Escape Room: The Musical – Ed Fringe 2026

Escape Room: The Musical: Just The Fancy Room at Just The Tonic at The Caves

16th August 2026

★★★

The Grownup Playhouse are back again this year at the Fringe with a new musical – Escape Room: The Musical. Billed as a puzzle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a musical! This new show is about six friends who find themselves in an escape room that seems to be raising emotions high and adrenaline higher. They have 60 minutes to escape or who knows what might be revealed? Who will solve the room and who will fold under the pressure?! Original songs, crazy characters and puzzling puzzles aplenty.

The venue itself (hidden in the vaults on South Bridge) is definitely a tricky one to perform a musical in with no room for wings, exits and entrances etc but the cast make this work admirably. The audience are also involved with the cast often breaking the fourth wall and including the audience as part of the escape room itself.

Escape Room: The Musical is a great concept – perfect for Fringe with the increase in people’s passion for escape rooms. However, could do with a bit more of an introduction and scene setting at the start rather than launching straight into the action which felt a little confusing. The characters are eventually explained but by half way through the show it feels a little too late. The cast are upbeat and energetic. They certainly put their all into the show and this isn’t the only show they are doing at this very venue, there are in fact 4 different shows throughout the day meaning they certainly do have to have that morning coffee… or five.

There are some funny moments but not all the jokes land and some of the characters themselves feel far too over the top to be believable which doesn’t help the audience to fully support them. There are also some thought provoking and sadder moments as the audience finally finds out each characters story. There are definitely good parts to the show with the emphasis on friendship and teamwork being one of them, unfortunately it feels like there is a bit of disproportionate time spent on certain characters and jokes which don’t actually help the story move forwards. With a little more focus this show could develop into something with more meaning.

For more information and tickets click here.