After years of hard work, Shakespeare receives the news he’s after: a publisher is willing to publish one of his tales. But there is a catch – the publisher needs Shakespeare to pick just one of his stories. Before long, the characters he had so carefully woven stage a revolt, each making a case for why they, above all, deserve to meet the readers. 

Puck sets the mischief in motion, and the rest follow him into open rebellion. Lear arrives with all the self-regard you would expect. Cleopatra has no intention of waiting her turn. The Macbeths campaign as a double act, and Juliet, Portia and Beatrice all have their own claims to press. What follows is part contest, part family argument, with each character pleading, scheming and performing for the right to be the one that makes it into print. 

The result is a score that carries the show from beginning to end. With Seth Farber as music director and orchestrations by James Conner, Hanna Andréa has written beautifully structured, intentional music and lyrics. Several of the songs would hold up entirely outside the show, which is something you can test for yourself: the concept album is already streaming. 

The song that will stay with most viewers, Romeo’s Dead, arrives when the other Shakespeare icons, and the audience, realize that Juliet doesn’t know how her lover’s story ends. And, the cast does the songs true justice. Each actor has a voice that deserves its Fringe moment, and The Cowbarn is the right room for them: a proper concert hall with fine acoustics, where nothing is hidden and nothing needs to be.

The show ends on a happy note. Faced with an impossible choice, Will refuses the publisher’s offer altogether. He realises that every one of these stories is worth telling and that each one of his characters is deserving, and he decides he will work to publish all of them himself, without trying to convince anyone else of their value. It is a lovely place to land for a show about the most celebrated writer in the language: not the Bard as chosen genius, but the Bard backing his own work and getting on with it.

That ending means rather more when you know where the show came from. Muse! began at Interlochen Arts Academy, where eleven students found themselves without roles in a school production and decided to stop waiting to be chosen. Guided by their teacher, the playwright Lisa Sanderson, and led musically by Andréa, they built their own show instead – which is to say that the story on stage and the story behind it are the same story. From that school room the production travelled to a presentation at the Clark Theatre at Lincoln Center, and now to one of Underbelly’s flagship venues at the world’s largest arts festival.

Muse: The Shakespeare Mayhem Musical is an exciting opportunity to see a new musical early in its life, made by young writers who aren’t waiting for permission, and to have the pleasure of hearing Hanna Andréa’s music.

MUSE: The Shakespeare Mayhem Musical plays The Cowbarn at Bristo Square, Underbelly as part of the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, until 30 August. The concept album is out now.

For tickets go to www.musethemusical.com

Words by Beril Naz Hassan