The Boom Jennies: Fringe 2012
Live Review
Pleasance Dome

Starting energetically, The Boom Jennies run around handing out sweets and greeting audience members like they're old friends. The feelgood tone is engraved early on, with high octane silliness defined as the norm.

There's no central theme, but the sketches are cohesive with longer scenes favoured over quick skits and callbacks used to maximum effect. There's also a fantastic recurring joke of one of the troupe mistaking one of the audience for her estranged father, David Bowie, that leads into a spectacular finale.

All three are great performers, giving their all with high energy and no discernible lull. There's singing, dancing, shameless overacting, and more than enough surprise and misdirection to keep an audience on their toes. The monologues are performed beautifully, and the chemistry elsewhere is evident as all three are able to convey distinct personalities.

The musical numbers are universally excellent, used sparingly and even managing callbacks to previous numbers. The straight sketches are of more varying quality, with a delight one minute and mediocrity the next. A few felt too safe and predictable, and there were a couple of misses - but they were limited to the shorter scenes and passed by easily.

The bigger complaint is the mediocre production values and an unpolished feel. The writing deserved better, and the props fell short of what some of the other sketch shows have managed to achieve. The level of immersion was lower, and some of the impact was lost.

At the peak the sketches are spectacular: with a hairdresser from hell, mothers waiting for their children, and a hen night drinking game reaching fever pitch. The obligatory 50 Shades Of Grey reference is the best in the Fringe, with a mostly silent sketch relying on facial expressions alone proving ridiculously funny.

This is a tightly written show with excellent jokes and a wealth of energy, but lacked the polish that could have made it a masterpiece.