Martin Milnes wowed audiences at the George Square press launch on Friday 7th August. One member of the Broadway Baby team arrived late and listened from outside thinking ‘she’s got a good pair of lungs’ as Milnes’ stormed through ‘As Long As He Needs Me’ from the part of Nancy in Oliver!. We immediately sought out him out afterwards!

Born ‘inexplicably’ with a vocal range just over four octaves, it seems Martin’s been quietly developing a reputation in London, where his performance in the Union Theatre’s all-male Mikado was described as ‘the star turn of the evening’ by the Evening Standard, and earlier in the year he toured as support to Alistair McGowan. His appearance at the Edinburgh Festival is his debut solo show and features operatic arias, musical showtunes and popular numbers from the 20th century – and apparently some are sung in his equally strong tenor voice, to the relief of all eardrums in the vicinity.

Click here to download ‘Poor Wand’ring One’, performed by Martin ‘The Falsetto’ Milnes (vocals) and Michael ‘The Fingers’ Baxter (piano).

Martin ‘The Falsetto’ Milnes plays Musical Theatre @ George Square for the Edinburgh Festival, to 31st August at 9.15pm. His new EP is available at the venue for £5.

Sweet Entertainments directors Julian Caddy and Maria Lagos are excited about recreating a centralised location for all performers to congregate, network and display their work: ‘As the Fringe has grown, it has also become more fractured and what has been lost is what most people who come to the Festival want – a place to hang out that’s not simply venue-based, a place where everyone can get together in order to experience the true Fringe atmosphere of support and creativity. We’re recreating the essence of the Fringe Club which used to exist in years gone by and are pleased that many independent venues including C Venues, Zoo, Augustine’s, The Vault, New Town Theatre and Universal Arts @ St George’s West share and support our vision.’

Aside from scheduled performances, there will also be a variety of free open mic performances every night until late with discounted drinks for performers and staff from all Fringe Venues. Users themselves will shape the daily programme of events at the venue.

A free Performers’ Centre welcomes performers to meet, collaborate, receive advice and find out information from promoters, venues and the Fringe itself. Sweet is also encouraging people to make new connections and artistic collaborations and will be offering low cost rehearsal spaces for all performers.

Broadway Baby will have a base in the new centre for reviewers and performers alike to interact at the heart of the Festival.

Local company FringeGuru, in association with ThreeWeeks, Broadway Baby, FringeReview and Festival Previews, is proud to present iFringe – the first-ever guide to the Edinburgh Festival for the Apple iPhone. Bringing together reviews and video clips from all five sites, the brand-new technology shows different critics’ views side-by-side, eliminating the need to trawl websites and at last empowering busy Fringe-lovers to pick a great show on the move.

Making full use of the iPhone’s high-tech features, iFringe is an entirely new way to enjoy the best of the world’s largest arts festival. Using the phone’s inbuilt GPS, iFringe links Fringe-goers with great shows about to start near to them – cutting through the confusion and enabling a spontaneous, interactive day, without hassle or fuss. For those who prefer to plan ahead, iFringe downloads reviews to read at leisure, even learning the user’s own likes and dislikes. And the iPhone’s high-speed 3G connection is perfect for multi-media, with over 100 videos from Festival Previews slated to appear in iFringe this year.

Pete Shaw, Publisher of Broadway Baby said of the project, "Broadway Baby is very excited to be involved with iFringe and working collaboratively with partner sites covering the Festival, not only on this, but on other joint projects that will enhance the Fringe experience for the audience in Edinburgh this August. iFringe is sure to become an essential tool in the pocket of anyone who wants to get the most out of the ever-burgeoning programme."

As well as the all-important reviews, iFringe features venue guides, mystery-shopper reports and up-to-date news, making it an all-in-one reference for a perfect Fringe. And the Festival experience needn’t end at the theatre doors, as iFringe’s database of locally-recommended bars and restaurants helps the entertainment go on into the night.

A free version of iFringe gives Festival-goers the latest reviews at no cost, and for dedicated audience members, a full version of iFringe gives them all published reviews for just £2.99: less than half the cost of the average ticket. The initial response has been overwhelming, with hundreds of downloads in the first two weeks – some from places as far-flung as Brazil, Australia and China. Working with many of the Festival’s biggest independent review magazines, iFringe looks set to achieve its mission: to guide the world’s Festival-lovers to the Fringe’s hidden gems.

Chris Cooke, Co-Editor of Three Weeks said "We look forward to this becoming as essential a tool for 'doing Edinburgh' as the Fringe programme itself".