Melbourne International Comedy Festival review by Steve Bennett

This must have been a riot when they dreamt it up, an extravagantly over-the-top retelling of the Von Trapp family story, full of cheesy bad taste and cheap props.

The Grotesque Amateurs team have the enough gusto to invade Poland, but their script lets them down. They make a joke of their shortcomings: cut-price production values, bad, hammy acting and lazy sick jokes – but there's only so many times the shlockiness is funny. It is, however, easier to coast on high sprits than knuckling down to write a decent show.

Their ambitions to morph the Sound Of Music parody with a Springtime For Hitler-style romp fall short, and we're left with something more akin to Nuns On The Run, where men dressed in habits is the big joke. Actually the biggest gag is repeating the Mother Superior's misheard line 'What is it you can't face?' that's been doing the rounds on the internet for years – though the laugh this troupe got suggested a lot in the audience hadn't seen the viral, nor Alan Brough's pastiche of the movie at this very festival four years ago.

While there's verve in the acting, the singing is awful – Hayman Kent as Maria the notable exception. A few of the in-jokes have legs, and now and again a sharp line will emerge that doesn't need the ironic audacity of corniness to heave it over the line. But the overall feeling is that this is a show where the performers are having more fun than the audience.

So in summary:

Cheap bad-taste jokes and gimmicks so cheesy
References lazy, and performances screechy
Giving a platform to those who can't sing
These are a few of my least favourite things

Actors who holler and gags about paedos,
Mimes of sex urges and too many weirdos
A cast who are having more fun in the wings
These are a few of my least favourite things

Review date: 7 Apr 2015
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival