Fringe: 5 fun, must-see musical comedy shows
Dominic Frisby: Libertarian Love SongsEnter the Republic of Libertaria and enjoy politics through the medium of song in the company of Dominic Frisby and his excellent band, the Gilets Jaunes – comprising Chad Leyland and Paul Richards.Fans of passive-aggressive raps and Wetherspoons will be thrilled with this show, which has its feet in genuine political beliefs and its head in beautifully crafted, cleverly pitched, comedy delivered with a finesse that befits libertarian ideals.“I Think I’m In Love With Nigel Farage”, and the jolly singalong “F*** the Government” will soon have you ranting along.
Frisky and Mannish During the month of August by 9pm Frisky and Mannish will have finished their show and will be "no doubt scraping the glitter off our faces with an industrial sander." At 2am, they are likely to be challenging locals to a karaoke-off. Though they will not dare take on the Proclaimers. Described as a twisted comedy cabaret double-act, Laura Corcoran and Matthew Jones bring Frisky and Mannish's Pop Lab to the Assembly Rooms this month.Ten years since they burst onto the scene with their wildly popular brand of musical infotainment, the Fringe denizens are fully qualified to subvert pop in that way has seen them produce an outrageous version of Chris de Burgh's A Spaceman Came Travelling, a chilling take on Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse Of The Heart and a hilarious rendition of the Ting Tings' That's Not My Name.
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Hide AdAlex Colefield: Supernova A funk-fuelled hip-hopera rap musical from Melbourne Fringe Best Comedy Award nominee Alex Colefield.Faced with the grim reality of life in the genteel English countryside, Alex's dreams of youthful urban living seem light years away and when a nefarious village plot is revealed, there may be no chance of escape. Can he rhyme his way out?Colefield is a massively talented performer taking the familiar forms of the genre and spinning out a peculiarly bonkers British tale of the individual vs an oppressive system.Supernova was a Melbourne Fringe Best Comedy Award nominee and comedy winner of The International Youth Arts Festival Best of Brighton Fringe Awards 2019.
Catherine Cohen: The Twist? She's Gorgeous This millennial New Yorker is a fine singer with a wholly justified presumption of star status. Both fabulous and feline, Cohen takes the tragic subtext of cabaret convention and replaces it with a completely upfront admission of how problematic but weirdly wonderful her life is.Cohen tracks back to a lack of male attention in school through to her comedy career. She is candid about her need for absolutely any kind of male interaction. In one important regard Cohen is an absolute throwback, a trouper of the old school, unable to extricate her winning smile from the pain and bewilderment.
The Musical of Musicals Joanne Bogart and Eric Rockwell’s show tells the story of an ingenue who can't pay her rent. June is threatened by her evil landlord. But will her One True Love come to the rescue? The melodrama is told five times in the style of different masters of the form, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Kander and Ebb, Jerry Herman, Sondheim and Rodgers and Hammerstein. Each act is a short musical parodying the styles of the composers. It's a lovingly biting satire performed with real verve by the Musicality group at Pleasance in the Vault.