It was by chance that a Denver-area theatre troupe and Colorado accompanist April Alsup, were given the opportunity to open this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest performing arts festival and one of the greatest celebrations of arts and culture on the planet. Each year, Greenside Venues randomly selects just twenty shows to open the festival. The event invites professional theatre guests and media from around to world to preview the works of several performing arts organizations who have traveled to Scotland to participate in the festival.
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| April Alsup with BANNED cast backstage at Riddle’s Court in Edinburgh Scotland |
It was the second year in a row for this troupe to be invited to perform in Edinburgh and expectations were high. Last year the group’s show Eigg the Musical received five-stars and became a local sensation for its stage portrayal of the community buyout of the small Isle of Eigg in the Scottish Hebrides. The show went on to be selected by Broadway World readers as the Best New Musical of 2023; naturally, everyone on both sides of the pond were delighted when April and her leadership team agreed to return in 2024.
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| BANNED cast performing "All we want is sex" to kick off the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival |
Early on, the team discussed how the new show needs to be different than “Eigg.” and the members decided to reinvent “WYSIWYG,” an April Alsup musical about the sensitive issues of online dating, gender and sexuality. The new musical has now become known as just “BANNED,” since it follows a group of gender misfits through the events leading up to their debut at a local performing arts festival. There were all sorts of clever marketing tactics deployed that followed the clandestine theatre troupe to the festival.
After opening night it was clear that the theatre troupe had another hit on their hands. The Scotsman, Scotland’s National Newspaper, gave the show four stars and praised the composer and the show's accompanist April Alsup. “The songs are strong and memorable, in nicely complex arrangements too – tunes are swapped back and forth in complicated ensemble numbers, and the cast offers glowing harmonies as well as vivid solos.” It also hailed the actors, the choreography and declared that “Online dating gets a merciless take-down, while the pleasures of sex are dutifully celebrated.”
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| April Alsup with BANNED cast and crew celebrating opening night in Edinburgh Scotland |
“Best of all, however, BANNED offers a deeply human perspective on issues of gender and sexual identity, its flawed characters navigating their own mistake-filled routes through pronouns, preferences and plenty more,” the review continued. “It’s a complex, compassionate show of missteps and misunderstandings, and one that warmly applies the tolerance it requests of others onto its own damaged but likeable characters.”
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| April Alsup outside Pollock Hall before heading home to Denver Colorado |
Theatrical success doesn’t come about in a vacuum; it really does take a village to mount a new musical production and Denver has a vast array of organizations that support the performing arts. From rehearsal spaces to performance venues, from theatre professionals to theatre goers, this community is the perfect place to incubate a meaningful, relevant and important show for international stages. For more information on “BANNED the Musical” or to watch a video of the Edinburgh performance run, visit www.banned.show.
