Love is in the air, or will be, at Edinburgh Fringe this August, when a heart-throb of legendary lovers come together in an exciting new musical that finds the conniving Casanova, star-crossed Romeo, clandestine Cyrano de Bergerac and wicked Marquis de Sade all vying to be the best of the best.
World’s Greatest Lover comes to The Pleasance Courtyard direct from New York. Directed and choreographed by Broadway’s Emmy Award-winning Joshua Bergasse, it finds the renowned ladies’ men brought together by the mysterious Val, who sets them a challenge; each must discover the truth about love. But as they flirt, fight and battle their way to that understanding, which one of them will ultimately earn the title the World’s Greatest Lover.
Commissioned by producers Marc Routh and Simone Genatt of Broadway International Group, and written by Julien Salvia and Ludovic-Alexandre Vidal, World’s Greatest Lover is the boyband musical you never knew you needed.
Bergasse says, “I’m so excited to bring World’s Greatest Lover to Edinburgh. It’s such a fun and funny show with great songs, energetic dances and hysterical characters. I can’t wait for Fringe audiences to see what we’ve been cooking up.”
Bergasse first became involved in the production, having previously worked with Routh on a production of Smokey Joe’s Cafe, he recalls, “Marc reached out to me about this project before there was even a script or song to listen to. I loved the idea of these iconic characters interacting together and instantly saw how much fun that could be. What attracted me to the project was that it promised to be energetic, with terrific music and dance and really funny characters, but best of all it didn’t take itself too seriously.”
Numerous workshops and concert performances followed that initial approach ahead of World’s Greatest Lover’s World Premiere this August – it comes to the Scottish capital directly from tryouts in New York, bringing with it the same cast; the mysterious Val is played by Rickens Anantua, with Sam Hyre as Romeo, Will Ingram as Cyrano, Daniel DiPinto as Casanova and Jordon Bolden, as the Marquis de Sade.
“The reception in New York was pretty wonderful,” beams Bergasse. “It’s a comedy, so the audience is an integral part of the process and we learned a great deal from their responses. We kept tweaking the show with each performance to get it where it needed to be. This will be my first time at the Fringe in any capacity. I’ve heard so many terrific things about it from colleagues for many years and have always been very jealous of them. I can’t wait to finally experience it for myself, and for the audiences there to experience our show.”
Someone else excited to be coming to Edinburgh for the first time is cast member Bolden. He landed the role of the Marquis de Sade having taken part in musical workshop and concert versions of the show while it was in development.
He recalls, “I actually got so accustomed to just singing the role that, when I got an audition and had to dance choreography by Josh Bergasse, that’s when I started to feel nervous. I had to ‘smash it’. When I got the role, it felt like my Tinder profile picture just got sexier… and to be honest, it did,” he laughs, adding, “I just feel so lucky to be part of this show, beyond excited; I’ve never been to Scotland and I’m desperate to go for a pint and some Haggis.”
For Bolden, it’s also great fun to be playing the much reviled nobleman and libertine who lent his name to the term sadism, a concept where sexual gratification and the infliction of pain meet.
The actor reflects, “The Marquis de Sade is dangerous, tying people up and all that, but he must’ve been a real person too. I like him because he’s an outsider, a weirdo. He looks at all the ways people love and has the courage to reject what doesn’t serve him until he ‘feels’ it; yeah, there’s pain involved, but let’s be honest, who doesn’t like a little pain?”
Bergasse adds, “One thing I love about this show is that each actor gets plenty of moments to shine. The characters all have their own song to help the audience learn who they are and what their ‘love philosophy’ is. These are great moments for our cast to really show off their talents, that’s really fun to watch.”
Bolden chips in, “I have this idea, that when we make it to Broadway we should play the show roulette-style. Each cast member will pick a character’s name out of a hat and play that role on that night.” he adds, with a laugh, “Of course, if the producers use this idea, I will require 10%…”
As for Bergasse, who will no doubt be watching the lovers battle for the ultimate accolade from the wings every night, which of the greatest lovers does he relate to the most? “Ah, good question. Maybe Romeo, but I’m sure I have a little bit of all of them in me,” he says.
Bolden, however, gets the last word when asked how he would persuade anyone thinking of buying tickets to commit and do exactly that?
He laughs and without hesitation says, ”Hot guys, sexy vocals, questionably enlarged crotch pads. Do you really need anything else?”
World’s Greatest Lover runs at the Pleasance Courtyard from 31 July-24 August 2025, 6pm, tickets here.
This feature was commissioned for syndication by the Broadway International Group
