Roe McDonnell
My first musical of Edinburgh fringe 2025 came in the form of Jackie!!!, a hilarious but heartfelt parody biopic musical of the world’s favourite First Lady: full of charm, laughter and songs that will have you leave singing! The cast of 5 talented performers play almost 35 roles between them from the full Kennedy Family to Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe with costume changes being sometimes barely a few seconds!
Produced by Blair Russell Productions (Pop Off Michelangelo, DIVA: Live from Hell and Lizard Boy) you know you’re in safe hands, the quality of this production is unlike anything I’ve seen on such a small scale and I was walking out begging for more, an extended 2 act production? A regional tour? A London run? Who knows, all I know is more people need to hear the laughter and gasps I did in that auditorium.
The set and prop design is simple but serves its purpose with 2 sets of doors and a 45inch pure wood table (quoth Joseph Kennedy) that moves around and shapeshifts into comedic moments on purpose or not with multiple doors being left open in several moments and watching everyone on stage almost break trying to find the best moment to close them in the best way possible!
Nancy Edwards astounds as Jackie with her alto vocals and poignant performance throughout showing so much maturity for a young performer and portraying her effortlessly. She balanced ballads and comedic ensemble numbers with ease and if you didn’t know her name before, get used to seeing it.
Joe McNiece (John), Danny Colligan (Robert) and Luke Hickman (Joseph) take on the Kennedy’s toxicity and pompous nature strongly, balancing comedy -especially Colligan – and wickedness we see the truth of the toxic manipulative relationship all of them had with Jackie with Hickman providing chilling moment after chilling moment.
You can catch Jackie!!! until August 24th at Big Yin at Gilded Balloon Patter House from 18:30 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Image Credit: Max Alexander-Taylor
Jake Mace
Jasmine Silk
