Photo credit – Christine Fiedler
Berlin’s gloriously dysfunctional sibling rock duo, Otto & Astrid, bring The Stages Tour to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – an irreverently side-splitting, lipstick-smeared, tantrum-loving rock gig that blends anarchic comedy with pitch-perfect pop parody.
Otto wants the show to be a grand emotional spectacle in the style of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Astrid wants a tight, blistering rock’n’roll gig. He keeps sneaking in unauthorised songs the moment her back is turned. She just wants to finish one number without a meltdown; though when it comes to derailing the show, it turns out neither of them is entirely innocent.
Fresh from a sold-out US tour taking in Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Burlington and New York, Otto & Astrid arrive in Edinburgh with international acclaim in tow. Expect glitter, drama, Europop, and the kind of sibling rivalry that makes Noel and Liam look well-adjusted.
The intimate setting pulls the audience into the action – drafted into hosting after-parties, conscripted as second-best friends and woven into running jokes that last the whole show. The show has a deliberately chaotic feel while remaining tightly constructed and precisely timed.
Beneath all the chaos is a genuinely tender story about family, co-dependence and two people who may drive each other mad but cannot imagine life apart. For all its noise and irreverence, moments of real feeling sneak up between the laughs – sudden, unguarded, and all the more affecting for it.
The Stages Tour is a jukebox musical of their greatest hits, with songs as ridiculous as they are infectious – about burger-store dinosaurs, robots mistaken for lions, second-best friends whose names you never learned, and an Iggy Pop-indebted ode to wanting to be your kitten. Rooted in new wave, punk and electroclash, these are gleefully absurd songs that are also, underneath it all, immaculately constructed and genuinely great pop songs.
Together they’ve sold out venues from Melbourne to New York, played Glastonbury, and spread their glitter-soaked chaos across Belgium, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, the US and the UK – including a smash-hit run at London’s Soho Theatre. Their cult following stretches across continents with celebs fans including Boy George, Bobcat Goldthwait, Perez Hilton, P!nk, Johnny Knoxville and Tom Kenny (the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants) all counted among their devotees. Twenty years of international touring has produced a show that is fast, precise and driven by an onstage chemistry that can’t be faked, making anarchic moments feel inevitable.
A video of their track, The Situation, went viral on TikTok, amassing over 2.5 million views and sparking a wave of lip-sync responses across the platform. There are exciting plans in the pipeline for the Berlin-born duo: a limited run ‘Best Of’ vinyl release is forthcoming in mid-July, in-store performances and signings at independent record shops across Scotland to be announced for the week before the Fringe run, and the filming of a TV mini-pilot is planned in development with US producers.
Their long list of accolades includes recent recognition at the 2025 Green Room Awards, where they won Outstanding Ensemble and received nominations for Outstanding Original Songs, Writing, Musical Direction, and Production. In 2024, they were nominated for Best Music and Best Cabaret and Musical Theatre at Sydney Fringe. Past honours include Green Room Award wins in 2014 and 2008 for Most Outstanding Production, a TO&ST Award nomination at Edinburgh in 2013, and multiple Best Comedy and Best Production awards across Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Victoria Fringe festivals.
2025 Otto & Astrid: The Stages Tour Awards
Winner – Green Room Awards – Cabaret ‘Outstanding Ensemble’
Nominee – Green Room Awards – Cabaret ‘Outstanding Original Songs’ AND Cabaret ‘Outstanding Writing’ AND Cabaret ‘Outstanding Musical Direction’ AND Cabaret ‘Outstanding Production’
Otto & Astrid: The Stages Tour
London Show:-
Dates: Friday 24th and Saturday 25th July 2026
Time: 21:15
Tickets: from £21 https://sohotheatre.com/events/otto-astrid-the-stages-tour/
Venue: Soho Theatre Dean Street (Downstairs), 21 Dean Street, London W1D 3NE
Edinburgh Fringe Festival :-
ASSEMBLY – Upstairs at Assembly Roxy
21:15 (70 minutes) | 5th – 30th August (not 12th, 19th & 26th)
Click to buy tickets – https://assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/otto-astrid-the-stages-tour
