Travis singer Fran Healy is to appear alongside an American TV star at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe after persuading him to take his hit musical improv comedy show to the event.
The musician will be one of the celebrity guests who will be grilled by actor and comedian David Magidoff on their love lives and dating experiences during the run of “Making Love” this August.
Magidoff and his fellow cast members will turn the experiences of their guests - who are expected to include a mix of American and British musicians and comics - into a new “full-blown musical” during the course of each show.
Read more:
- KT Tunstall reveals plans for Scottish 'gig theatre' show
- Andrew O'Hagan novel Mayflies to become stage play for the Fringe
- Scottish Government reveals £500,000 funding lifeline for Fringe
Magidoff, star of Dexter and The Morning Show, initially talked the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter into taking part in the show during its sold-out run at the Elysian Theater comedy venue in LA last December.
Healy urged Magidoff to uproot from LA for month to join the fray at the Fringe, where the actor and comedian once appeared as a complete unknown in a variety show early in his career.
Magidoff said: “We were chatting at the after-party when Fran asked me if I had travelled with the show. I told him I hadn’t and he told me that if I ever brought the show to Edinburgh he would also do it there.
“I spoke to my wife Sarah that night and said to her: ‘I don’t think he was kidding. I think he was serious’.
“We both said it felt like the kind of thing you look back on when you are on your death bed and ask why you didn’t say yes. I told my whole team and they could not have been more excited.”
Breaking Bad star Matt Jones, Dexter star Michael C Hall, The Office star Oscar Nunez, and The Veep stars Tony Hall and Timothy Simons are among those who have previously appeared in Making Love, which Magidoff first performed in 2017 in a 30-seater venue in LA.
He recalled: “I love musical improv, as it just makes me happy, and I was wondering what kind of musical improv show I could do. To me, people’s love stories are forever interesting.
“I have seen a lot of musical improv shows but I had never seen a show where somebody was interviewed about their love stories. That was really the impetus.
“My goal is to make it one of the funniest and sincere shows you have ever seen. I think we really need some deep-hearted laughs right now.
“I don’t think the world is necessarily as bad as it has ever been, but we need much more good, much more happy and much more love. I hope to think my show is doing a little bit of that.”
Healy, whose last appearance in Edinburgh in August five years ago was a headline outdoor concert in Princes Street Gardens, has swapped that iconic venue below Edinburgh Castle for a room with a capacity of less than 200 for his appearances with Magidoff.
Healy said: “When you are sitting telling your story, David’s crew are watching on from the side like hawks listening to you.
“Then they all come on and re-enact the whole story that you have just told. I had never seen anything like it.
“I could never do what they do what they do. I know to know what I am doing and what I am going to sing, but I can sit and be interviewed, I’m fine with that.
“It is like confession, with music in front of an audience. It can go anywhere.
“It really did feel like the perfect Fringe show to me. I just blurted out to David that he should bring it to Edinburgh.”
Mad Men star Stephanie Courtney, Shrinking star Kimberly Condict and rapper Propaganda will be among the stars flying in from the US to appear alongside Magidoff in Making Love. British comic and actress Rosie Jones will also appear as a guest in the Fringe show, which will be part of Assembly’s Fringe programme in George Square, with tickets going on sale on Friday.
Magidoff said: “It has taken years to get this show to the stage it will be at when people see it at the Fringe. I can’t wait to see who are going to get during the run in Edinburgh.
“I have got a dream list of guests to interview, but we need to get a little closer to Edinburgh because everyone’s schedules are crazy, but Fran is definitely going to do three shows.
“I’m going to make sure that certain nights are open because I know that we are going to meet people in Edinburgh.”
Healy said: “There is so much about it to keep you on your toes an audience member, a performer or the person who is being interviewed and then having your story immortalised.
“It’s really intimate, which I think that makes it funnier and more disarming for the audience.
“It is no wonder people keep coming back to it as it is obviously different every time.
“I would want to go and see a show like this, never mind be in it and I will actually get to watch most of the show.
“But watching a story that you have just told be told be turned into a full-on musical is kind of wild.”
Magidoff said the Fringe was held in “very high regard” in Hollywood, even though his own memories are somewhat sketchy.
He said: “I have technically have been to the Fringe before, about 16 years ago. A friend invited me to be part of a ragtag group who performed as part of a variety show in a venue that felt like it was closer to Glasgow.
“I only really have half a memory of the Fringe. I wish it was because I was stoned or blacked out drunk, but it was because we were so far out of town.
“I need to find out what the venue was. It was a big church hall, and we maybe got five or 10 people to come along every night. It felt like the fringe of the Fringe.”
Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall has already confirmed that she will be writing songs for a major new stage which will premiere at this year's Fringe.
The Singer, a "gig theatre drama" which will be staged at the Traverse Theatre, will follow the story of a deaf artist who "sings" with his hands who forges a creative partnership with a washed-up musician desperate for a comeback.
Tunstall has said the project "resonates so deeply" with her own experiences of the impact of tinnitus and suffering the loss of hearing in one of her ears.
Share