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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Chris Wiegand

Fairytales pending: the fringe musicals hoping to live happily ever after

Four actresses from Bliss sing joyfully in colorful period costumes on stage. Alexandra Emmerson-Kirby, Miriam Nyarko, Akshara Gunda, Matilda Shapland
Empowered princesses … (l-r) Alexandra Emmerson-Kirby, Miriam Nyarko, Akshara Gunda, Matilda Shapland in Bliss. Photograph: Marc Brenner

The Edinburgh fringe is mostly where new work is forged but that’s not the full picture. Amid all the hot-off-the-press shows are a number of familiar titles that have been around for years yet are only making their professional UK debut now. That’s the case with two fairytale musical productions hoping for a longer life whose festival run is a chance to engineer that happily ever after.

Bliss, co-created by Tyler Beattie and Emma Lively, won a new play award in the US in 2019 and had its world premiere in Seattle the year after. A handful of its songs were released in 2022. Now developed into what is billed as “the biggest new musical of the Edinburgh fringe”, it has a cast of 17 which exceeds regular fringe proportions – as does the running time (80 minutes rather than the standard hour).

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