Musicals & opera review: Brexit the Musical

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Unsurprisingly, this topical musical comedy about the UK's news vacuum subject of the moment is already pull-ing in the crowds, and it does an effective and thoroughly professional job of appealing to as wide an audience as possible.

C (Venue 34)

***

Even the most ardent Brexiteer, of course, is likely to laugh along with easy parodies of a fright-wigged Boris Johnson bounding around in Union Jack underpants; a luckless and eternally-thwarted Michael Gove; Jeremy Corbyn mourning his non-attendance at Glastonbury 2016 cross-legged on his office floor; and the well-observed Shakespearean arc of Theresa May’s prime ministerial career.

Written by EU lawyer Chris Bryant (not the politician of the same name) with music by a live band, the piece is filled with lively and tuneful songs which complement punchy comedy lines.

Yet putting aside the effective character parodies and the well-deployed if well-worn points of Brexit humour, the satire isn’t biting – in fact, some of it is positively gentle.

Fans of Radio 4 afternoon comedy will enjoy it, but those who wish to see the subject tackled vigorously may not be so keen.

David Pollock

Until 28 August. Today 6:55pm.