City set the stage for fantastic year

'ALL the world's a stage', wrote Shakespeare in As You Like It – that's certainly true of the Capital come August when the Festival and Fringe kick in. A quick trawl through the last 12 months of the local entertainment scene, though, shows that, even without the annual arts extravaganza, Edinburgh can hold its own when it comes to offering a diverse selection of staged delights.

Here are some of my own highlights of the year past. In early 2007, a name that would later return to have a sell-out crowd on the Castle Esplanade in stitches, pitched up at the Festival Theatre. Now, whatever you might think of Ricky Gervais (and there are those I know who don't find him funny at all) you can't deny him his following. Not being his biggest fan, I confess to being surprised at just how well his scripted set held the thousands who turned out to see him at both venues.

Another "funnyman" in town in January (again the tag is debatable) was Michael Barrymore, who arrived to star in the stage musical, Scrooge. Having never liked his exploitative humour, I wasn't sure what to expect when I arrived at the Sunderland Empire on a dank, dreary Saturday night to interview the troubled star ahead of his Capital performance. I certainly didn't expect to take to him. Candid, to the point of being naive, the presenter-turned-actor who shot to fame in Strike it Lucky and My Kind Of People was a shadow of his TV persona – unfortunately he was also a shadow of his predecessor in the role of Scrooge, the legendary Tommy Steele.

In February, Swedish jazz singer Viktoria Tolstoy enthralled the Queen's Hall when she headlined the Jazz From Sweden Festival. As her name might suggest, the songbird is descended from the famous Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy.

A month later the Queen's Hall pulled off another coup when it attracted Hollywood hardman Steven Seagal and his unique rendition of the blues. The 55-year-old star of blockbusters such as Under Siege and Out For A Kill has a lifelong love of the blues, which he demonstrated to a capacity crowd with the help of his seven-piece band, Thunderbox.

Another reinvented star caught my attention in April. New Seeker Lyn Paul may have topped the charts with the songs such as I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing back in the Seventies, but today she is better known as a musical theatre performer, as Playhouse audiences discovered when she starred in Footloose The Musical.

Despite the constant crowing from the West that it boasts the best music venues, May saw the Capital prove that it can still hold its own, with the first of a series of concerts at Murrayfield Stadium, previously the venue of choice for Live 8, Tina Turner, Robbie Williams and The Rolling Stones.

This time it was the turn of tenor Russell Watson and Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins to thrill the crowds at the home of Scottish Rugby.

When it was announced that Shaun Williamson – forever to be known as Barry from EastEnders – was to play Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls at the Playhouse in June, I'm told that tickets fair flew out the door. Although the fact that a soap or reality TV star now seems a prerequisite at the top of the bill perhaps says more about audience expectations than it does about the state of British theatre.

In July, the focus returned to Murrayfield, where Canadian rocker Bryan Adams did everything he could for his fans, and to the Castle, where the queen of cult pop, Debbie Harry put in a blistering shift on a rainy summer's evening, despite now being 62 years old. Younger, but just as devastating a few nights later was the new punk pretender Pink.

With literally thousands of shows it's difficult to pick a highlight for August, but the long overdue return of Alan Cumming to the Scottish stage at the King's in The Bacchae has to be near the top. That said, I also loved Jim Davidson's post-Festival set at the Playhouse. And no, it wasn't PC.

For those who remember the 80s as one long round of clubbing, Erasure proved that there's hope for us all when they stormed the Corn Exchange in September – even if Andy Bell's reminder that he has had both hips replaced shows that even middle age comes to us all.

Dance has never been my favourite media for story-telling . . . unless it happens to be a choreographed by Matthew Bourne. In October, when his production The Car Man, based loosely on Bizet's Carmen, pirouetted back on to the stage of the Festival Theatre it was a brilliant display of what dance theatre should really be about – accessibility, not obscurity.

November meanwhile was a month for guffawing along with Alan Carr and Lenny Henry, the latter, like many comedians, being a serious interviewee away from the stand-up mic.

Finally, the last month of the year in Edinburgh will always be dominated by Hogmanay, with entertainment as diverse and exciting as the rest of the year. Edinburgh had something for everyone in 2007, a trend set to continue in 2008 when there are even more big names and shows to look forward to. Encore.