SST Productions presents: ‘CHARLATAN’

Venue: Assembly @ Assembly Hall – Baillie RoomTime: 17.30

Los Angeles based Tony nominated veteran actor Tony Tanner returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe after a 47 year absence, with his critically acclaimed theatre production, CHARLATAN. He has one of the most impressive career arcs of any performer to have appeared there.

‘CHARLATAN’ is a memoir of Sergei Diaghilev, a man who changed the world of dance, and created the Ballets Russes. A towering figure in the world of art, Diaghilev was called the greatest Impresario of the 20th Century, and worked with creative giants such as Fokine, Picasso, Cocteau, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Chanel – and loved some of them as well! Spoken in first person, as if by the man himself, this show details the extraordinary moment when the Ballets Russes visited Paris for the first time in 1909 and started a revolution in the arts. Also examined, with pitiless honesty, is Diaghilev’s intense but ultimately tragic love for the dance genius Nijinsky.

With a long and distinguished career as an actor, writer, choreographer and director, Tony Tanner enjoyed a glittering stage and TV career in the UK before heading to the Edinburgh Festival in 1963 with his own revue ‘Fringe Faces’, while also performing with Gillian Lynne's dance show Collages. Both shows were so successful they were brought to the Arts Theatre and the Savoy Theatre in London, respectively. His most remembered role was as Littlechap in Stop the World I Want To Get Off at the Queen's theatre, and he subsequently starred in the Warner Brothers film version.

Following his success at home, Tony ventured to America in 1965 to assume the Tommy Steele role on Broadway in Half a Sixpence and then played the same role in the touring production. Other Broadway appearances were in No Sex Please, We’re British, opposite Maureen O’Sullivan and Sherlock Holmes. Tanner received two Tony nominations for his direction and choreography of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and in the same season his production of Taste of Honey was nominated for best revival.

See a clip of the production on YouTube.

Read a review on one4review