2007 was the year that…

Drags Aloud made their Edinburgh Debut with Sound Of Music The Drag Show, blowing away their audiences in a swirl or glamour, glitter and false eyelashes. Dillie Keane gave an award winning performance in Frank and Dolly, and Leslie Lewis Sword, a fringe first timer, floored the critics and touched the hearts of her audiences with her true story, one-woman show, Miracle in Rwanda.

Glasgow based sketch comedy show ‘Ugly Kid’ bought the crowds in and the house down in the afternoons with a sell-out run in the balcony, while Deborah Frances White helped keep the afternoons fully charged by making promises to her packed houses that she could get almost anyone to sleep with them.

Tony Blair The Musical brought some political depth to the Gilded Balloon programme and long queues to the box office. Meanwhile other musical delights included Shoo Shoo Baby and the gorgeous Ali McGregor, who gave us Opera Burlesque in the afternoons and Late Nite Variety in the night. Also rocking us to the dawn was the increasingly popular ‘Phat Cave’ for its fourth consecutive year and our ever outrageous ‘Late ‘n’ Live’.

Many of Gilded Balloon’s old friends returned home, Karen Dunbar was back after her sell out season at GB in ’06. Phil Kay and Barry Cryer did what they do best, meanwhile Greg Fleet, Sean Hughes and Rhona Cameron all returned to the roost after many years away and showed they ain’t lost any of that ol’ magic.

Chat Shows were a popular format with both Stephen K Amos and Scotland’s sunbed socialist Tommy Sheridan drawing in top guests, in particular Christian Slater, who called in to see Stephen K Amos for a natter on his last night. And to round off the wide range of treats at GB ’07 we had four nights of spoken word from the sharp-tongued, multi-talented and super-charged Henry Rollins.

And Richard Sandling became the the 20th winner of So You Think You’re Funny? with his style of comedy which combined a love of life with a quick wit, booming voice, and an encyclopedic knowledge of every single movie that has ever been made, ever.

AWARDS
Stage Awards Best Actress – Dillie Keane ‘Frank and Dolly’
Fringe Review Theatre Award – Sting for Nolte

NOMINATIONS
Stage Award for Best Actor Daniel Pirrie – Sting for Nolte
Total Theatre Awards Best Original Work by an Ensemble Game -Tangled Feet