Despite being advertised as a good old knees-up, full of ‘cheeky frolics’, the Oxford Revue’s latest offering got off to a slow start, with early sketches falling a bit flat. However, towards the end things improved; the material was a lot funnier and the audience had had time to warm up. I was disappointed that the show ended just as the Revue seemed to have got the right atmosphere going; it was this shaky beginning that prevented the show from being an overall success.
The performers themselves were excellent and made the best of the material they had. The company as a whole were full of energy and threw themselves wholeheartedly into each situation and set of characters they portrayed. Sophie Klimt’s performance was a great comic turn throughout and her musical number was a particular highlight. Ollie Mann played a succession of camp characters amusingly and with great relish.
The sketches themselves were, with some exceptions, a let down. The comedy was fairly predictable and I felt that some more surprises could have given the humour a much needed kick-start. There were some witty lines but these were too thin on the ground and unoriginal. The caricatures were too familiar and the juxtaposition between carry-on style innuendo and more ‘gritty’ sexual jokes wasn’t always a success. The funnier moments came from the unexpected, and there just wasn’t enough of this. The continuous stream of jokes about ‘broken-Britain’ and the ‘nanny-state’ were funny in their mockery of Daily Mail readers, but were repetitive and not laugh-out-loud.
I also felt that the potential of the Brighton theme was not fully exploited. Looking at the promotional material I was expecting a bawdy old fashioned music-hall approach, but many of the sketches were only loosely related to this. A few more songs might have helped mix things up and remind the audience how the show fitted together as a whole.
Despite these problems the show was still enjoyable, fun and frothy. While some gags were weak, the Revue never lost the energy of the performance. Things jogged along smoothly and there was never a point where the audience seemed bored. It was an entertaining and enthusiastic performance but it certainly didn’t send me laughing my way home.
two stars
The Oxford Revue continue their run at the BT studio, 24-27 February, 9.30 pm
