The Other Guys are an all-male all-student a cappella ensemble from St Andrews, with a balanced programme of medleys, mashups and straight songs, as well as plenty of dad dancing, dad jokes, and awkward chat.
The group’s arrangements are slick, fun and mostly well-performed, though some of the faster numbers are heavily choreographed, at the expense of the singing. Audiences are used to the acrobatics and autotuning of Pitch Perfect and Glee, but this rarely works in real life: the simpler, more static songs were much more effective, with some moments of real beauty.
Unfortunately, the space and production let them down. There’s practically nothing in terms of lighting design, and the Grand Theatre is almost an anechoic chamber, so a few microphones, especially for the beatboxer, could have really boosted the show’s emotional impact.
However, in line with the group’s mission statement, the evening was thoroughly entertaining, with plenty of silly, cringey humour: an unashamedly cheesy evening with Scotland’s premier glee club.
3 Stars.
