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Catherine Cohen took the 2019 Fringe by storm and returned back to the States with a Best Newcomer trophy, and turned that award-winning cabaret show into her debut Netflix special.
Cohen meant to return to Fringe last summer, but had to cancel when she discovered she’d suffered a stroke due to a congenital heart defect. Now she’s back and triumphantly so, with a new hour that she already has filmed (set for release on Veeps in October).
There’s plenty of Chappell Roan and Charli XCX in the warm-up hype music for the audience, which isn’t that unusual for Fringe this summer, but considering Cohen’s onstage character, it puts her caricature of herself in a slightly different light. More Texas Jew than Midwest Princess, Cohen sings openly about how Fringe isn’t so much adult art camp as it is a hospital where the doctors let the patients get onstage for an hour every night. For her part, Cohen’s opening number reveals her self-deprecating id, desperately filling “the void,” where the stage is her chaise, and we’re her Freud. And her fans are more than willing and eager to shower Cohen with adoration and approval.
Catherine Cohen “Come For Me” plays at Pleasance Courtyard during the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe
