Bourgeois & Maurice: Sugartits

Over the past couple of years, our favourite musical miscreants have refined their deliciously incestuous brand of scabrous social commentary, mischievous stagecraft and high-as-a-kite fashion while branching out into the worlds of dance and rock. From their entry bearing marshmallows and the faux niavete of opening song ‘Welcome to the World’, it’s clear that Bourgeois & Maurice are making the effort to play friendly in 'Sugartits', even if she looks like a Gestapo tart and he looks like Pee-Wee Herman mated with a blackcurrant pastille (in a good way). But smiling doesn’t mean blunting the teeth: as well as maintaining their barbed rapport, the duo have an impressive crop of fresh tunes on fresh subjects, many with hooks as catchy as chlamydia. Numbers like ‘Privacy’s for Paedos’, ‘Goodbye, Europe’ (a morning-after-the-night-before Kabarett pastiche) and ‘Facebook Makes Me Feel Shit’ ensure ‘Sugartits’ is the most timely as well as one of the funniest cabaret shows around. The songs aren’t technically perfect – words are sometimes forced into odd shapes by the scansion, Maurice’s voice can sound thin and there’s often a sense of diminishing returns as verses progress – but it’s hard to think of any other act delivering such clever, funny and sharp material about subjects as potentially dry as tax, global warming and one-size-fits-all retail-based town planning. And ‘We Want Love’ is haunting, aching proof of the heart above the bile.