Review: FLOP! The Best Songs from the Worst Musicals | Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026

An updated version of Arthur Hull's musical cabaret FLOP! The Best Songs from the Worst Musicals, plays at Gilded Balloon Teviot at Edinburgh Festival Fringe through August 2026. Read my review here.

FLOP! The Best Songs from the Worst Musicals ★★★★☆

Review: 11 August 2026 | Edinburgh Fringe, Gilded Balloon Teviot

This is such a brilliant idea for a show! Even the worst, most unsuccessful financial and critical failures on Broadway and in the West End all have at least one redeeming feature, right? Well, that's what Australian talent Arthur Hull aims to prove as he showcases wonderful and, in some cases, deranged songs from Theatreland's most notorious musical theatre flops.

Taking the format of a laid-back musical cabaret concert, Hull combines his superb musicality with plenty of laughs and interesting facts about what counts as a successful show, or otherwise. Flop! is bursting with well-researched anecdotes and stagey references. I learnt a lot!

Flop! The Best Songs from the Worst Musicals is an hour of cabaret sure to delight any musical theatre fan.

While some of the songs Hull performs have become iconic over time, like the beautiful My Funny Valentine, many of the numbers are unknown to the majority of the (musical theatre fan heavy) crowd. Nevertheless, Hull performs each number at his piano or, in some cases with the full original Broadway choreography, with an admirable zeal, boundless energy and outrageous talent.

On the Tuesday evening I was in the Gilded Balloon Wine Bar, where this show plays all month as part of the Edinburgh Fringe, every song was enthusiastically received.

Many of the songs, Hull tells us, are simply forgotten or misunderstood. But in the case of Moby Dick: The Musical - well, that sounds positively unhinged.

I do fear that if I lived in New York, I would have been the target audience for the majority of these flop shows. Stephen King's horror classic Carrie as a musical? Yes please.

I don't want to name too many more of the songs or their musicals explicitly, because a huge part of the delight of Flop! is uncovering hidden gems. I will say, however, that I take personal offence at the inclusion of movie musical Grease 2. Grease 2 is amazing! The songs are all way better than those from the problematic original film.

I will admit that the song, and in particular the scene, that Hull chooses to call out is absolutely hilariously inappropriate and worthy of all the criticism thrown at it. But despite the cringey lyrics, the fact remains that the song is an absolute banger.

On stage alone for the hour, Arthur Hull carries the crowd along on his musical flop mystery tour with his upbeat, infectious energy and winsome charisma. If you're looking for something a little bit different but hugely enjoyable at the Edinburgh Fringe, and you are a fan of musical theatre, this is the show for you. ★★★★☆

• FLOP! The Best Songs from the Worst Musicals is at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, at Gilded Balloon Teviot (Wine Bar) until Sunday 30 August 2026.

  
  

• Find all my Edinburgh Fringe coverage here: https://www.lisainthetheatre.com/edinburgh-fringe