Fringe review: WORLD’S GREATEST LOVER, Pleasance Courtyard
Photo credit: Danny Hidalgo
We had the pleasure of being invited to new musical World’s Greatest Lover this week at one of our favourite Fringe spots, Pleasance Courtyard, always one of the brightest, most bustling areas of the Edinburgh Fringe.
When we saw the artwork and the cast size, we had put two and two together that there would be some inspirations from SIX in the show, and after SIX being so wildly successful, who can blame creatives for doing so?! But could the formula be…reformulated?
From the moment the show begins, the audience get exactly what it says on the tin: four talented and well dressed performers enter the stage to sing the opening number, dancing in sync…or N SYNC…pardon the pun…with all the glory of a 90’s boyband.
After a few minutes, the plot unfolds and we find out that these four cocksure characters have all been invited, all with the same message as ‘The Worlds Greatest Lover’ to the same spot to save LOVE. But who invited them, why were they selected? These four characters bicker and bark with toxic and narcissistic traits on full flaunt, hashing out which of them is in fact is the greatest lover….leading to a solo…..in a cannon. A bit predictable structurally but entertaining to watch with catchy songs all the same. These four characters are Romeo, Cassanova, Cyrano de Bergerac and…the Marquis de Sade…
After all performers have announced themselves, the mystery hosts appear and reveal themselves…and they are none other than Saint Valentine and, like Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, Saint Valentine is starting to fade out of existence and the ONLY way to to save the day is for them to come together, unify and find out the truth about love.
The stand out thing about the show, as well as the catchy songs by the show’s authors Julien Salvia and Ludovic-Alexandre Vidal, are the incredibly talented cast. Rickens Anantua, Jordon Bolden, Daniel Dipinto, Sam Hyre and William Ingram give their absolute all for the duration of the show, all playing the characters with fantastic flair and insanely good vocals. Big shoutout to super swing Thomas Mcferren who we didn’t have the pleasure of seeing but we believe is covering all roles? What an incredible feat, huge props to Thomas.
The show fits very well into the Fringe environment currently and we can see it becoming a yearly favourite here. It certainly has the potential for life on a bigger stage. The one thing we struggled with, however, was watching redemption arcs of characters that we don’t overly want to see redeemed.
But for entertainment sake, top class performances and clearly a very hard working creative team, there may just be a diamond in the rough here with this show!
A charming production.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: James Edge
World’s Greatest Lover plays at Edinburgh Festival Fringe until 24 August, with further info here.
