All stories by Rachael Healy on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Jeezus! review – queer musical’s revelations about love with no limits by Rachael Healy

Underbelly Cowgate, EdinburghA Peruvian boy has a sexual awakening in a show about religion, patriarchy and homophobia, featuring sweet and smutty songs with a Latin twist The image of Jesus…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:24AM
Tuesday, August 19, 2025

LEI-LDN review – teenage delights and dilemmas, from the Midlands to the capital by Rachael Healy

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghNa-keisha Pebody captures the roiling uncertainty of growing up in a show with upbeat music and audience interaction Chardaye Brown is a 17-year-old Leicester g…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:03AM
Saturday, August 16, 2025

The Unstoppable Rise of Ben Manager review – tales of the unexpected at the office by Rachael Healy

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghA man picks up a dead stranger’s lanyard and gets sucked into a sinister corporate world in Bunkum Ensemble’s unsettling play On the way to an interview for…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:48AM
Tuesday, August 12, 2025

‘It felt like a scene from The Handmaid’s Tale’: US comics on the dangers of political satire by Rachael Healy

As Jena Friedman, Michelle Wolf and Sam Jay perform at the fringe, they discuss the threats to freedom of speech in the era of Donald Trump In April, comedian Jena Friedman had a strange en…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:54PM

Bella Hull: Doctors Hate Her review – beautifully wrought comedy on having your sanity questioned by Rachael Healy

The Hive, Monkey Barrel, EdinburghIn a precise performance, Hull delivers sharp punchlines, surreal diversions and a dose of the occult Exactly how fine was the “fine” relationship at th…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AM
Monday, August 11, 2025

Luke McQueen: Comedian’s Comedian review – lord of mischief gatecrashes the popular podcast by Rachael Healy

Pleasance Dome, EdinburghThe tricksy standup uses AI to create his own episode of the long-running interview series on which he’s never been invited The Comedian’s Comedian podcast, in w…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:12PM
Sunday, August 10, 2025

Lily Phillips: Crying review – laughing through the toxic positivity around childbirth by Rachael Healy

Monkey Barrel, EdinburghAmusing vignettes about arrogant consultants and undignified poos keep things light as Phillips documents a harrowing hospital experience Expectations and reality don…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:12AM
Thursday, July 24, 2025

Best of the fest: 10 of the best shows to catch at this year’s Edinburgh fringe by Rachael Healy

An undead club manager, sperm donor shenanigans and the pitfalls of trying to work with AI – just a few of the themes of this year’s hottest tickets Kent-Walters, winner of best newcomer…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:36AM
Tuesday, July 22, 2025

‘I didn’t cry till the following year’: standup Thanyia Moore on the tragedy she turned into laughter by Rachael Healy

The comic was all set to make her debut at the Edinburgh fringe. Then, with hours to go, she had a medical emergency. The former dancer explains how it all fed into her new standup show �…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:03AM
Friday, July 11, 2025

You’re definitely having a laugh! Six hot comedy debuts at Edinburgh fringe 2025 by Rachael Healy

Molly McGuiness is treating audiences to a buffet, sketch troupe Simple Town bring fast-paced fun and Jessica Barton plays Mary Floppins … Here are half a dozen essential acts at the festi…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:48AM
Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Magdalena, Woman of Joy review – sex, sin and saintliness with a tour de force host by Rachael Healy

Playhouse East, LondonLily Sinko rages, writhes, provokes and teases her way through the horrifying life story of her storyteller with cartoonish abandon Magdalena appears from the dark, per…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AM
Wednesday, June 4, 2025

‘This could be our last year’: student comedy troupes priced out of Edinburgh fringe by Rachael Healy

Nish Kumar among comedians warning that rising costs could stop university revues visiting the festival ‘I don’t have any family connections in comedy or television, my leg up was that I…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:42AM
Sunday, May 25, 2025

Outpatient review – a journalist seeks the inside scoop on death by Rachael Healy

Park theatre, LondonOlive was happy to probe strangers about their mortality – but struggles to face her own ‘It’s weird we don’t talk about it,” declares journalist Olive, the alt…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:42PM
Monday, May 12, 2025

Overshare review – provocative tour inside a livestreamed breakdown by Rachael Healy

Greenwich Theatre, LondonExpanding her Edinburgh hit, Eleanor Hill replicates her Instagrammed mental health crisis and confronts the destructive compulsion to broadcast it all online Social…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48AM
Friday, April 25, 2025

‘It’s Fleabag’s home – the audience is unshockable’: Phoebe Waller-Bridge and more on 25 years of Soho theatre by Rachael Healy

The central London institution champions new talent, amplifies LGBTQ+ voices and always takes risks. With a new outpost opening in Walthamstow, artists discuss how the West End venue is not …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:32AM
Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Dulcé Sloan review – former Daily Show correspondent’s dispatches from family life by Rachael Healy

Soho theatre, LondonUK-specific jokes land well as Sloan shapes the energy in a packed room with a slightly incoherent show held together by her charisma Dulcé Sloan, a seven-year veteran …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:12AM
Thursday, March 6, 2025

‘One slip and I’d be lost in the flood’: shocking report reveals dangers of jobs in the arts by Rachael Healy

From dancers breaking bones to camera crews forced to take terrible risks, stage and screen jobs can be hugely hazardous, says a scathing new report. We meet workers who feel ‘disposable�…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:36AM
Saturday, February 22, 2025

Actor Temi Wilkey: ‘No one saw me as a Blanche DuBois or a Juliet’ by Rachael Healy

Her one-woman show Main Character Energy has been a long time coming, with the writer-performer trying drag, standup and clowning to find her funny voice. ‘You have to put yourself in the …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36PM
Friday, January 24, 2025

Amy Annette: Thick Skin review – tales of 00s teenhood teleport you to the dancefloor by Rachael Healy

Soho theatre, LondonAnnette’s stage presence shines in a show full of vivid observations, campy asides and nostalgic pop culture Amy Annette is the sort of woman who’d rather drop her ph…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AM
Friday, January 17, 2025

Rob Copland on his head-banging, daredevil comedy: ‘I want it to feel like a punk rock show’ by Rachael Healy

Featuring moshpits and acrobatics, the comic’s wildly physical brand of standup leaves audiences buzzing for hours. Now he’s taking his Edinburgh award-winning set on tour – if he can…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:32PM
Monday, November 11, 2024

‘People feel terrible. They want to laugh’: can comedy make light of Trump 2.0? by Rachael Healy

A second Donald Trump presidency may be darker than the first, but his victory has unleashed the creative energies of satirists and standups “When Trump first won, there was almost a nove…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AM

Alternative comedian Joe Kent-Walters: ‘I used to do a strip tease with carrier bags’ by Rachael Healy

The Yorkshire-born standups’s surreal take on a working men’s club has bagged him comedy awards and a BBC radio pilot. But even as he dreams of a Mrs Merton-style talkshow, he’s still …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AM
Saturday, November 2, 2024

Edinburgh fringe artists owed up to £15k each amid venue’s dispute with HMRC by Rachael Healy

Performers who staged work at Summerhall have not been paid as firm that runs site challenges corporation tax claim Artists and theatre companies who staged work at the major Edinburgh fring…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24PM
Tuesday, October 15, 2024

‘I will be hunted down for my Taylor Swift jokes!’ Rose Matafeo on her scary return to standup by Rachael Healy

She won comedy’s top award, reinvented the romcom and now hosts Junior Taskmaster. So why does the New Zealand comic need Buddhist podcasts to get through the day? Rose Matafeo is bad at e…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:42PM
Monday, October 14, 2024

‘Now I only do dick jokes when I want to’: how Texan standup Kemah Bob found freedom in Britain by Rachael Healy

Their Miss Fortunate show – which takes in bipolar disorder, financial ruin and a shocking scamming in Thailand – will ‘take the charge paddles to the chest’ of a comedy career that …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:12AM
Friday, October 4, 2024

‘We want to put audiences on edge’: the team bringing A24 horror film Saint Maud to the stage by Rachael Healy

A new theatre adaptation is giving Rose Glass’s creepy tale of religious obsession an industrial north-east slant – but it hasn’t lost the film’s fear factor “We’re telling a sto…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:24AM
Friday, September 20, 2024

Princess Essex review – black beauty queen turns Edwardian idiocy on itself by Rachael Healy

Shakespeare’s Globe, LondonVaudevillian musical stages the story of a woman who cast herself as Princess Dinubolu of Senegal to become a beauty queen in 1908 Southend In Southend-on-Sea, 1…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:06PM
Friday, August 23, 2024

A marathon of mirth and stress: comics with chronic health issues on completing Edinburgh fringe by Rachael Healy

The festival’s relentless pace is demanding for performers, especially with an underlying health condition. Three acts explain how their month has gone An hour before she was due on stage …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54PM
Thursday, August 22, 2024

Rob Copland: Gimme (One With Everything) review – mesmeric controlled chaos by Rachael Healy

Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh It starts with boundless energy … then gathers momentum, as this comic’s silliness builds a tale of desperate ambition Rob Copland rockets into the room, pur…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:42PM
Tuesday, August 13, 2024

After Baby Reindeer: how comedians are telling true stories of trauma and toxic relationships by Rachael Healy

There are benefits and perils in talking about your personal experiences – as Richard Gadd found after his TV show went viral. So how are Edinburgh acts handling it this year? ‘If you’…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:00AM
Saturday, August 10, 2024

Batshit review – grandma’s moving story highlights pathologisation of women’s mental health by Rachael Healy

Traverse theatre, EdinburghLeah Shelton plays her grandmother, incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital, in this one-woman show that draws on research, recordings and videos to link 1960s Aust…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:46AM

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