REVIEW: Skank Sinatra: How to Succeed in Show Business Without Really Trying, Jens Radda, EdFringe 2026 ★★★★ 

Glorious gowns, hilarious rewrites of showtunes as well as original songs and the voice of Liza Minnelli imparting wisdom… Skank Sinatra: How to Succeed in Show Business Without Really Trying ticks a lot of drag boxes. With the expected amount of sass and a whole lot of glamour, the multi-lingual queen takes her audience through a masterclass on, well, you’ve read the title.

There are some solid lessons –reading the script before signing a contract, for example, is very good advice – but the title is more of a loose concept, and I certainly don’t remember ever being to a masterclass with this many costume changes before.

Sinatra is clearly a seasoned performer, and her voice is smooth as anything – side note, any performer singing in their EdFringe show whilst also flyering out in the elements deserves far more respect than they’re getting. She puts on an incredibly polished, high-energy show with not a note or step out of place.

Transitions between segments are filled very nicely by a Liza Minnelli voiceover imparting advice and asking poignant questions; this enables Sinatra to change from one breathtaking outfit to another without the tension breaking.

Some of the musical highlights are an ode to Stanley Tucci, a very sexy rewrite of My Favourite Things and the closing number, a Danish-English rendition of Don’t Cry for Me Argentina. The space in-between songs is filled with snippets of Sinatra aka Jens Radda’s backstory; growing up between Denmark, South Africa and Australia. There is light social commentary with regards to racism in the latter two places specifically, but overall, this show sways on the entertaining rather than the political side of drag.

Whilst there is nothing wrong with that, I do wonder if – given the current climate for queer people – there is a version of this show that has more punch, more to say about the state of the world.

For what it is, however, it’s a brilliant hour of entertainment with a polished performance from Sinatra and the fantastic Minnelli impersonation delivered by Christine Pedi.

Recommended Drink: A martini – but just one (or two).

Performances of Skank Sinatra: How to Succeed in Show Business Without Really Trying have now concluded at EdFringe 2026.