Musical review: Bereavement: The Musical, C (Venue 34), Edinburgh

SUBJECTS for musical treatment on the Fringe are as esoteric as ever, but this one isn’t exactly the most well-designed for an attention-grabbing flyer.

Bereavement: The Musical

C (Venue 34), Edinburgh

Star rating: * * *

Opening at a funeral, what sets itself up as an apparent excuse to hammer a delicate subject and a bit of chorus line frivolity into one incongruous whole, turns out to be an amusing hour’s entertainment with a nice balance between sensitivity and bad taste.

The musical moves between a group of characters who have lost a family member. Most of the solo songs adhere to the maxim that humour is the best way to deal with tragedy.

We meet the career woman who needs therapy following the death of her mother, but whose recognition extends to a memo reading “baggage: deal with on Monday”, her brother, who finds he can’t bring himself to indulge in self-abuse thanks to the guilt, and a young woman who resorts to sleeping around as a means of coping with her father’s death

Unfeasibly, it’s all more good and insightful entertainment, than it is crass and headline-grabbing.

• Until 27 August. Today 6:40pm.