"If Royston Vasey had a cabaret club, it would look something like The Burlesque Hour. All the best shows have odd little quirks and with this Australian romp it’s the length. Including the interval, The Burlesque Hour lasts an hour-and-a-half, but who’s quibbling when you’re getting an extra 30 minutes of entertainment for your money. And what entertainment! Surreal doesn’t quite do justice to this session of gender-bending, bodice-ripping, stereotype-trashing neo-circus cabaret madness, especially to its frighteningly possessed star and director Moira Finucane. Her critically lauded company set the Australian box office ablaze with sell-out seasons in Melbourne and Sydney last year and it looks set to do the same on this first European tour. Co-stars Yumi Umiumare, a captivating ‘shock artiste’ schooled in Japanese butoh by Tokyo’s acclaimed DaiRakudakan, Moscow Circus School-credited Azaria Universe and immaculately polished duo The Town Bikes complete this beautifully twisted package. Wrapped up in a gloriously eclectic soundtrack, which perfectly complements its sexually emancipated humour and kerosene fuelled energy, The Burlesque Hour is guaranteed to send the more genteel denizens of Edinburgh scuttling back to their tearooms in disgust."

"Every single artiste is wickedly entertaining, yet hugely different… saucier than your Edinburgh chippy … grotesquely addictive … with more than a tablespoonful of gothic sex appeal…It’s Burlesque that’s cool in the cabaret coolness stakes now."

"From the sublime to the subversive, the hot to the hilarious.outrageous and unforgettable."

"Extraordinary.powerful.when burlesque is good, it is transforming for performer and audience and has a unique ability to enter the mainstream without losing any of its power to subvert. After all, Finucane has played the Sydney Opera House without changing her act one jot. this art form has life in it yet."

"Prepare to be shocked and overwhelmed. Expect no less. Experience so much more. The Burlesque Hour is not for the faint-hearted, the queasy or the conservative. But even these types have to appreciate the entertaining spectacle for what it is. It's difficult not to. These showgirls are polished and prepared to dazzle, from their go-go dancing routines right through to mad moments of nudity. Jaw dropping, feisty, seductive, dynamic. I suggest you grab a drink, sit back and allow yourself to be thrilled. Unmissable.."

"On the barometric scale that arcs from feminine to feminist to female, The Burlesque Hour is so far off-the-chart, the needle is pointing to meteor... there's a storm front approaching. The Burlesque Hour is a series of set pieces...by an unholy trinity of fatale feministas: Moira Finucane, beauty queen of the damned; Yumi Umiumare, an Asian tiger in a China doll shop; and Azaria Universe, the perfect blend of form and function. The Burlesque Hour is eye-popping, balloon-popping, cork-popping theatre. It's the kind of show you need a cigarette after... and several months of psychoanalysis."

"The Burlesque Hour is a succession of delights; performed with enormous wit, style, intelligence and originality... a show that is faithful to the spirit of saucy variety but uses the form to explore sexuality and desire... A great pity this show didn't run longer. It's a knockout."

"Think burlesque girls and tactile images of velvet, tassels and feathers on naked nubile skin spring to mind. However for Moira Finucane and her saucy associates this is an atrociously dated notion. The new showgirl is far more political and transgressive... a pungent commentary on gender, violence power and desire...traditional images of femininity are cheekily subverted on the catwalk.. seductive disrobing, flagrant exhibitionism, repressed desire... The Burlesque Hour will have you mentally erasing any previous ideas about burlesque shows."

"Burlesque. It conjures up images of corseted with big bosoms and curvaceous legs singing saucy songs. Well, The Burlesque Hour certainly provides the corseted women and some fabulous legs. The songs are more raunchy than saucy, and it is all set in a convivial cabaret atmosphere...Moira Finucane, Azaria Universe and Yumi Umiumare deliver powerful performances drawing on contemporary popular song, from the schmaltzy sob of love-gone-wrong to hard-core thrash. the costumes range from extravagant gowns to next-to-nothing; after all as long as a girl has her pearls on, isn't that enough? These three gutsy women...intense... superb...deliciously ambiguous."

"If you want to see some inspired, adventurous, often hilarious theatre, see this show. the gamut of emotions, the delicious strangeness of it all, I want to go and see it again. And you can say much better than that."

"The Burlesque Hour. a gob smacking highlight of the last 12 months , simple in concept, modern in approach, profoundly complex and breathtakingly beautiful - it showed what talented artists can do.and should be doing."

"Worthy of a standing ovation, and they got it. The Burlesque hour was easily the most sensational and entertaining show of the year"

"Glitter and pizzazz.nudity, masses of glamour and a certain degree of daring in this wild, unpredictable production which snaps like a whip with a rhinestone handle."

"Fairground attraction meets sexy sideshow burlesque in the hottest temptation of the Festival"