‘Made in Scotland' (STV 6/8/09) screened a short piece illustrating that this country has the greatest concentration of ‘Gingers' in the world.
Given that the BBC's One Show did something similar on name-calling of people with that particular hair-colouring, then it is entirely appropriate that ‘Gingers the Musical' should have its first outing on the Edinburgh Fringe.
It's a show that grows as it develops but the theme is one running joke about the prejudice shown to people with red or ginger hair.
The eight characters are drawn from a mixture of societal groups, inevitably stereotypes, but are well drawn and immediately recognisable by the audience.
The dialogue and lyrics of the songs are clever and the music style is varied and reflects the character taking the lead vocal.
The cast individually are all credible in their roles and the ensemble pieces work very well with the ‘camels' and ‘Asian' choreography inventive.
The plot is that all the characters are at a form of camp for people who need some therapy about the problems of ‘being ginger.' The banner that ‘beauty is in the heart not in the hair' says it all and the show is about the anguish that the characters feel about their hair colouring.
The show has some adult themes and therefore not suitable for children. An 11.15am slot is not ideal for this show, but show scheduling is always an issue in a busy, shared venue at festival time.
The opening scenes were a bit too strident and heavy-footed for me and it took me a few minutes to convince me that this was going to be good but once that was overcome, the eight girls produced a really enjoyable show.