THE Edinburgh Festival Fringe will launch today with more shows than ever before, a star-studded line-up in its new controversial comedy event, and a host of innovations.
A one-man recreation of the Glastonbury festival, a drama based on "black box" transcripts of aircraft emergencies and a new venue in a former bomb shelter will be unveiled.
The Scotsman can reveal that Omid Djalili, Otis Lee Crenshaw, Tim Min
chin, Reginald D Hunter, Tim Vine, John Pinette, Tina C, Rob Deering, Jerry Sadowitz and Dan Antopolski will all be part of the first Edinburgh Comedy Festival. They join Joan Rivers, Clive James, Ruby Wax, Ed Byrne and Bill Bailey in the event, which is part of the Fringe, but has its own brochure.
Controversial comic Michael Barrymore will be starring with former Eastenders actress jill Halfpenny in a play about Spike Milligan. Star Trek legend Leonard Nimoy, better known as Mr Spock in the sci-fi series, will bring his acclaimed play Vincent to the Fringe.
The festival will see Taggart creator Glenn Chandler unveil a new play, while Irvine Welsh's novel Ecstasy will be brought to the stage. Jim Rose, the US circus performer, will return for the first time in 10 years.
Notably absent are any big outdoor shows. DF Concerts are expected to confirm all their gigs are being staged indoors in the wake of the failure to find a sponsor to replace Tennent's.
Last year's Fringe was dogged by controversy over Ricky Gervais's £37.50-a-head show at Edinburgh Castle Esplanade. The number of concerts being staged there before this year's Fringe is behind the decision to have no comedy there this time.
The Scotsman also understands the site at Ocean Terminal that hosted last year's spectacular Fuerzabruta will lie empty.
PRIME PERFORMANCESGLENN Chandler, the Edinburgh-born creator of Taggart, will be presenting a brand new play at this year's Fringe.
C Venues will be hosting the world premiere of Boys of the Empire, which is billed as an "uproarious comedy with a sharp political edge".
Charlie Victor Romeo, which is being staged at Underbelly, is a hit New York show based on real "black box" airline recordings.
Veteran Fringe impresario Guy Masterson is bringing Leonard Nimoy's acclaimed one-man play Vincent to the Assembly Rooms. It is based on the anguish suffered by the brother of Vincent Van Gogh following his suicide. Masterson is also at the helm of Reasonable Doubt, an Australian production featuring Stringers star Peter Phelps, about two corrupt members of a jury.
Joan Rivers will be starring in a self-penned autobiographical play, A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress.
Stephen Berkoff, the veteran Fringe performer, will be directing a new adaptation of the classic Marlon Brando film On the Waterfront at the Pleasance.
Itoseng will explore the fortunes and personalities of a South African township before and after the democratic shake-up of the country in the mid-1990s.
The concrete Appleton Tower block, at Edinburgh University, will be playing host to a lively production based on an office night-out. Its cast will feature the comedians Matt Baynton, Glenn Wool, Janice Connolly and Cal McCrystal, as well as cabaret star Ursula Martinez.
Underbelly will be bringing Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy to the stage, while the venue's other plays will include a one-man adaptation of War of the Worlds and Motherland, which tells the real-life stories of military personnel who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
ROSE TO BLOOM AGAINJIM Rose, the legendary US circus performer famed for his headline-grabbing antics in the 1990s, will be back on the Fringe for the first time in a decade this year.
He is joining forces with New York impresario Randy Weiner for what Rose has pledged will be his most "shocking and mesmerising show yet."
The Silent Disco phenomenon, which sees audiences don headphones for an individual nightclub experience, will return to the Fringe, and will be joined by a new "mini me" version.
OPERA CENTRE STAGESCOTTISH Opera will perform at the Fringe for the first time in its 46-year history. The company's production of Rossini's Cinderella will be on at the Assembly Rooms.
The Pleasance will be unveiling a new venue in an old Second World War bomb shelter. Other new spaces include a squash court to be used for Potency, which will see audiences caught in a crossfire of insults and squash balls.
TENNENT'S CALL TIME THE withdrawal of Tennent's sponsorship from this year's Fringe left organisers DF Concert with no option but to scale back its operation.
Neither Meadowbank Stadium nor Princes Street Gardens are expected to host concerts, despite the huge success of gigs there in previous years. Instead, major Fringe gigs will be restricted to venues like the Corn Exchange, Cabaret Voltaire and the Liquid Room.
The line-up for The Edge, the replacement for T on the Fringe, is expected to feature the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Drive by Truckers, Santa Gold, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Jackie Leven and The Presets.
Sandi Thom is also expected to feature in a one-off variety night at the Liquid Room and the Bongo Club will be playing host to a show dedicated to the history of drumming.
Cult American band Kenny Young and the Eggplants and US singer-songwriter Bob Cheevers will be appearing at the Acoustic Music Centre, along with Scots acts Breabach and Wingin' It.
HE WHO LAUGHS LAST...CONTROVERSY has raged over the creation of the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, which boasts Clive James, Ruby Wax, Ed Byrne and Billy Bailey among its headliners.
The four biggest venues on the Fringe – Underbelly, Pleasance, Gilded Balloon and Assembly Rooms – have come under fire for promoting their own event and for having an early launch last night.
Other big shows under this umbrella include Jerry Sadowitz, the outspoken Scots comic and magician, American comics Louis CK and John Pinette, and Sammy J In the Forest of Dreams, a smash hit at the recent Melbourne Comedy Festival.
As well as performing in her semi-autobiographical play, Joan Rivers will be performing in a run of late-night stand-up gigs.
Fringe favourites such as Omid Djalili, Otis Lee Crenshaw, and Tim Minchin will also be part of the new comedy festival.
The line-up at the Stand Comedy Club, which staged a protest at the comedy festival launch last night, includes Stewart Lee, Jo Caulfield, Phil Nichol and Simon Munnery.
The full article contains 1088 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
