Fringe Cabaret, Kit and McConnel, The Radisson Collection Royal Mile

Hotel, four stars

Kit Hesketh Harvey and James McConnel don’t actually enter and exit to

The Odd Couple theme but there’s something of Neil Simon’s creation

about their abrasive-harmonious rapport. Theirs is certainly an old

school approach – the ghosts of Flanders & Swann hover over their

voice and piano endeavours – but their current crop of songs is

largely bang up to date.

Emmanuel Macron recast as Sandie Shaw’s Monsieur Dupont may not chime

with a younger audience and Tom Lehrer’s still razor sharp The

Elements is likely to be more familiar to those of a certain age but

the duo’s professorial observations about students transitioning (one

becomes a hedgehog) and paying off their loans through porn earned

mirth across the age range here.

Crisply written, witty lyrics about political correctness, migration

and one Amazon being depleted while another depletes the High Street

flow as freely as their banter. Cleverly expressed thoughts on

McConnel murdering his wife for her way of eating a boiled egg and

dodging the grandchildren are balanced by a tender prayer for Hesketh

Harvey’s daughter in a show that doubtless has much hard work behind

its apparently effortless charm.

Rob Adams