Otto and Astrid at Soho Theatre Review

If you’re heading to Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August, you should check out Otto & Astrid: The Stages Tour upstairs at Assembly Roxy (5th – 30th August at 21:15, except for 12th, 19th and 26th August). The 70-minute show features fictional sibling rock duo from Berlin, Otto Rot and Astrid Rot (played by Australian comedians Daniel Tobias and Clare Bartholomew respectively) and their Europop band Die Roten Punkte.

Berlin’s gloriously dysfunctional sibling rock duo, Otto & Astrid, bring The Stages Tour to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – an irreverently side-splitting, lipstick-smeared, tantrum-loving rock gig that blends anarchic comedy with pitch-perfect pop parody.

Otto wants the show to be a grand emotional spectacle in the style of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Astrid wants a tight, blistering rock’n’roll gig. He keeps sneaking in unauthorised songs the moment her back is turned. She just wants to finish one number without a meltdown; though when it comes to derailing the show, it turns out neither of them is entirely innocent.

The Stages Tour is a jukebox musical of their greatest hits, with songs as ridiculous as they are infectious – about burger-store dinosaurs, robots mistaken for lions, second-best friends whose names you never learned, and an Iggy Pop-indebted ode to wanting to be your kitten. Rooted in new wave, punk and electroclash, these are gleefully absurd songs that are also, underneath it all, immaculately constructed and genuinely great pop songs.

Tobias and Bartholomew play convincing German rockstars whose songs are a combination of genuine musical talent and hilarious lyrics. The show is intimate enough to involve the audience, with participation encouraged, while still giving quieter audience members the option to enjoy more passively from the back.

The sibling dynamic is believable – at times full of squabbles and at other times showcasing a tender bond, and the two play off of one another beautifully. Some of the jokes carry through the whole performance without ever going stale. I particularly enjoyed Otto’s ongoing bit about the specificity of the lighting for his unauthorised songs.