For those who, one week in to the Fringe, are already exhausted from pushing past the bustling crowds and avoiding people constantly trying to jam a flyer into your hand, you would do well do book a ticket for Cocktails with Coward.
This sophisticated and quite delightful hour is a breath of fresh air, a million miles from shouting comedians and attention grabbing dramatics; it follows excerpts, skits, musical numbers and instrumental pieces from the work of the playwright, director, song writer and all-round charmer Noel Coward. With such fantastic material to work with you need some of the best talent around to do it justice and award winning impersonator Alistair McGowan and gifted Charlotte Page are just those people. They both bring a much needed bittersweet charm to the production, wringing out as many laughs as possible from the sketches one minute and tenderly handling doomed romance the next. As great as these moments are, it is when they begin to sing that the production really begins to soar. Though McGowan has a good voice and handles himself well, even he can’t compete with Page who has one of the most outstanding voices you are likely to hear at the Festival.
This is a bright, breezy, charming and romantic hour dealing with such timeless themes as love, romance, duty that will leave you invigorated and more than ready to battle on to your next show.
4/5 
Martin Miller
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