With feet back on solid ground after their groundbreaking, sell-out i360 show earlier this month, the C’est Magnifique crew were back in their festival home, the magical Wundabarn in the Spiegel Gardens, for the final Friday of the Brighton Fringe. What a fine way to finish the festival.
Once more, they were winners of the 2025 Fringe Outgoing Touring Award, they transported us to a Parisian-Weimar cabaret mash-up full of cheeky fun and beautifully crafted performances. We were treated to a lively hour of, mostly, show tunes, all given an inventive twist, delivered with a cheeky wink by a group of talented performers.
The group have perfected a tongue-in-cheek humour that is never cheap and always lands with a warm smile and mischievous wink. The comedy remains delightfully naughty without tipping into outright crudeness, a line too often crossed in less accomplished cabarets where the laughs come from shock rather than good humour.
This warm-hearted tone quickly wins over the audience, who are treated as old friends arriving late to a party already in full swing.
Cyril establishes this rapport with effortless charm, rewarded by a good-natured audience who give the troupe a rousing ovation at the end of the show.
There are no supporting characters in this show; each performer has their own bold persona, brief backstory and solo numbers to showcase their fine voices and dancing talents.
We meet the timeless Zelda, blonde bombshell Goldie, diminutive Babette, innocent Bert the Bellboy and hapless Gaylord, all introduced by Cyril, our charismatic compère.
With confidence, timing and charm in decadent abundance, Cyril and Zelda act as highly dysfunctional parents to a tribe of wayward children.
This is a family we all want to belong to, where no one is more important than another and each is given their chance to shine.
The show feels like a true collaboration: a group of pals gently teasing one another while applauding successes and supporting each other through life’s sorrows.
We are only offered fleeting glimpses into these characters’ backstories, but there are hints of melancholy beneath the exquisite costumes and glamorous make-up. These are individuals singing, dancing and drinking the darkness away. A little lonely and afraid beneath the smiles, our gang become far more relatable than simple comic caricatures, giving this exuberant show an unexpected emotional depth.
This intimate venue adds to the magic. The over-100-year-old wooden tent sweats and creaks with the crowd, a space that has surely hosted countless cabarets over the last century.
The audience are up close to the cast, who mingle and chatter with the crowd in true cabaret style. The front-row benches are in glitter-splashing proximity to the performers, who make the most of the small stage with ingenuity and verve.
Using props and humour, they put their own delicious spin on well-loved classics while honouring them with fabulous voices and dizzying dance routines.
Half a dozen suitcases are transformed into the Titanic in one of the evening’s most inventive sequences.
Spun around and repurposed as our intrepid gang head out on a voyage to find true love for puppy-eyed sailor boy Gaylord, whose search for a soulmate, or perhaps something more ‘casual’, is the loose narrative thread weaving through the performance.
And when he ventures into the crowd to find a sweetheart, he is handsomely rewarded by a very accommodating couple who squeeze him onto the tightly-packed benches.
This non-stop hour was surely trying for the lively troupe, performing in a very hot venue on a very sweaty evening.
Despite the gruelling conditions, fuelled by decanters of what was surely water, our intrepid crew did not miss a beat in this energetic performance filled with stunning vocals and dance moves to match.
Throughout the show, the cast are more than matched in their energy and skills by their live band with Magnus Holm Sorenson on keys and Will Davis on drums.
The highlight of a show full of sparkly gems was the Queen mash-up, which included a version of Bohemian Rhapsody that, as my companion remarked afterwards, was surely the first rendition of this much-parodied classic to be even more extra than the original—and more than twice the length.
Yet this delightful segment never outstayed its welcome and sat comfortably among C’est Magnifique’s many musical theatre favourites from beloved shows such as Cabaret and Guys and Dolls.
It encapsulated so much of what the evening was about: an inventive reimagining of a well-loved classic performed with wit, confidence and musical excellence.
According to Cyril, we witnessed not only the final show of the festival but possibly the final ever C’est Magnifique performance by the Chocolate Box Theatre Company.
Sad news indeed, but the troupe can be proud to have gone out with a bang. I’m sure they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Gaylord – Nathan Potter
Cyril – Conor Baum
Zelda – Emma Edwards
Goldie – Hannah Semple
Bert – Jack Thomson
Babette – Jodie Harrop
Magnus Holm Sorenson – Keys
Will Davis – Drums
Director – Emma Edwards
Choreographer/Producer – Nathan Potter
