Die Roten Punkte – Super Musikant (FringeTIX)
Die Roten Punkte @ Bosco Theatre
11:00pm, Wed 12 Mar 2008
A mite bit disappointing, this.
Astrid and Otto Rot are back, with a (mostly) new batch of songs. And, whilst I loved their previous show (I’d seen it 1, 2, 3 times!), this one was somewhat lacking.
Their trademark mock german-isms were intact. All their stage mannerisms – including Astrid’s little cymbal-nut flicks – are still there. The tiny glockenspiel, drumkits and guitars are still there. In fact, the only thing missing are the awesome, chant-along songs from the first show.
And this, it turns out, is a bad thing.
Their replacement is a lightweight story about Astrid’s visit to rehab… er, a holiday. Otto’s more straight-edged than ever, and is eager to keep his “sister” off the booze. The new songs are amusing enough, but that’s about it – only amusing, they’re not the kind of tracks to get you singing and clapping and stomping along. “Best Band In The World” only makes an appearance at the end of the show, which is a real shame.
It’s not that the new songs are bad – it’s just that they’re not great, and completely lack the simple naïve charm of the early tracks. I still had fun at this show, but nowhere near as much as I’ve had in the past.