Pop Centre Plus

Absolut Fringe Festival Club

POP WILL EAT itself, of course, but the ebullient musical comedy duo Frisky and Mannish are here to force-feed it. Even their opening number, a breathlessly persuasive mash-up of Dolly Parton, Lady Gaga, Missy Elliott and the

Hi-Ho

refrain from Snow White, suggests that these are the right masters of mimicry to give us would-be popstars some important “career advice”.

Sorting the Razorlights (cool hair) from the Justin Biebers (try-hards), Laura Corcoran and Matthew Jones come off as posh and illustrative as renegade

Blue Peter

presenters, stripping manufactured pop back to its components:

Papa Don’t Preach

as an operatic aria; Rihanna’s

Rude Boy

as a Bee Gees number; the Milli Vanilli health-hazards of lip-syncing.

Okay, it’s hardly revolutionary (they nail Adele, but miss the mark on Grime completely) and without trenchant satire it’s never revelatory. But that’s the disposable pleasure of pop, the empire of ice cream, and to emerge from their warm-hearted masterclass with a renewed appreciation for the majesty of Girls Aloud has to count for something, right?

Runs until September 24th