Everyone has their guilty pleasures. Cheap chocolate. Boybands. Voting Labour. Mine, I'm afraid, is Kit and The Widow. This enduring cabaret twosome is about as cool as a Gareth Gates album yet their patter, charm and risqué lyrical gymnastics regularly win me over.
And I'm not alone. Recording their live CD last night, they revealed that when they appeared at Windsor Castle the future wife of Prince Charles was delighted by their witty ditty about the woman who collects dying birds after a shoot, which boasts the refrain, "with a quivering cock in her hand".
The set climaxed with their ever-reliable Nessun Dorma reworked as an Indian takeaway - "Chicken Korma..." - but before that highlights included a Tom Lehrer tribute and their atonal Britten pastiche ("I'm giving my Bottom in Aldeburgh"). Less effective was their topical sushi song with oriental accents more Benny Hill than Mikado.
For a show called Christmas Roast there were few seasonal touches. it briefly looked as if fake snow was about to fall, but this turned out to be flaking paint. Maybe the Arts Theatre should employ some of the super-efficient foreign workers Kit mournfully sings about in There Are No Plumbers Left In Poland.
Tonight (0870 060 1742)
Kit And The Widow's Christmas Roast
Arts Theatre
Great Newport Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 7JB
