Kaely Michels-Gualtieri
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
For over a decade, Kaely Michels-Gualtieri defined her life forty feet in the air as an elite solo swinging trapeze artist, performing for Cirque du Soleil and Ringling Bros. But after a series of life-threatening injuries grounded her, Kaely is now returning to the stage bringing a new show unearthing the overlooked history behind Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
The production will make its world premiere at the Bubble at Rotunda Theatre (Venue 65) as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 7–23 August 2026. The musical is written by Kaely Michels-Gualtieri, now a Cambrudge educated historian and playwright, with original score by Chi Wai Hu, and lyrics by both Hu and Sabrina Steuer.
Most American schoolchildren learn the same version of the assassination: John Wilkes Booth, a madman, avenging the Confederate defeat. 1 Night at Ford’s Theatre, a new musical, asks what that story leaves out, exploring the relationship between the Booth brothers in the leadup to the crime.
Framed as a “circus of memory” hosted by P.T. Barnum, this musical traces the brothers from their shared childhood into radically different paths: the older brother would become America’s most celebrated actor, while the younger would become America’s most infamous assassin.
For Michels-Gualtieri, the story begins after the curtain falls. It was not John Wilkes Booth’s crime that captivated her, but Edwin Booth’s lifelong struggle to keep performing after his brother changed the course of American history.
After years traveling the world hanging by a thread, the next chapter of her life began by pulling on a historical thread she couldn’t let go, and 1 Night at Ford’s Theatre was born. Nine months after Lincoln’s assassination, Edwin returned to the stage to play Hamlet. And now, more than 160 years later, Edwin’s story returns too.
Ahead of its premiere, Kaely Michels-Gualtieri, said: “After my injury, I wasn’t asking where I’d perform next, I was asking who I was if I could no longer do what had defined my life. Losing trapeze meant losing the language I’d always used to tell stories. When performing was no longer possible, I found myself asking if the thing you’ve devoted your life to disappears, who are you afterwards? I think that’s why this story resonated with me so strongly. It isn’t just about history; it’s about people navigating impossible moments of change, trying to decide who they become when the role they’ve always played no longer fits.”
To book a ticket to 1 Night at Ford’s Theatre, visit: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/1-night-at-ford-s-theatre
Alice Fraser (photo by Monica Pronk)
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
From household names and broadcast veterans to viral stars making their solo debuts, the stand-up comedy slate for the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe is incredibly strong. If you are looking for razor-sharp wit, daily political takedowns, and deeply moving personal storytelling, add these stand-up hours to your August schedule immediately.
Fringe favourites:
Alice Fraser: Oh Man! (8:40pm, Monkey Barrel at O’Neills)
A regular on BBC Radio 4’s flagship satirical show The News Quiz and a beloved co-host of global phenomenon The Bugle, Fraser returns to tackle modern manhood, male loneliness, and the incel movement. With her own stand-up specials streaming on Amazon Prime, she offers a genuinely hopeful way forward.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/alice-fraser-oh-man
John-Luke Roberts: What I Talk About When I Run About Talking (2:10pm, Monkey Barrel 4)
Following a major health scare, the acclaimed avant-garde comic is stripping back his usual theatrics for his purest stand-up hour to date. This is a poignant, fiercely funny, and accessible exploration of mortality from one of The Telegraph’s ‘50 Funniest Comedians of the 21st Century’
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/john-luke-roberts-what-i-talk-about-when-i-run-about-talking
Eleanor Morton: The Mermaid (1pm, Monkey Barrel Cab Vol 1)
Fresh from her 2026 BBC Radio 4 show Eleanor & Pals, the Scottish comedian and online sketch favorite uses mermaid mythology to examine body standards, fear-based sex education and why she wants to be a mermaid despite not knowing how to swim.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/eleanor-morton-the-mermaid
Patrick Monahan: I’m Not a Terrorist – I’m Freddie Mercury (9pm, Gilded Balloon Patter House)
A master of observational comedy and winner of ITV’s Show Me the Funny, Monahan reflects on a lifetime of extra airport security checks and mixed heritage. The familiar TV face (The One Show, Splash!, Pointless Celebrities) proves with his signature warmth that he has much more in common with Queen’s iconic frontman than any geopolitical threat.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/patrick-monahan-i-m-not-a-terrorist-i-m-freddie-mercury
Ted Hill: PowerPoindexter (6pm, Assembly George Square)
Fresh from his massive golden buzzer success on the 2026 series of Britain’s Got Talent, Hill brings a high-energy, unapologetically nerdy hour of multimedia stand-up packed with 3.4 gigabytes of silly visual slides.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ted-hill-powerpoindexter
(Bringing family? Catch Ted’s morning kids show instead: Ted Hill Teaches You Science, Most of Which is True at 11:10am at Assembly Roxy)
Kate Butch: A Kate in the Hand is Worth Two in the Butch (8pm, Pleasance Dome)
The RuPaul’s Drag Race UK breakout star and 2026 finalist on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs the World is on a mission to become a better person. An accomplished comic who won Celebrity Mastermind and starred in BBC One’s The Power of Parker, Butch hilariously dissects the online backlash of being queer on television.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/kate-butch-a-kate-in-the-hand-is-worth-two-in-the-butch
Wit, Activism and the News Cycle:
Sid Singh: Love Bombing (4:15pm, The Counting House)
Part stand-up, part genuine activist toolkit. Singh (a human rights lawyer who successfully beat the Trump administration in court and has written for Comic Relief, BBC3’s Muzlamic, and BBC Radio 4’s Sikisa’s Border Control) brings a highly uplifting show about standing up to power while being completely baffled by modern dating.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/sid-singh-love-bombing
Sid Singh
Alex Franklin: Kiss Me x (2:25pm, Underbelly Cowgate)
A high-stakes romantic comedy hour blending absurdist stand up and comedy songs. Franklin, who has accrued 20 million views online and appeared on Channel 4, HBO Max, and BBC Radio 4 delivers a celebratory and hilariously joyful look at dating as a trans woman.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/alex-franklin-kiss-me-x
Adele Cliff’s Topical Early Late Show with Adele Cliff (7:20pm, Hoots Potterow)
The UK Pun Champion and accomplished joke writer for BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, Dead Ringers and BBC Radio Scotland’s Breaking the News brings American late-night TV energy to the early evening. Expect a daily-written show tackling the day’s headlines alongside a live house band from Katie Pritchard.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/adele-cliff-s-topical-early-late-show-with-adele-cliff
Jake Baker: The Gentle Men’s Club (1:15pm, Hoots @ The Apex)
A hilarious, whimsical response to the toxic internet culture of hyper-masculine influencers. Baker (three-time BBC New Comedy Award nominee) playfully dismantles the manosphere, celebrating the benefits of feminism and the quiet luxury of letting his girlfriend be the breadwinner.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/jake-baker-the-gentle-men-s-club
Rising Stars and Personal Truths:
Aarian Mehrabani: How’s Your Head? (4:45pm, Underbelly George Square)
The award-winning co-creator of the smash-hit play IT’S A MOTHERFKING PLEASURE makes his solo stand-up debut. Ahead of starring in David Baddiel’s highly anticipated Channel 4 thriller Hunting Alice Bell, Mehrabani weaves an irreverent, bold hour around his Persian heritage, being blind and bisexual, and his recent battle with brain cancer.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/aarian-mehrabani-how-s-your-head
Steffan Alun: Windows (6:15pm, Hoots @ The Apex)
The Pegasus Award-winning Welsh comedian and regular on BBC Wales, S4C, and Radio Cymru delivers an observational masterclass on imposter syndrome. Alun, who made his BBC Radio 4 debut on Live From the UK, explores identity and the hilarious lengths he went to to prove his mother was lying about their family home.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/steffan-alun-windows
Michael John Ciszewski: Mother, Superior (2pm, Bedlam Theatre)
NYC-based stand up and storyteller Ciszewski attempts to petition the Vatican to canonize his living mother in a sacrilegious, interactive game-show hour. This performance, from a trained instructor with The Moth, beautifully processes millennial baggage and queer joy.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/michael-john-ciszewski-mother-superior
Ali Brice: This Is The Way We Brush Our Teeth (7:40pm, Hoots Potterow)
Seasoned alternative favorite Ali Brice (whose screen credits include Channel 4’s The Curse and BBC Two’s The Mind of Herbert Clunkerdunk) delivers a hilariously honest hour of stand-up about midlife, long-term love, and the quiet victories of sobriety.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ali-brice-this-is-the-way-we-brush-our-teeth
Lil Wenker (photo by Hudson Hughes)
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
If your ideal Fringe show features original songs, grotesque characters or a bit of theatrical magic, the 2026 programme will not disappoint. These boundary-pushing, high-concept spectacles offer every kind of unhinged cabaret, interactive party chaos and theatrical horror.
Absurd alter-egos: the best characters and clowns:
Lil Wenker: BOYKING (9:45pm, Pleasance Courtyard)
Following the global success of her clown western BANGTAIL, Gaulier-trained Lil Wenker returns with a savagely funny horror comedy. Centered on a petulant, milk-guzzling eight-year-old prince scheming for world domination, this is a brilliant, clown-led musical mockery of modern power structures.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/lil-wenker-boyking
Fanny Bleach: The Nearly Naked Show (9:50pm, Assembly Roxy)
Cult drag-thing Fanny Bleach (created by Emma Crowley-Bennett) makes her solo debut with a subversive freak show of grotesque characters, immersive monologues and physical theatre.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/fanny-bleach-the-nearly-naked-show
Rob Preston: Amazing Global Solutions (8:20pm, Pleasance Courtyard)
As seen in fringe hit Brainsluts, Rob Preston brings to life a bleak, bizarre gallery of modern grotesques, from toxic influencer-bros to corporate stooges, in a razor-sharp satire of modern British isolation.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/rob-preston-amazing-global-solutions
Hudson Hughes: At Your Service (11:10pm, Underbelly Cowgate)
A spooky horror-comedy character hour following television’s favorite (and fading) vicar, Reverend Derek Gritt. Hughes (a two-time Sketch-Off Finalist) battles satanic powers, career obsolescence, and a crippling vaping addiction while trying to televise a fan’s funeral.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/hudson-hughes-at-your-service
Katie Pritchard is Sir Elton Scone (3:40pm, Hoots @ Nicolson Square)
An absurd and chaotic baking game show where the audience competes using absolutely no ovens. Pritchard (as seen on Channel 4’s Harry Hill’s Clubnite) transforms into a Jim Henson-esque version of Elton John who just really loves baked goods and musical comedy puns.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/katie-pritchard-is-sir-elton-scone
Musicals, Magic and more:
Mothman: A Romance Musical (6:50pm, Underbelly Cowgate)
Alternative comedy forces Alex Franklin (Channel 4, HBO Max) and Nikola McMurtrie (Funny Women Award winner and BBC Scotland Short Stuff creator) present the cryptid romantic comedy musical absolutely no one asked for. Expect a mutant super-soldier moth, B-movie tropes and banging musical numbers.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/mothman-a-romance-musical
Baby Lame: Hit Me Baby One More Lame! (10:50pm, Pleasance Courtyard)
An interactive, intergalactic space odyssey charting the unauthorized story of Britney Spears. Hosted by the cult alt-drag icon Baby Lame (co-host of the official BBC RuPaul’s Drag Race UK podcast) this spectacle blends space travel and murder with a hundred Britney tunes for an unmissable chaotic fringe experience.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/baby-lame-hit-me-baby-one-more-lame
Jess Robinson: Elton Reimagined (7:15pm, Assembly George Square Gardens)
The pitch-perfect impressionist, star of Spitting Image, and regular on Channel 4’s The Last Leg and Radio 4’s Dead Ringers, transforms Elton John’s classics by performing them in the voices of iconic women from Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli to Lily Allen and Raye.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/jess-robinson-elton-reimagined
Jess Robinson: Elton Reimagined (photo by Ed Moore)
Ben Hart: The Labyrinth (6:20pm, Assembly George Square Gardens)
The multi-award-winning Britain’s Got Talent star brings a dark, unsettling, and intimate in-the-round magical experience. Hart, a Member of The Inner Magic Circle who has worked as a magic consultant for Hollywood films combines theatrical storytelling and striking imagery to examine the patterns that dictate our choices. One of Midlothian View’s favourites of the fringe last year, Ben Hart is a magician not to be missed!
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ben-hart-the-labyrinth
Harvey Cobb: Pink Boots and An Alcoholic Sock Puppet (5pm, Underbelly Cowgate)
A high-energy, meta-theatrical circus comedy show from the BNG Circus Prize winner. Watch Cobb’s facade as a “pretentious, serious contemporary artist” beautifully crumble into pink boot juggling and physical clowning alongside his tyrannical puppet, Mr. Sock.
Tickets: edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/harvey-cobb-pink-boots-and-an-alcoholic-sock-puppet
