From can-cans to cowboy boots, dying swans to Barry and Frida “doing it”, there’s music, drama and laughter galore on Edinburgh’s stage this month. What will you see?
Hype. I’ve never been one to buy into it. When a production tries that hard, there’s usually a reason for it and it’s never a good one. That said, the art of marketing is all one big mind-game, create a collective buzz, draw folk in, then let herd-mentality do the rest. Yes, few like to be the odd one out in their particular peer group.
It’s like seeing a musical or theatre production advertised on the telly. Think about it, it doesn’t happen very often. When it does, it might raise the profile of the production concerned but normally, such a move is the last resort of a producer and while it might be exciting to see your favourite show promoted on the box, it should also tell you all you need to know about ticket sales.
There are exceptions of course and the news that the Royal Lyceum has snagged the only Scottish dates of Suzie Miller’s acclaimed Olivier Award-winning one-woman play, Prima Facie has me excited. That Judy Comer is reprising her Oliver and Tony-Award winning performance for a limited national tour of the piece is the icing on the cake.
For those unfamiliar with the piece, the buzz surrounding it since it premiered in 2019 at The Stables Theatre, Sydney, Australia, before going on to take the West End and Broadway by storm has been monumental. In the legal drama, emotion and experience collide with the rules of the game as Tessa, a brilliant young barrister who has battled her way up from her working class origins to be at the top of her game, defending, cross-examining and winning until an unexpected event forces her to confront the lines where the patriarchal power of the law, burden of proof, and morals diverge.
On sale now, Prima Facie is only in Edinburgh for a week, 3-7 February 2026, book now at lyceum.org.uk as this is one piece of Must See Theatre you don’t want to be guilty of missing.
Another is the Broadway and West End smash hit Moulin Rouge! The Musical (22 April-14 June), which is set to transform The Playhouse into the Paris’ nightclub that was the birthplace of the modern can-can for an eight week season. The doyen of jukebox musicals, Moulin Rouge! is clever, moving, immersive and very, very funny – easily the most uplifting, feel-good evening of theatre I’ve experienced in London of late.
Packed with songs from the likes of Madonna, P!nk and Elton John, it’s a story about a time, a place, people, but above all, love, a love that will live forever. Moulin Rouge! whisks you to the heart of Montmartre, Paris, in 1899, where a young composer, Christian, becomes infatuated with Satine, the glamorous and enchanting star of the Moulin Rouge nightclub. When their two worlds collide, they fall deeply in love, however they are met with trouble from the nightclubs host and owner, Harold Zidler and The Duke of Monroth, who believe money is the key to everything, including Satine’s heart. Can Christian and his Bohemian friends Toulouse-Lautrec and Santiago stage a musical spectacular to win the love of Satine and save the Moulin Rouge.
Hedonistic, ravishing and irresistable, enter a world of splendour and romance, of eye-popping excess, of glitz, grandeur, and glory. Baz Luhrmann’s revolutionary film comes to life onstage, remixed in a new musical mash-up extravaganza. A celebration of truth, beauty, freedom, and above all love, Moulin Rouge! is described as more than a musical… It is a state of mind.
So, pop the champagne and prepare for the spectacular spectacular as Moulin Rouge! launches its World Tour from theEdinburgh Playhouse.
Running time 2 hours 45 minutes including interval, tickets £20-£169.50 here
Another musical favourite brings Calamity Jane (15-19 April) back to the Festival Theatre with the award-winning Carrie Hope Fletcher blowing in from the Windy City in the title role. Based on the classic Doris Day movie, meet the fearless, gun-slinging Calamity Jane, a cow-girl with the biggest mouth in Dakota and one who is always up for a fight. Determined to win the heart of the dashing Lieutenant Gilmartin, when the men of Deadwood fall hard for Chicago stage star Adelaid Adams, Calamity struggles to keep her jealousy holstered.
With some of musical theatre’s best-loved numbers – songs like The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away), The Black Hills of Dakota, Just Blew in from the Windy City, and the Oscar-winning Secret Love – expect a night of gun-toting tunes and sure fire fun entertainment.
Staying with the Festival Theatre, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (8-12 April) returns to the Nicolson Street venue this month to celebrate 30 years of the magnificent rule-breaking that reinvented Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece as a modern day sensation when it premiered at Sadler’s Wells in London in 1995. Now the most successful dance theatre production of all time, allow yourself to be spell-bound once more by Bourne’s magical creation.
Running time 2 hours 20 minutes including interval, tickets £29.50-£62.50 here
Over at the Royal Lyceum, there’s still time to catch Wild Rose (until 19 April), a great night out for anyone who loves country-western music and a good old gallus Glasgow tale of a bad lass made good. There is only one thing in Rose-Lynn’s life that has ever made sense: country music. Fresh out of jail for past mistakes, and bursting with incredible raw talent, the free-spirited Rose-Lynn dreams of escaping Glasgow to make it as a singer in Nashville… will the mother of two risk losing everything to make that dream come true.
With strong performances from Taggart star Blythe Duff, Liz Ewing and, in the title role, Dawn Sievewright, you could do worse than don your cowboy boots and get along to Grindlay Street. Read my review on MustSeeTheatre.com.
Running time 2 hours 20 minutes including interval, tickets £30-£52 here
Finally, this month, if you’re in need of a good belly laugh, then Looking For Me Friend: The Music Of Victoria Wood (23+24 April) is likely to be just the ticket. Featuring the star of BBC1’s All Together Now, Paulus, with Fascinating Aïda’s Michael Roulston on piano, join them on an evening of pure joy filled with Victoria’s best-loved songs, including the iconic Ballad of Barry & Freda (Let’s Do It). A show for Wood’s fans and those yet to discover her, in telling her story, Paulus unfolds his own nostalgic and very relatable story of a 1970’s childhood and what it really means to find your tribe.
Running time 1 hour 25 minutes, tickets £17 here
Until next time, happy theatre going, Liam
Leither. Writer | Broadcaster | Actor | Award-winning playwright/director| Content Creator. Entertainment commentator. Theatre consultant. Former Edinburgh Evening News Arts and Entertainment Editor. 40 years in media.
