Fascinating Aïda: Charm Offensive

Having entertained audiences across the UK for some three decades, Fascinating Aïda are the Fringe's torch carriers for a musical-comedy tradition in the vein of Tom Lehrer and Eric Idle. Charm Offensive, their latest touring show, may be a bit of a misnomer—there is certainly no offence to be taken here—but what we do have is a gently subversive show, packed full of witty lyrics, tight musicality and no small hint of old-world glamour.

Of a song list totalling some 12 tracks, standouts include 'We're Next/We've Had the Best of the World', which ruminates on dying, before joyfully revelling in the baby boomer generation's shafting of the next generations' economic prospects and the very planet they will live on. Similarly, 'Prisoner of Gender' is a surprisingly poignant tale of Adele Anderson's struggles with her body.

Nevertheless, there's no escaping the fact that Charm Offensive feels rather safe, perhaps a little too much so. Technically speaking, it's a well-polished production, but there is nothing novel in the familiar structuring of the songs. Take the newly debuted number on the NHS. Here we have a ballad that sings the praises of the venerated old institution, before things unravel verse by verse until the great, gleaming expression of post-war welfarism is shown to be a crumbling wreck – a straight-forward pull-back-and-reveal that is used a little too frequently. 'The Bulgarians', a series short numbers comparable to comedy-song haiku, also falls a little flat.

But in spite of this, as the trio faux-reluctantly closes out the show with 'Cheap Flights', their infamous Ryanair-bashing ditty viewed on YouTube over ten million times, it's clear that this slick, high-quality production ultimately gives its audience exactly what it's after.