Arthur Hull's FLOP! ★★★★★

While the Fringe has been the starting point for many a successful musical-theatre show, such as Six The Musical and Jerry Springer The Opera, Edinburgh has witnessed more than its fair share of complete turkeys. So, it’s either impressive confidence or sheer madness that anyone would make their Fringe debut with a show called Flop!

Or to give the show’s full title – Arthur Hull’s FLOP: The Best Songs From The Worst Musicals Ever Written. It’s rare that a Fringe show has such a death-defyingly simple concept and yet, to our knowledge, it’s never been done before!

Australian-based Arthur Hull, who made it to Adam Lambert’s final three in their version of The Voice, aims to explore the ‘darker side of Broadway’ and to delve into the shows that lost their way on the Great White Way.

Hull dips his toe into the flop-infested waters with a show of jaw-dropping awfulness, Carrie The Musical. The $8 million Broadway production’s opening number featured cardio-intensive choreography, packed with cloud pulling and literalism, ably recreated by Hull. The show closed in three nights – and you can see why.

It’s an energetic start but Hull immediately switches gear to demonstrate that musical flops are far from new: the Rodgers and Hart show Babes in Arms found little love when it opened in 1937. Supporting his assertion that a great song will transcend such austere beginnings, there follows a ravishing interpretation of My Funny Valentine, with the exquisite phrasing and effortless cool of an old-school crooner like Sinatra or Nat King Cole.

One of the strengths of Flop! is how Arthur switches from the sublime to the ridiculous in an instant finding the diamond in the rough of box office flops, critical bombs and artistic disasters. While gently ribbing the lyrical what-the-fuckery of shows like Moby Dick: A Whale of a Tale (“save your last harpoon”) or Diana The Musical (“This f**kity, f**kity, f**kity, f**kity “f**k you” dress”), Hull still reveres the effort and creativity of the thousands of people whose best endeavours sometimes can’t save a show from disaster.

Whether giving full belt to the soaring crescendo of ‘Til I Hear You Sing (from Love Never Dies, the recipient of 7, count them, Olivier Award nominations in 2011) or wrapping his tongue around The King of Broadway, the patter song from The Producers, Arthur Hull is here to praise these musicals, not to bury them. Perhaps with the exception of Tom Hooper’s Cats movie.

This show is sweet nectar for anyone wanting a fun musical night out and (Fields of) ambrosia for all musical-theatre geeks. The hour goes too quickly and Arthur leaves you wanting more (and we don’t mean the excellent Sondheim song from the moribund 1990 Dick Tracy movie). If you don’t leave Flop! arguing the toss about what show should have been included or what absolutely should not, were you even there?

Every now and then the Fringe offers up a star in the making. In 2025, that star is Arthur Hull. With the bravado and charm of a showman, the playfulness and enthusiasm of a musical theatre nerd and a voice with such glorious versatility, he’s the whole package – and Flop! is an undoubted smash.