelling. Equal parts concerts, comedy and cabaret catharsis, with interactive moments and anthem-level energy. With interactive moments, big pop hooks and a sense of shared experience, The Breakup Variety Hour invites audiences to see themselves in the story - and maybe even dance their way through it. The Breakup Variety Hour, at Assembly George Square Studios, Studio Four, 5.20pm, August 5-31. | Lara Callahan
3. PLASTIC
Minyoung Kim is a composer and soloist from Seoul, who combines geomungo, a traditional Korean string instrument, with jeongga, traditional Korean singing based on poetry and electronic music. PLASTIC is her solo project first presented in 2025, in which she explores the contradictions of human beings: their fragility and, at the same time, their immense potential, offering a modern and updated version of traditional Korean music with accompanying psychedelic projection. PLASTIC, at Summerhall, Anatomy Lecture Theatre, 8.45pm, August 6-31. | Michelle Mangan Communications and PR
4. Blackbox
The new show from the team behind last year’s Dreamscape. A play disguised as a magic show where history and illusion intertwine. Enslaved in America, Henry 'Box' Brown conjures his life and re-enacts his daring 1849 escape when he shipped himself to freedom inside a wooden crate. Each illusion mirrors a chapter of his journey: love, loss, confinement, faith and defiance. Gospel-infused soundscapes and stagecraft transform the theatre into a site of both sanctuary and reckoning. As boxes appear, vanish and break apart, Henry's story becomes more than spectacle; it becomes testimony, inviting audiences to witness liberation not as legend but as lived and embodied resistance. Blackbox, at Underbelly Cowgate Belly Button, 12.40pm, August 5-30. | Jason Sullivan