THE stage show featuring the great-great-great-grandson of Andrew Carnegie is set to be made available to a global audience for the first time.

As part of this year’s online Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Carnegie - The Star Spangled Scotchman will stream on Fringe Player from tomorrow (August 6).

Music teacher Joe Whiteman is descended from the Dunfermline-born entrepreneur on his mother’s side and takes on the lead role.

The show also stars Donna Hazleton, winner of Musicality and West End star of Chicago, as well as Kim Shepherd, the Dunfermline-born actress who now lives in Torryburn.

The two-hour production was recorded during its two-night run at Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline in May 2019, as part of a series of events to mark the centenary of Andrew Carnegie’s death.

It will air on Fringe Player and in doing so it will be the first time the show has been seen outside of Scotland. The musical has been developed over the last eight years by Ian Hammond Brown, co-writer of 'Whisky Galore, A Musical', who won a development grant for it from Creative Scotland in 2013. It’s since enjoyed a successful run at the 2016 Fringe as well as the Carnegie centenary performances.

The title role has been played since 2016 by Whiteman, 31, with Hazelton featuring as Carnegie’s domineering mother, and Shepherd starring as his wife, Louise.

Carnegie - The Star Spangled Scotchman tells the story of Carnegie’s life from the viewpoint of a steelworker killed in the controversial homestead steel plant dispute of 1892 who has come back from the afterlife to decide on Carnegie’s eternal fate in the last two hours of his life.

Ian Hammond Brown hopes the streaming debut for the musical will help gain interest in a full production from producers; he’ll soon be speaking to an American producer about taking the show to the States. He also hopes the musical will raise awareness of the Carnegie story and Dunfermline.

“I’m delighted we’ve been able to include Carnegie - The Star Spangled Scotchman in the Fringe for a second time using the recording of the Carnegie Hall show. It’s very exciting to think the show will be broadcast to a worldwide audience,” he said.

“There’s nothing like live theatre, but at least this way we can capture some of the excitement of a live production, keep supporting the arts and hopefully entertain people or perhaps spark a young person’s interest enough to go and find out more or get involved in theatre after what has been a very difficult year-and-a-half for everyone.”

The musical has also been published by Stagescripts and is available for schools and theatre groups to perform.

The show can be viewed on the Fringe Player from August 6 to 30 at: bit.ly/CarnegieMusicalFringe2021.