Review: FLOP! The Best Songs From The Worst Musicals (Wilton's Music Hall)

Review by Michael Gavas

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Let’s hear it for the underdogs. After an acclaimed tour of the Fringe circuit, The Voice Australia finalist Arthur Hull brings his one-man performance of FLOP! to the historic Wilton’s Music Hall in his London stage debut. The premise is self-explanatory: a selection of toe-tapping numbers from various musicals which, for one reason or another (and sometimes mercifully), never found their intended audience.

Some of these misguided productions come in the form of sequels nobody asked for (Love Never Dies, Grease 2), while others are concepts which never should have made it past the brainstorming stage (Carrie: The Musical). I personally had to double-check if that last one actually did exist. Regrettably, it did, albeit very briefly; it closed after just five performances.

With only a handful of props, two keyboards and a couple of cheeky examples of audience participation, Hull delivers on his promise with great aplomb. The highlight is undoubtedly a profanity-laden medley from Diana: The Musical. Yes, ‘that’ Lady Diana. His charm and seemingly boundless energy are infectious, and you undeniably believe that he is every bit the lifelong Musical Theatre Geek he describes himself as. He is just as skilful at belting out those power ballads as he is at giving a gentler, more intimate refrain. 

Interestingly, the proceedings seldom come across as mean-spirited or ridiculing. We aren’t supposed to revel in the failure of the ill-fated productions, however strange some of them may have been. On the contrary, this is a celebration of all the passion and hard work that everyone involved must have had in order to get their respective shows off the ground. None of them set out to make a ‘bad’ show. That said, Hull does reserve a little bit of venom for the discussion of Tom Hooper’s live-action Cats adaptation. For anyone who has seen even a frame of that film, you will probably believe he is justified.

Clocking in at just sixty-five minutes without an interval, FLOP! is a breezy experience whose brevity might leave some wanting a little more. Even so, its shorter length means it doesn’t come close to outstaying its welcome. Had it been conceived as a two-and-a-half-hour, narrative-driven karaoke musical, then this might also have suffered the fate of many of the flops it is celebrating.

FLOP! The Best Songs From The Worst Musicals plays at Wilton’s Music Hall until 26th September. Tickets from https://wiltons.org.uk/whats-on/flop-the-best-songs-from-the-worst-musicals/

Photos by Jasper Wood