All stories by Rachael Healy on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Magdalena, Woman of Joy review – sex, sin and saintliness with a tour de force host by Rachael Healy

Playhouse East, LondonLily Sinko rages, writhes, provokes and teases her way through the horrifying life story of her storyteller with cartoonish abandon Magdalena appears from the dark, per…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AM
Wednesday, June 4, 2025

‘This could be our last year’: student comedy troupes priced out of Edinburgh fringe by Rachael Healy

Nish Kumar among comedians warning that rising costs could stop university revues visiting the festival ‘I don’t have any family connections in comedy or television, my leg up was that I…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:42AM
Sunday, May 25, 2025

Outpatient review – a journalist seeks the inside scoop on death by Rachael Healy

Park theatre, LondonOlive was happy to probe strangers about their mortality – but struggles to face her own ‘It’s weird we don’t talk about it,” declares journalist Olive, the alt…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:42PM
Monday, May 12, 2025

Overshare review – provocative tour inside a livestreamed breakdown by Rachael Healy

Greenwich Theatre, LondonExpanding her Edinburgh hit, Eleanor Hill replicates her Instagrammed mental health crisis and confronts the destructive compulsion to broadcast it all online Social…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48AM
Friday, April 25, 2025

‘It’s Fleabag’s home – the audience is unshockable’: Phoebe Waller-Bridge and more on 25 years of Soho theatre by Rachael Healy

The central London institution champions new talent, amplifies LGBTQ+ voices and always takes risks. With a new outpost opening in Walthamstow, artists discuss how the West End venue is not …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:32AM
Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Dulcé Sloan review – former Daily Show correspondent’s dispatches from family life by Rachael Healy

Soho theatre, LondonUK-specific jokes land well as Sloan shapes the energy in a packed room with a slightly incoherent show held together by her charisma Dulcé Sloan, a seven-year veteran …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:12AM
Thursday, March 6, 2025

‘One slip and I’d be lost in the flood’: shocking report reveals dangers of jobs in the arts by Rachael Healy

From dancers breaking bones to camera crews forced to take terrible risks, stage and screen jobs can be hugely hazardous, says a scathing new report. We meet workers who feel ‘disposable�…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:36AM
Saturday, February 22, 2025

Actor Temi Wilkey: ‘No one saw me as a Blanche DuBois or a Juliet’ by Rachael Healy

Her one-woman show Main Character Energy has been a long time coming, with the writer-performer trying drag, standup and clowning to find her funny voice. ‘You have to put yourself in the …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36PM
Friday, January 24, 2025

Amy Annette: Thick Skin review – tales of 00s teenhood teleport you to the dancefloor by Rachael Healy

Soho theatre, LondonAnnette’s stage presence shines in a show full of vivid observations, campy asides and nostalgic pop culture Amy Annette is the sort of woman who’d rather drop her ph…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AM
Friday, January 17, 2025

Rob Copland on his head-banging, daredevil comedy: ‘I want it to feel like a punk rock show’ by Rachael Healy

Featuring moshpits and acrobatics, the comic’s wildly physical brand of standup leaves audiences buzzing for hours. Now he’s taking his Edinburgh award-winning set on tour – if he can…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:32PM
Monday, November 11, 2024

‘People feel terrible. They want to laugh’: can comedy make light of Trump 2.0? by Rachael Healy

A second Donald Trump presidency may be darker than the first, but his victory has unleashed the creative energies of satirists and standups “When Trump first won, there was almost a nove…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AM

Alternative comedian Joe Kent-Walters: ‘I used to do a strip tease with carrier bags’ by Rachael Healy

The Yorkshire-born standups’s surreal take on a working men’s club has bagged him comedy awards and a BBC radio pilot. But even as he dreams of a Mrs Merton-style talkshow, he’s still …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AM
Saturday, November 2, 2024

Edinburgh fringe artists owed up to £15k each amid venue’s dispute with HMRC by Rachael Healy

Performers who staged work at Summerhall have not been paid as firm that runs site challenges corporation tax claim Artists and theatre companies who staged work at the major Edinburgh fring…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24PM
Tuesday, October 15, 2024

‘I will be hunted down for my Taylor Swift jokes!’ Rose Matafeo on her scary return to standup by Rachael Healy

She won comedy’s top award, reinvented the romcom and now hosts Junior Taskmaster. So why does the New Zealand comic need Buddhist podcasts to get through the day? Rose Matafeo is bad at e…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:42PM
Monday, October 14, 2024

‘Now I only do dick jokes when I want to’: how Texan standup Kemah Bob found freedom in Britain by Rachael Healy

Their Miss Fortunate show – which takes in bipolar disorder, financial ruin and a shocking scamming in Thailand – will ‘take the charge paddles to the chest’ of a comedy career that …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:12AM
Friday, October 4, 2024

‘We want to put audiences on edge’: the team bringing A24 horror film Saint Maud to the stage by Rachael Healy

A new theatre adaptation is giving Rose Glass’s creepy tale of religious obsession an industrial north-east slant – but it hasn’t lost the film’s fear factor “We’re telling a sto…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:24AM
Friday, September 20, 2024

Princess Essex review – black beauty queen turns Edwardian idiocy on itself by Rachael Healy

Shakespeare’s Globe, LondonVaudevillian musical stages the story of a woman who cast herself as Princess Dinubolu of Senegal to become a beauty queen in 1908 Southend In Southend-on-Sea, 1…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:06PM
Friday, August 23, 2024

A marathon of mirth and stress: comics with chronic health issues on completing Edinburgh fringe by Rachael Healy

The festival’s relentless pace is demanding for performers, especially with an underlying health condition. Three acts explain how their month has gone An hour before she was due on stage …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54PM
Thursday, August 22, 2024

Rob Copland: Gimme (One With Everything) review – mesmeric controlled chaos by Rachael Healy

Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh It starts with boundless energy … then gathers momentum, as this comic’s silliness builds a tale of desperate ambition Rob Copland rockets into the room, pur…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:42PM
Tuesday, August 13, 2024

After Baby Reindeer: how comedians are telling true stories of trauma and toxic relationships by Rachael Healy

There are benefits and perils in talking about your personal experiences – as Richard Gadd found after his TV show went viral. So how are Edinburgh acts handling it this year? ‘If you’…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:00AM
Saturday, August 10, 2024

Batshit review – grandma’s moving story highlights pathologisation of women’s mental health by Rachael Healy

Traverse theatre, EdinburghLeah Shelton plays her grandmother, incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital, in this one-woman show that draws on research, recordings and videos to link 1960s Aust…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:46AM
Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Ugly Sisters review – deft duo riff on Germaine Greer’s encounter with a trans woman by Rachael Healy

Underbelly Cowgate, EdinburghCharli Cowgill and Laurie Ward revisit an article by the author of The Female Eunuch in this thought-provoking hour ‘Thank you so much for all you have done fo…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:10AM
Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Chris Thorburn: Cineman review – heard the one about Sex Times at Spring Break High? by Rachael Healy

The Stand, EdinburghThis movie-mad comic lampoons Hollywood through sketch and song but some of his material could have been left in the cutting room Films are the best art form, declares Ch…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:00AM
Monday, August 5, 2024

Rachel Fairburn: Side Eye review – devilish, seven-headed humour by Rachael Healy

Monkey Barrel, the Hive, Edinburgh The acerbic standup delivers a character-comedy show playing some captivatingly awful yet extremely relatable individuals A scouse woman in a glittery head…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:33AM
Sunday, August 4, 2024

Main Character Energy review – boudoir cabaret deconstructs Temi Wilkey’s inner celeb by Rachael Healy

Roundabout @ Summerhall, Edinburgh The writer-performer’s playful show sends up actorly tropes while battling intrusive thoughts that could derail her bid for stardom Temi Wilkey is chasin…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:10AM
Thursday, August 1, 2024

Fringe benefits: 10 of the best shows to catch at this year’s Edinburgh festival by Rachael Healy

From ruminations on life, love and being Keir Starmer to dance-theatre unpacking toxic masculinity, here’s our pick of 2024’s ‘Burgh necessities Edinburgh fringe comics pitch their own…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00AM
Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Edinburgh festival 2024: six of the funniest comedians at the fringe by Rachael Healy

Looking for rising stars this summer? Try gossipy standup, an end-of-the-pier homage and a ‘gay witch sex cult’ Frankie Monroe, the impish proprietor of a working men’s club who has ma…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:12AM
Sunday, July 21, 2024

From OnlyFans to medical trials - the extreme measures artists take to fund Edinburgh festival shows by Rachael Healy

Crowdfunding and finding patrons are among less painful options as cost of performing at the fringe soars In the run-up to the Edinburgh festival fringe last year, comedian John Tothill was …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AM
Friday, July 19, 2024

‘It’s about how you find hope after abuse’: Laura Horton on Alan Partridge’s PA and coercive control by Rachael Healy

Downtrodden sitcom assistant Lynn Benfield is the inspiration for a play about a woman who escapes a relationship and starts a band. Its creator explains why its more true-to-life than you�…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:02PM
Sunday, July 14, 2024

Live comedy in UK has become serious business worth £1bn a year, study claims by Rachael Healy

Researchers say standups’ contribution is unsung, and hope findings will help to bolster the industry’s credibility The live comedy industry in the UK contributes more than £1bn to the …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:42AM

‘Is it nostalgia or were the 90s just wicked?’: millennial artists revive ‘Cool Britannia’ era by Rachael Healy

Fashion and music from the 90s are with us again - not to mention a Labour landslide. Next month’s Edinburgh fringe will capture the mood As Labour swept to a landslide win on 4 July to th…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AM