NewsRevue is a perennial staple of the Edinburgh Fringe, and apparently the world’s longest-running live sketch show. It’s not hard to see why; each year the team delivers a combination of song parodies, sketches, and impersonations skewering the last year of current events.
The format has never been tampered with – NewsRevue always consists of a cast of four performers and the musical director, who plays the piano. There are satirical sketches, interspersed with musical interludes and one-liners (“Kamala Harris has used her platform as presidential nominee to discuss abortion, whilst Joe Biden prefers pulling out”). But the real bread and butter of the show is the song parodies.
This time we start strong with the various party leaders singing songs from Wicked which, provided you are familiar with Wicked, is very funny. Other highlights are Greta Thunberg singing about the climate to the tune of ‘Walking in the Air’, and Donald Trump’s cover of ‘Without Me’, which works perfectly given The Donald also has a penchant for “a little controversy”.
I have seen NewsRevue a few times before, and it is often the sketches that fall flat, but there are some really strong skits this year. Particularly memorable are a sketch about two AI robots dating on behalf of their human counterparts, reflecting an apparently real news story that says apps are looking into just that. I also found a sketch about a right-wing news channel (I wonder what this was based on) that calls everything ‘woke’ as being clever, funny, and relevant.
When reviewing a sketch show, all anyone wants to know is how many of the sketches are funny, and in that regard, most of them land. However, you may not come away feeling more informed or with a new perspective on the world. The humour of NewsRevue is very broad, and doesn’t so much make any points about the news as it does reflect popular opinion. Trump is stupid, Putin is evil, Biden is old and confused, but it doesn’t go much further than that. This also reflects the choice not to include the most significant conflict of the last year.
Given NewsRevue is comfortable making light of topics such as Ukraine, emergency service waiting times, and the January 6th insurrection, I can’t think of why the show wouldn’t dare touch the Middle East other than it requires slightly more nuance and perception than the show is capable of.
