Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023 – Hollywoodn’t

Fresh faced Midwestern actress, Lisa Verlo, came to Hollywood looking for fame but found more action on casting couches than onstage.

Decades later, with help from imaginary mentors, Katharine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, Lisa faces the truth about abandoning dreams in her humorous, heartfelt, and poignant musical solo show HOLLYWOODN’T. The world prefers to focus on stories about monstrous predators who violate young maidens. But what of the golden boys, the gentlemen predators, and the women who don’t know they’ve been screwed until much later? This is that story.

WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY 

LISA VERLO

DIRECTED AND DEVELOPED WITH 

Elizabeth Kaye Sortun

SONGS CO-WRITTEN WITH 

FRANK SIMES

A WORLD PREMIERE

Lisa Verlo is a writer, performer, and lyricist whose songs have been featured in film and television. After studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Los Angeles, and with Sandra Seacat in her workshops around the world, she took to the road doing performance art and touring the poetry circuit in her vintage VW bus. Lisa returned to LA to record albums of spoken word and song. Verlo teamed up with musician Frank Simes, who has toured as guitarist and musical director with The Who, Roger Daltrey, Mick Jagger, Don Henley, and Stevie Nicks, and was a composer for Paramount TV. Verlo and Simes have been collaborating on music, multimedia, and musical theatre, including The Door, The Big Strum Theory, and HOLLYWOODN’T. Lisa is currently putting finishing touches on her memoir, the book version of HOLLYWOODN’T.

Frank Simes (Music co-writer) is a Grammy-nominated and platinum-record awarded composer, musician, and record producer. Frank is The Who’s musical director and multi-instrumentalist. He was Don Henley’s musical director and cowriter, and has recorded and performed with Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Stevie Nicks, and Roger Daltrey. Simes has composed over 1,500 pieces of music foralbums, scores for TV and film, and commercials. Along with the collaborative work Frank did with Lisa on Sex Rated G and HOLLYWOODN’T,
the team also co-authored the book and music for their original musical 

  • Dates: 2 – 27 August 2022 
  • Show: Hollywoodn’t
  • Venue: Gilded Balloon: Nightclub
  • Address: Teviot Raw House, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9AJ  
  • Time: 4pm
  • Price: £8.50 preview, £12.50 (11.50) off peak and £12.50 (11.50) peak
  • Box office: www.edfringe.com / www.gildedballoon.co.uk / 0131 622 6555