I LOVE going to the Edinburgh Fringe! There are hundreds of shows on offer, so I usually stick to shows that friends and favourite performers are in, writes Times theatre critic Kerry Black.

Last week, both my choices took me back to the days of the roaring twenties, an age of romance, prohibition, flappers and movie stars!

In a year when Kelty Musical just did Chicago, I feel like I have been well steeped in bootleg cocktails!

The smoky voiced chanteuse fae Cumbernauld, Christine Bovill, abandoned Piaf this year, to take to the stage of The Stand’s New Town Theatre to deliver a whole catalogue of twenties favourites, from Irving Berlin to Cole Porter, with a dash of Gershwin, she gave us a potted history of the post war years when women had the freedom to chop their hemlines and hair and hit the town, before the Wall Street crash sucked all their dreams away again.

With her usual brilliant jazz pianist Michael Crawley, plus Charlie Stewart on fiddle and double bass, this was a night to carry you back to the days of Chaplin and Fred Astaire, with a stunning showcase of classic songs such as Let’s Do It!, Smile, Puttin’ On The Ritz and a wonderfully wistful version of Bye, Bye, Blackbird! Brother, if you can spare a dime, head to the fringe to catch this wonderful show!

Lovers of classic musicals, will adore the brilliantly bonkers The Drowsy Chaperone, staged by Fife’s very own Kingdom Theatre (of Kelty Clippie fame).

This Tony Award winning show hurtles us through the decades via The Man In The Chair (the deliciously camp Derek Ward), as he sits between his brandy and gramophone, retelling the story of his favourite old musical while the record crackles to life.

It’s the classic musical theme of a show within a show, with every cliched character you would expect and much, much more in a night of tap dancing, roller-skating mayhem! The cast included a few well kent Fifers, with Darren Johnson and Steven Smyth (who both starred in Kelty’s Jesus Christ Superstar and Spamalot) in leading roles.

Darren played the debonair, matinee idol, The Groom, sparkling in a wonderful tap number, while Steven played the hilarious scenery chewing, lusty, Latin lothario Adolpho (think Zorro on speed)!

Meantime Pauline McGeevor (Adelaide in Kelty’s Guys and Dolls and Mabel in Lochgelly’s Mack and Mabel), played the utterly brilliant role of Kitty a dumb, blonde wannabe, who will do anything to get to the top. With a rampant cast of dancing waitresses, gangsters, upper class twits and the drunken Drowsy (or should that be drouthy?) Chaperone herself, this show left no accents unmangled as it left audiences roaring and laughing. To quote The Man In The Chair, “It does what a musical is supposed to do!” It even had a full live band! Full marks to the entire company!