Issy van Randwyck is a star of the musical stage: a triple Olivier Award nominee for various West End productions and one third of the sassy cabaret act, Fascinating Aida. In a recent show, Dead Divas, celebrating the life and times of Joplin, Carpenter, Holliday, Monroe et al, a review described Ms van Randwyck as "the fizziest talents in British showbiz."
Now that fizzing talent has arrived at the Assembly Rooms in a brand new one-woman play, Becoming Marilyn.
Issy was surely born to play Marilyn Monroe - the slim figure, rounded, gentle face, cheekbones, blond hair, dazzling eyes, and sweet husky voice.
A Hollywood dressing room is the setting with chaise longue and dressing table cluttered with all the essentials - lipstick, bottle of pills, cocktail glass and bottle of Dom Perignon.
"We're ready for you now, Miss Monroe" is the call from the studio, and (after a pause), Marilyn glides on stage in red glittering frock, silver heels and perfectly permed platinum blonde hair.
Over the next hour, in an amazingly concise yet comprehensive theatrical "biopic," we hear of her unhappy childhood, marriage at 16, casting couch auditions and the road to success when Norma Jeane bleached her hair and stepped through the looking glass to become Marilyn, her alter ego. This is the premise behind the show, how Marilyn had to escape Norma Jeane's shadow and her former identity as a little girl lost, from teenage housewife to "house girl" at the modelling agency.
Like a living Warhol screenprint, Ms Van Randwyck exudes every aspect of the glamorous persona, the conflicting public confidence and private insecurity and her blatant sexuality she flaunted to snare Arthur Miller, JFK and Robert Kennedy.
Snippets of her movie songs ("I want to be loved by you") neatly punctuate the narrated story of her life.
When the limelight slowly dims and acting lessons with Lee Strasberg are seen as a joke, the masquerade of being Marilyn begins to fade. Without stardom, who is she but the innocent child, Norma Jeane beneath the makeup and peroxide wig.
It was her tragic, untimely death which ironically saves her: the ever-youthful iconic Hollywood image of Marilyn has always endured with endless fascination since her "probable suicide" in 1962.
This deliciously charming and chic wee show is the perfect witty and poignant afternoon entertainment on the Fringe.
Times: 6-31 August, 3.10pm.