Dream Team: Leicester Square Theatre in New Town

Although many think the Fringe is confined to the city’s Old Town, there’s an increased effort to spread the festival across the city. This year, both Fringe Central and the BBC Festival’s tent will settle in the shiny St. James Quarter and just a stone’s throw away, comedy from London’s Leicester Square Theatre will make its home in The Stand's New Town Theatre on George St.

Letting your hair down, particularly after the past couple of years, will be the plan for many and the hilarious Sh!t-Faced Showtime: A Pissedmas Carol might be just the ticket (3-28 Aug, 7.10pm, £11-18.50). "A Christmas Carol in summer?", we hear you exclaim. But a Scottish August is “basically still winter right?” the cast cheekily quip. Their hugely popular winter hit has been given a summer shake-up for Edinburgh. For those unacquainted with the Sh!t-Faced concept, it does what it says on the tin. This year sees the talented cast of professional actors perform a musical version of A Christmas Carol. The twist is that one cast member has been day drinking since mid-afternoon... come curtain up, that drunken thesp has full reign to lead the tale astray. It’s the job of the rest of the cast to make sure the story gets finished. 

For Issy Wroe-Wright, performer and producer of Sh!t-Faced Showtime, she finds being drunk on stage “genuinely one of the most liberating experiences. There's something very freeing about celebrating the most gruesome version of yourself.” As the drunk cast member “you can get in a one-upmanship with yourself and you can end up doing things highly out of character in a bid to outdo yourself.” The show prides itself on being different every night with the cast having to improvise around whatever drunken antics come into play – it's definitely more dicking around than Dickens!

Flat and the Curves. Photo: Karla Gowlett

But it’s not Wroe-Wright’s only show at the New Town Theatre. She’s also a founding member of Flat & the Curves – the musical comedy act that celebrates the sisterhood with a cabaret of original music (16-28 Aug, 10.35pm, £15). Flat & the Curves explore the female experience and shed humorous light on the nooks and crannies of being a woman. The four professional vocalists reached the finals of both the Musical Comedy Award 2021 and New Variety Act of the Year 2022 and are thrilled to be making their Edinburgh Fringe debut this year. 

The group have had success individually as singers, comedians and comedy producers. They came together a year ago to form a powerhouse girl group. What’s more, they’ve been tipped for success by none other than Richard Thomas, composer and writer of Oliver Award-winning Jerry Springer the Opera who said, “Virtuoso, messy, funny, feminist, charming, filthy, fabulous, and that’s just the opening number. Wait till you see the rest!”

After quickly becoming fatigued with Zoom writing sessions and rehearsals, Flat & the Curves took to meeting in outdoor public spaces. “One particularly racy session [we] sat outside a local bistro, rifling through Porn Hub as inspiration for one of our songs. We were moved on pretty sharpish.” It’s not the only time their raunchy lyrics have landed the group in hot water either: “We made the poorly informed choice last Brighton Fringe to perform our show mid-afternoon in an outdoor tent situated next to a children’s mini golf course. Our song about swinging got the PG treatment that day."

If you prefer your comedy traditional stand-up style, Leicester Square Theatre also brings their All-Star Show to The Stand’s George Street venue (5-14 Aug, 10.35pm, £15). In its regular central London home, the theatre hosts huge names from the comedy world (Frankie Boyle has just completed a month-long residency), has its own New Act Competition (boasting Tim Renkow, Rachel Parris and Bilal Zafar as previous finalists) and has regular visits from internationally acclaimed touring acts (including South-African by way of New Zealand comic Urzila Carlson). Although the All-Star Show lineups remain a secret for now, the theatre’s track record is a real stamp of quality for a late night compilation show. Keep an eye on The Stand’s socials for daily lineups.

The rest of the New Town Theatre’s lineup is stellar too. There’s a huge variety of spoken word acts with The Stand’s ‘In Conversation With…’ series including big names such as Devi Sridhar, Jeremy Corbyn and Deborah Meaden, as well as local academics taking part in the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas. Other comedy acts include Paul Sinha, Stewart Lee and supermodel Eunice Olumide.

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Sh!t-Faced Showtime: A Pissedmas Carol, The Stand's New Town Theatre, 3-28 Aug, 7.10pm, £11-18.50
Flat & the Curves, The Stand's New Town Theatre, 16-28 Aug, 10.35pm, £15
Leicester Square Theatre All-Star Show, The Stand's New Town Theatre, 5-14 Aug, 10.35pm, £15
The rest of the New Town Theatre's lineup is available at thestand.co.uk/fringe-festival/whats-on/

You can use promotional code: SUMMERSCROOGE for £10 tickets to see Shit-Faced Showtime: A Pissedmas Carol. Bound to standard allocation for all shows on and between Aug 3-11.