Arts > Comedy

Frisky and Mannish

12/12/14

I’m an unashamed pop lover who is old enough to know better so by gum I love the toe tapping campery of Frisky and Mannish. They produce spot on pop parodies while being genuinely fantastic vocalists and larger than life comic characters.  And tonight as they burst onto the stage belting out Lady Gaga’s ‘Applause’, Frisky resplendent in a gold sequinned gown and Mannish sporting a bleached forelock, the entire Norwich Playhouse greeted them with glee.

Their new show Just Too Much is nominally a celebration of excess as they joyfully examine the phenomenon of the celebrity melt-down, belting out songs and bickering with superbly timed spite in between. The theme is pretty loose, allowing them detours along the way. There was the #feminism medley in which they ripped through half a dozen well known hits to try and find a decent anthem for women (reaching the conclusion that Beyonce is really letting the side down).

Dear Miley was a satirical peek at the imagined correspondence of Sinead O’Connor as she doled out her ‘Oirish' wisdom to a selection of well known targets. Later Clean Bandit’s Rather Be was rejigged as a piratical sea-shanty. And to top it off in the second half we were treated to a dream ballet sequence that would have made Gene Kelly proud and a finale song on roller-skates. 

 The duo are both such consummate performers, sharp and slick, every look between them or crazy gurn at the audience is rehearsed to wring out the last drop of laughter. However this show did see an evolution in tone with some slower sequences that were surprisingly melancholy and I missed that one ‘can't stop singing it’ song that had been present in their previous shows.

 Luckily they made sure that the encores (all five) were comprised of their past stand-out songs. There was the impeccable reimagining of Wuthering Heights as sung by cockney popstrel Kate Nash, The Pussycat Dolls' Beep as a saucy tongue in cheek music hall number and their Stalker medley which exposes everything from Eternal Flame to Someone Like You as the super creepy heavy breathing tracks they truly are.

 If you love your fun with a manic edge and have a taste for the fabulous things in life I urge you to track the duo down at the next opportunity.