Sequins & Shpiel: An Evening with New York's Rachael Sage, City Edinburgh Star rating: ***
The sequins were presented personally to each of the audience, having been pulled off our hostess's dress one by one. The shpiel, alas, didn't make quite such a direct connection, being hostage to unforgiving acoustics and a million words a second verbal delivery.
What did emerge, however, was a talent for arrangement - the basic keyboard, cello and drums instrumentation fairly rocks and occasional accordion, glockenspiel and even kazoo added effective detail - and a voice that's expressive and capable of multiple nuances, when heard clearly.
A more intimate, cabaret setting would surely reveal more of Rachael Sage's talent and "what's a Jewish girl to do?" observations, although all was not lost: her slowed down version of Fame could turn out to be the unlikely hit of Fringe 2009 and her support act, Seth Glier, is worth the entrance fee alone.
Glier fared slightly better with the acoustics, opening with an a cappella worksong before moving to piano to sing with an appealingly eager soulfulness and a clarity of diction that gave real potency to his songs of escape, romantic idealism and life on the road.
Ends today.
David Benson Sings Noel Coward, Assembly @ George Street Star rating: **** For those who think Noel Coward belongs to a bygone age, this show could be a revelation.
Despite their jazz age to early 1960s provenance, many of Coward's observations are just as relevant today - and if they're not, David Benson isn't above administering a gentle contemporary tweak.
Benson and pianist Stewart Nicholls are Coward authorities but far from Coward bores. As they rattle through the newly widowed Mrs Wentworth-Brewster's salacious Piccola Marina adventures, rib American tourists with merciless accuracy and beg Mrs Worthington not to launch her daughter stagewards, their relish is as infectious as Benson's asides and updates are mirthfully scurrilous.
Britain's Got Talent fans may have to turn the other cheek but for anyone else, this is possibly the best fun you can have with a man wearing a (prodigiously moulting) pink feather boa.
Ends August 21.
Shoo Shoo Baby: The Entire History of Cabaret, Assembly @ George Street Star rating: ***
Tanya and Anna are opera singers who want to show the Arts Council that cabaret is art, not just entertainment. So they embark on an eventful journey which reveals that one Alphonse Allais beat John Cage to composing silence - nine bars as opposed to four minutes and 33 seconds - as well as calling in on the Weimar Republic, the Cotton Club and, er, the John Denver songbook in Franglais.
The result is a show that, while erring on the over eager to please side, has its moments and rattles along at a fair old pace, even when the girls and musical director Michael Roulston enact the macabre Dr Snowdrop scene. Patrons with a fear of being clambered over or teased, beware.
Ends August 16.
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