Entertainment Editor Liam Rudden picks his first three ‘Must See’ Edinburgh Fringe shows of 2019

AS the Capital’s theatres go dark in preparation for the annual show fest that is the Fringe, it’s time to start scanning those Fringe programmes in search of this year’s gems.
Jonathan Harvey, Frances Barber and Neil Tennant at BBC Radio 2Jonathan Harvey, Frances Barber and Neil Tennant at BBC Radio 2
Jonathan Harvey, Frances Barber and Neil Tennant at BBC Radio 2

Over the next three week’s I’ll be highlighting my own Picks of the Fringe for 2019.

Here are my first three ‘Must See’ shows coming to Edinburgh this August.

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A few years in the planning, Pet Shop Boys premiere their new musical cabaret featuring club hostess Billie Trix, a character that first appeared in their West End Musical Closer To Heaven.

In Musik, at the Assembly Rooms, (August 5-11, 13-24, 9.40pm), icon, rock star, screen goddess. and drug addict Billie has lived a life of excess and shares it all in her new one-woman show.

Her journey takes us from post-war Berlin to the rock arenas of the world, via the Vietnam war, Andy Warhol’s Factory, and a year in a Soho Square phone box.

Frances Barber reprises the role she created with outrageous script by Jonathan Harvey and six original songs by Pet Shop Boys.

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Taggart creator, Edinburgh born Glenn Chandler has made a name for himself in recent years at the Fringe as an award-winning playwright and theatre director.

For 2019 he brings his latest play, The Good Scout, to The Space at Surgeons Hall (August 2-12, 14-24, 8.20pm)

Inspired by true events it gives an unexpected snapshot of life in the Thirties.

In the 1930s, Baden-Powell and Von Ribbentrop, Hitler’s ambassador, decreed that British boy scouts and Hitler Youth should learn from one another.

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In Bassington, England, the local troop play host to a cycling party of Hitlerjugend - but are the German boys cyclists or “spyclists”?

For Will and Jacob, two Rover Scouts on the cusp of manhood, it is a visit that will change their lives forever.

As war looms, a heart-wrenching, darkly humorous drama about espionage, scout’s honour and forbidden love unfolds.

On a lighter note, ‘National Treasure’ Christoper Biggins is heading to the Fringe this year to request the pleasure of you company at Late Lunch with Biggins, a chat show at the Pleasance Dome (July 31,August 1-13, 15-25, 2.40pm)

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Join the larger than life actor and celebrity as he chats with friends old and new along with a few discreet (and perhaps a few indiscreet) tales from his life and career. Is the I’m a Celebrity King of the Jungle is set to become The King of the Fringe?

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