Review: FEELING PRETTY, Buttermoon Productions - Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Online)

Photo credit: Nardus Engelbrecht

Having already played to sold-out audiences in South Africa, Buttermoon Productions are currently presenting Feeling Pretty, a new musical performance centring around female empowerment, online as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Feeling Pretty is set in the recording studio of a fictitious radio station 'Good Time Radio' and sees the trio of Ariella Barnett as Raquel, Amy Reed as Belle and Liné Koen as Michelle, performing classic songs, mixed in with dance and good comedy. Ariella, Amy and Liné all serve as the creative team and make for a fabulous trio with excellent voices.

The show opens with a medley of songs including 'You're Never Fully Dressed With Out A Smile' from Annie and Cole Porter's De-Lovely and rattles through musical numbers interspersed with sponsor messages, calls from listeners and messages from never seen host John Smith. The show does feels more of a song cycle with with very little plot involved or character development.

Whilst it takes a good 25 minutes for the show to get going, its best moments come in the heartfelt solo numbers with Amy giving a beautiful rendition of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's song 'Pretty Funny' and with line delivering Sara Bareilles' 'A Safe Place To Land'. Both are beautifully performed with real feeling. There's also a stonking good rendition of The Greatest Showman's empowering number 'This Is Me'.

The performance is saved by the strength of the voices, which are undoubtedly great but as a whole, it doesn’t quite hit the right airwaves.

*** Three stars

Reviewed by: Mark Johnson

Feeling Pretty is currently available to stream here.