Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Vagabond Skies: The Van Gogh Musical
Vagabond Skies
Genre: Biography, Historical, Musical Theatre
Venue: Gilded Balloon at the Museum
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
With an incredibly talented cast and interesting visual elements, this is a thoughtful show about the life of one of history’s most enigmatic artists.
Review
Vagabond Skies: The Van Gogh Musical is one of the latest musicals to hit the Edinburgh Fringe scene, and it’s a particularly poignant watch of a musical in its initial stages. Spanning Van Gogh’s life from 1880 as a preacher to his 1890 death in Arles, it stars a particularly strong cast of eleven with impressive singing skills throughout.
The visual elements in the set design were a thoughtful addition, especially given how visual Van Gogh’s artwork was, and the decision to incorporate this into the scenery was inventive. Likewise, the choreography was seamless, particularly in ‘Don’t Waste Your Time On Him,’ and the incorporation of Vincent and Theo’s letters into the lyrics added a personal touch.
The pacing seemed a little rushed, however, but that’s clearly a limitation of the hour-long time slot. It would massively benefit from being longer – especially as the musical is full of so many emotional beats. Allowing these scenes a moment to land would really help, especially as some songs were ended rather abruptly to let the next one start. Not that these beats didn’t land during this performance – some of the audience sat around me were clearly touched, particularly by the end – but more breathing room would allow these moments to land more effectively.
Vagabond Skies is realistically a musical about mental health, especially as that, alongside sunflowers, is what Van Gogh is particularly known for. It attempts to tackle this issue, but again, due to the time limitations, it felt a little underdeveloped. The idea of Vincent eating paint was never really explained, and the pacing seemed to skip wildly from his preaching career to his time in Arles. The asylum scene in particular would probably benefit from a little more nuance, especially in the choreography.
Overall, though, this is an impressive feat, with an incredibly talented cast and an inspiring story behind the musical’s creation. Most definitely worth a watch for art aficionados and musical theatre fans alike, it offers an hour of standout solos and high energy performances. Vagabond Skies is a diamond in the rough, and with a little more polish, it will likely reveal something beautiful.
