The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the world, with over 3,700 shows. This year, Playbill is in town for the festival and we’re taking you with us. Follow along as we cover every single aspect of the Fringe, aka our real-life Brigadoon! 

As part of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage, Playbill is seeing a whole lotta shows—and we’re letting you know what we think of them. Consider these reviews a friendly, opinionated guide as you try to choose a show at the festival.

Frances Ruffelle (the Tony-winning original Éponine in Les Misérables in London’s West End and on Broadway) and husband, fellow U.K. stage mainstay Norman Bowman, are in love. Very in love. As cheesy as that might sound, seeing them perform together in their new cabaret act The Scot and the Showgirl at Edinburgh Festival Fringe is to see some very real, very palpable chemistry. It might all make you roll your eyes if they weren’t so nuts—unabashedly so.

You might have to be a little nuts to be as vulnerable as Ruffelle and Bowman are in this new act, but luckily for audiences, it pays off. Their goofy, no-holds-barred sensibility is incredibly charming, and ultimately gives The Scot and the Showgirl a distinct air of genuine authenticity. It’s hard not to buy into their giddy affection, mostly because it’s just so real.

The pair has designed this new cabaret act to take audiences “from Brigadoon to Broadway, from Scotland to Sondheim.” Bowman, if you can’t tell from the title, is Scottish, and performs the entire show in a kilt. The titular showgirl is, of course, Ruffelle. But the duo have had extensive careers in the musical theatre. That means we get a song list with traditional Scottish tunes like “Donald, Where’s Your Troosers” (changed to “Beausy” here, a nickname for Bowman) and “Pencil Full of Lead” along with showtune favorites like “It’s Almost Like Being in Love” from Brigadoon (I suppose that could almost count in both categories) and “One of a Kind” from Applause. The arrangements are all fantastic too, as led by music director and arranger Ryan McKenzie on piano (additional arrangements are by David Barber) along with cellist Kate Shortt and drummer Nick Anderson.

A particular favorite was the couple’s mash-up of “The Little Things You Do Together” from Company and “Country House,” a song written for the first London production of Follies. The match is so perfect that one wonders why it isn’t one seen more often.

Those songs take us through the couple’s love story, from a meet cute at a London tube station, to a separation brought on by Ruffelle’s late nights out with male friends (no details are offered on what those entailed), to a cheery and earned second go— which they are ostensibly still continuing. I’m not exactly sure what all is fact or fiction here. Previous marriages, both involving children, go unmentioned, and from what I can tell, their relationship is not exactly a decades-long affair yet. Did all of this play out in record time, or have they dramatized their romantic lives, recast to be exclusively about their current partners?

Either way, it’s admirable how honest they are about themselves. Beyond their visible chemistry, this element makes you truly believe their love runs deep, that each loves the other for who they are at their inner most core. That’s something we should all strive for, and it’s really charming, inspirational even, to see it play out in front of you. Credit here also goes to director Paul Baker. The narrative is surprisingly clear and strong for a cabaret act, and the expert pacing keeps you with the show through to the end.

Ultimately, The Scot and the Showgirl contains two very talented performers at the top of their game singing an excellent setlist. Bowman shines with some goofy comedy moments, particularly a rousing rendition of The Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles.” He also delivers a heartfelt, gender-swapped take on “Happy to Keep Her Dinner Warm” from How to Succeed. Ruffelle proves her musical theatre legend status with her thrilling rock belt, one of those singular voices that really just doesn’t sound quite like anyone else on earth. Don’t worry, they haven’t shoehorned her trademark “On My Own” into the separation part of the narrative—but Ruffelle still gives it to us in the show’s encore, handily proving why the performance was Tony-winning.

I came out of this performance thoroughly entertained, and having learned that Ruffelle and Bowman would probably be a big bundle of energy to be seated next to at a dinner party—but that’s not pejorative. I’d be happy to have the seat.

The Scot and the Showgirl is playing Pleasance’s Queen Dome through August 26 (though full disclosure, the show also played on the Playbill FringeShip). Tickets are available here. See photos from the show below.

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Photos: Frances Ruffelle and Norman Bowman in The Scot and The Showgirl on The Playbill FringeShip

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