Heading into the weekend and wondering what’s actually unmissable at the Fringe this year? Whether you’ve got tickets to Oasis or not, these are three shows I think you should carve out time for.
One week into EdFringe 2025, and I’ve already reviewed 42 pretty amazing shows. Unusually, none have been ‘in need a lot of work’ (and long may this streak last!). But even in such a strong year, three shows stand out as the best of the best.
Liam Withnail: Big Strong Boy
One of the first shows I saw this year, and one of the best. Liam Withnail’s 18th anniversary Stand-Up celebration of running away (to Edinburgh) from home, aged 18, is a very special hour of comedy. Sharply observed, highly self-aware, completely hilarious and uplifting, Big Strong Boy is deep, meaningful, and laugh-out-loud funny. I cannot recommend it more strongly.
I wrote in my review, “And there we have it, the first (and hopefully not last) perfect show of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Liam Withnail, who, to my shame, I have never seen in action before, is a sensational comedian. Aside from that, he is a deeply likeable human being, with a rare ability to connect with an audience.”
Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares
Maybe the biggest star in town this year – and that includes Oasis as far as I’m concerned. Tony Award winner Laura Benanti’s musical autobiography is utterly dazzling. Star power is often talked about, and rarely experienced with such force. Her wry sense of humour spares no one, particularly herself, and her history as an obsessive people-pleaser has provided her with a clutch of eyebrow-raising, hilarious, and often excruciating stories. When she breaks into song, armed with a witty songbook co-composed with Todd Almond, sit back and watch a master at work.
I wrote in my review, “…in the end, Laura Benanti has good, old-fashioned star power. It shines from every pore, pulling the audience in to every word, every note, every wink. The show will receive standing ovations at every performance, and deserves every last one.”
Ordinary Decent Criminal
Actor-Comedian Mark Thomas and Playwright Ed Edwards make a theatrical marriage made in heaven with this punchy, propulsive study of crime, punishment and rebellion. Thomas’s bravura performance brings small-time drug dealer and would-be author, Frankie to life, just in time for him to grab a prison sentence. What he finds inside is a compact model of the power structures suppressing life, love, and liberty beyond the prison bars. When Frankie begins to rediscover his activist past, revolution is on the cards.
I wrote in my review, “It’s a story that grips you from first to last, offering characters to care for and a life story shaded with hair-raising drama, comedy shaded from grey to gallows, and underpinned by a fundamental belief in the power of rebellion.”
Featured Image: Clockwise from top right: Liam Witnail Big Strong Boy, Ordinary Decent Criminal, Laura Benanti Nobody Cares
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