Saved articles

You have not yet added any article to your bookmarks!

Log in

Don't have an account yet? Sign up

Create an account

Already have an account? Log in

Login Reminder

Remember your password? Log in

Terms of use

ATTENTION: This legal notice applies to the entire contents of the Website under the domain name broadwaybaby.com (Website) and to any correspondence by e-mail between us and you. Please read these terms carefully before using the Website. Using the Website indicates that you accept these terms regardless of whether or not you choose to register with us. If you do not accept these terms, do not use the Website. This notice is issued by the publishers of Broadway Baby ("the Company").

1.1 - By accessing any part of the Website, you shall be deemed to have accepted this legal notice in full. If you do not accept this legal notice in full, you must leave the Website immediately.
1.2 - The Company may revise this legal notice at any time by updating this posting. You should check the Website from time to time to review the then current legal notice, because it is binding on you. Certain provisions of this legal notice may be superseded by expressly designated legal notices or terms located on particular pages at the Website.

2.1 - You are permitted to print and download extracts from the Website for your own use on the following basis:
(a) no documents or related graphics on the Website are modified in any way
(b) no graphics on the Website are used separately from the corresponding text
(c) the Company's copyright and trade mark notices and this permission notice appear in all copies.
(d) you do not abuse the Company's database rights by re-creating a local copy of our data in any part.

2.2 - Unless otherwise stated, the copyright and other intellectual property rights in all material on the Website (excluding promotional images of shows provided by their producers) are owned by the Company or its licensors. For the purposes of this legal notice, any use of extracts from the Website other than in accordance with clause 2.1 for any purpose is prohibited. If you breach any of the terms in this legal notice, your permission to use the Website automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy any downloaded or printed extracts from the Website.

2.3 - Subject to clause 2.1, no part of the Website may be reproduced or stored in any other website or included in any public or private electronic retrieval system or service without the Company's prior written permission.

2.4 - Any rights not expressly granted in these terms are reserved.

3.1 - While the Company endeavours to ensure that the Website is normally available 24 hours a day, the Company shall not be liable if for any reason the Website is unavailable at any time or for any period.

3.2 - Access to the Website may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair or for reasons beyond the Company's control.

4.1 - Any comment you post to the Website shall be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. The Company shall have no obligations with respect to such material. The Company and its designees shall be free to copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate and otherwise use such material and all data, images, sounds, text and other things embodied therein for any and all commercial or non-commercial purposes.

4.2 - You are not permitted to use the commenting system to engage in ad hominem attacks on a Broadway Baby writer or use 'sock puppet' accounts to support an argument. You are welcome to use the commenting system to submit your own opinion about a show, but it is not provided as a platform to criticise the Company or its staff.

4.3 - You are prohibited from posting or transmitting to or from the Website any material:
(a) that is threatening, defamatory, obscene, indecent, seditious, offensive, pornographic, abusive, liable to incite racial hatred, discriminatory, menacing, scandalous, inflammatory, blasphemous, in breach of confidence, in breach of privacy or which may cause annoyance or inconvenience; or
(b) for which you have not obtained all necessary licences and/or approvals; or
(c) which constitutes or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise be contrary to the law of or infringe the rights of any third party, in any country in the world; or
(d) which is technically harmful (including, without limitation, computer viruses, logic bombs, Trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data or other malicious software or harmful data).

4.4 - All listing data on the Website including images and text is the sole responsibility of the person(s) or company who originated such content and we take no responsibility for any content contained therein.

4.5 - You may not misuse the Website (including, without limitation, by hacking or screen scraping).

4.6 - The Company shall fully co-operate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing the Company to disclose the identity or locate anyone posting any material in breach of clause 4.2 or clause 4.3.

4.7 - Images for all listings on this site have either been supplied to us under clause 4.3(b) & 4.4 or via a festival data feed such as EdFringe.com which has similar terms, and as such all claims for unauthorised use should be directed to the company or person(s) who created the original listing.

5.1 - Links to third party websites on the Website are provided solely for your convenience. If you use these links, you leave the Website. The Company has not reviewed all of these third party websites and does not control and is not responsible for these websites or their content or availability. The Company therefore does not endorse or make any representations about them, or any material found there, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you decide to access any of the third party websites linked to the Website, you do so entirely at your own risk.

5.2 - If you would like to link to the Website, you may only do so subject to the following conditions:
(a) you do not remove, distort or otherwise alter the size or appearance of the logo of Broadway Baby;
(b) you do not create a frame or any other browser or border environment around the Website;
(c) you do not misrepresent your relationship with the Company nor present any other false information about the Company;
(d) your website does not contain content that is distasteful, offensive or controversial, infringes any intellectual property rights or other rights of any other person or otherwise does not comply with all applicable laws and regulations.

5.3 - The Company expressly reserves the right to revoke the right granted in clause 5.2 for breach of these terms and to take any action it deems appropriate.

5.4 - You shall fully indemnify the Company for any loss or damage suffered by the Company or any of its group companies for breach of clause 5.2.

6.1 - Each registration is for a single user only. The Company does not permit you to share your user name and password with any other person nor with multiple users on a network.

6.2 - Responsibility for the security of any passwords issued rests with you.

7.1 - While the Company endeavours to ensure that the information on the Website is correct, the Company does not warrant the accuracy and completeness of the material on the Website. The Company may make changes to the material on the Website, or to the listings described in it, at any time without notice. The material on the Website may be out of date, and the Company makes no commitment to update such material.

7.2 - The material on the Website is provided "as is", without any conditions, warranties or other terms of any kind. Accordingly, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the Company provides you with the Website on the basis that the Company excludes all representations, warranties, conditions and other terms (including, without limitation, the conditions implied by law of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and the use of reasonable care and skill) which, but for this legal notice, might have effect in relation to the Website.

8.1 - The Company, any other party (whether or not involved in creating, producing, maintaining or delivering the Website), and any of the Company's group companies and the officers, directors, employees or agents of any of them, exclude all liability and responsibility for any amount or kind of loss or damage that may result to you or a third party (including without limitation, any direct, indirect, punitive or consequential loss or damages, or any loss of income, profits, goodwill, data, contracts, use of money, or loss or damages arising from or connected in any way to business interruption, and whether in tort (including without limitation negligence), contract or otherwise) in connection with the Website in any way or in connection with the use, inability to use or the results of use of the Website, any websites linked to the Website or the material on such websites, including but not limited to loss or damage due to viruses that may infect your computer equipment, software, data or other property on account of your access to, use of, or browsing the Website or your downloading of any material from the Website or any websites linked to the Website.

8.2 - Nothing in this legal notice shall exclude or limit the Company's liability for:
(a) death or personal injury caused by negligence (as such term is defined by the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977; or
(b) fraud; or
(c) misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter; or
(d) any liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

8.3 - If your use of material on the Website results in the need for servicing, repair or correction of equipment, software or data, you assume all costs thereof.

This legal notice shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. Disputes arising in connection with this legal notice shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

Do you agree to our terms? Sign up

Seeing Double! - Doppelgängers at Edinburgh Fringe 2026

After doing so much research on your characters, what’s your favourite misconception about them that people might not know?

I’ve actually been approached to perform at the Conservative party conference but I don’t think I’d make it out alive.

Richard Shelton: Frank Sinatra was a contradiction. Whilst his fabled temper and anger is the stuff of legend, his generosity, unspoken kindness and fight for civil rights is lesser known. For example, on reading about a strangers medical plight, he would pay for their bills. On learning a musician colleague lost his house in a fire, Sinatra paid for it to be re-built. On hearing a fan queued 5 hours to get his autograph, he gave her his most precious cufflinks and when asked why he gave them away, he replied, "Everything we have is borrowed. If you can’t afford to give it away, you can’t afford it.” When Sammy Davis Jr. lost his eye in an accident, Sinatra insisted he moved in with him until he was steady enough to face the world again. Sinatra single-handedly helped change civil rights for African Americans in Las Vegas saying. “If it’s not good enough for Sammy Davis Jr.,Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson to walk through the front door with me, then get yourself a new kid. I’m done.”

Kayla Boye: Modern audiences may associate Elizabeth Taylor with her fabulous jewelry, her perfumes, her marriages, and her celebrity friendships. Some of these aspects have evolved into the stuff of legend, but at the heart of Elizabeth's character was her authenticity, compassion, and love. Those are the traits I try to reveal in Call Me Elizabeth.

Mike Hatchard: Beethoven’s anger and tempestuousness is well-known but some sources indicate that, when playing the piano, contrary to popular assumption, he sat very still and focused. This is a good thing as far as I’m concerned because attempting to play the right notes when you’re making wild gesticulations is quite a challenge.

Matt Tedford: Few people would describe Maggie as a sex symbol - but you’d be surprised by how many Tories have approached me after the show to tell me that she was their first… “crush”. I’ve actually been approached to perform at the Conservative party conference but I don’t think I’d make it out alive. I’d be like the rabbit at a greyhound track. Also - very few people are aware of Mrs Thatcher’s time in Hollywood as one of the biggest movie stars on earth… but our show is here to inform people.

Where did your interest in this character come from?

RS: From childhood. I saw a photograph of the boy, Sinatra, in a magazine and said to my mother, "Who is this person, Frank Sinatra? He looks like me!” My mother skeptically looked at the picture and agreed! The similarity is still there - we are both 5’,7” and I own and wear one of Sinatra’s tuxedo’s which I’m bringing to the Fringe. When I was 14 I used to listen to his, ‘My Way’ album and simply understood the cadence in his voice, what he meant lyrically. I could feel the pain of, ‘Didn’t we almost make it, this time?’ or the jubilation of, ‘And here’s to you, Mrs Robinson’ or ‘Hallelujah I just love her so’. Great songs. When I first portrayed him in Rat Pat Confidential on the London stage, it was more a question of him inhabiting me, so what came through me was pure evocation. An alchemy, if you like.

KB: I was first introduced to Elizabeth when I was 11 years old, when my grandparents showed me National Velvet on Turner Classic Movies. Seeing this little girl light up the screen with her intelligence, passion, and joy ignited something similar in me, and I have been a lifelong fan ever since.

MH: From a very early age; GCSE music at school had little to do with actual music, it was mostly about the lives of the great composers. Mozart was always presented as a savant. All the others seemed as formal and stiff as they looked. Beethoven was the exception, he always sounded like the world’s first rock star (I was educated at a time when throwing a telly out of a hotel bedroom was becoming almost passée; it wasn’t hard to imagine Beethoven doing this). The music teacher at my school who hated music that wasn’t ‘legit’ (a breed of music teacher that has now almost totally vanished) often looked uncomfortable talking about Beethoven, almost apologetic...as a natural rebel I enjoyed his discomfort enormously.

MT: Honestly, it all started as a Halloween costume! In 2012, I went to my friend Jon Brittain’s Halloween party dressed as the Iron Lady and 6 months later we had a show. I’d always been fascinated by Thatcher. What gay man isn't obsessed with a powerful woman? Growing up in the North-West, during the era of Section 28, with Tory grandparents - she loomed large in my life even though she wasn’t Prime Minister anymore. When I put on the costume I was surprised to find I had absorbed so much of her voice and mannerisms, she came out fully formed. Since then, I’ve travelled the world as Maggie - I often joke that I’m the only Northerner she’s actually given a job to.

What aspect of your character’s life seems surprisingly modern?

RS: His constant questioning of things, his curiosity and compassion. It’s easy to think of our icons as complete people because that’s how we see them in retrospect. But they were, in their own turn, on a journey facing dilemmas and life’s ups and downs. For instance, in Sinatra: One Last Shot we meet a man in his 60’s at a fork in the road when disco reigns supreme and Sid Viscous has just recorded a punk version of My Way. What does it feel like to face professional redundancy and being passed over when you once ruled the music world? Far from turning his back on it, he embraced the change and worked with it. I think that’s a modern perspective, and a great way to live. We face huge changes in society today. You can’t remain in aspic and dream of yesterday - you have to keep moving forwards and embrace change in order to survive and thrive.

KB: At a time when the studio system dominated the entertainment industry, Elizabeth was not afraid to speak up and advocate for herself and others. She carried that fearlessness with her throughout her life, channeling that into her activism in the fight against AIDS.

MH: A few things:

1) Single-parenthood.

In spite of having no partner Beethoven fought tooth and nail to become a surrogate father to his nephew Karl on the demise of his brother Carl. He described this as ‘rescuing’ him from his mother Johanna Reiss and declared himself ‘the true father.’ In view of his chaotic nature and the struggles his afflictions were causing him it seems extraordinary that he would have pursued such a course and it isn’t surprising it ended distrastrously, with the courts ultimately finding against Beethoven and the attempted suicide of his nephew.

2) An inability to multiply.

From his notebooks it’s clear that if Beethoven wanted to work out twelve times twelve he would do so by adding twelve to twelve eleven times, annotating each individual stage of the process. In this regard he was likely a modern computer that effectively does the same thing.

3) Playing on the offbeat.

Most classical music (in quarter time) has a strong first beat to the bar and a slightly less strong third beat at the half bar. Beethoven often writes across this, emphasising the ‘offbeat’ (second and fourth beats). This appears as early as his first sonata which is otherwise Haydnesque. The obsession with the offbeat is the basis of much jazz and rock music. Whilst it would be silly to say Beethoven ‘invented’ jazz he certainly nodded very strongly towards it, particularly in his final piano sonata (Op. 111) which features heavy syncopation and structures similar to ragtime.

MT: She was a modern woman who had it all. The career, the power, the country, the loving family… and Carol. Yes, her values were quite Victorian and she certainly didn’t feel the need to give any other women a helping hand (a theme which may crop up in our new show) but purely on her own terms, she had a work/life balance that would make most millennials vote green with envy. All it took was grit, determination and an extremely wealthy husband. And now she gets to be a gay icon and a Hollywood legend. She achieved it all.

If your subject could see Edinburgh Fringe 2026, what would their reaction be?

RS: I think he’d love it! He’d certainly love the late nights and the raucous bars. I think he’d be in the thick of it, turning up at the most surprising venues seeing obscure shows. Not necessarily the big, famous acts, but discovering festival magic and laughing with strangers in the wee small hours, before hitting the pavement in search of a new tomorrow.

KB: Elizabeth loved living life to the fullest - I think she would try to see as many shows as possible!

MH: I think Beethoven would hate the overwhelming nature of it...and probably observe that deafness is not without certain advantages.

MT: She’d think it was a perfect capitalist utopia. Huge amounts paid to private landlords, a competitive marketplace rewarding or punishing shows in real time, and so much choice for the consumer. Yes, unfortunately it’s full of liberals and bohemians working hard to create art (yuck!) - but because of the crippling amount of debt they have to incur to put on shows, they have no choice afterwards but to join the workforce and become productive members of society. Also, she’d have privatised the microphones.

James Macfarlane

Broadway Baby's Comedy Editor and Scotland Editor. In a previous life James did the same thing for ScotsGay. But we poached him.

Such a Drag - Drag Artists to Look Out for in August 2026