Arthur Hull’s FLOP has charisma by the bucket-loads, Frankie Reason says.
★★★★
Edinburgh-born Australian artist Arthur Hull delivers a musically impressive, engaging, and witty exploration of musical theatre’s greatest flops.
Both exposé and love letter, Hull muses on the dubious opening choreography to Carrie, the pitfalls of theatre to screen, the consistently faulty formula that is ‘musicals based on TV evangelists,’ and the dubious sexual politics of Greece 2.
I had anticipated Hull’s honeyed tenor, and even his confident falsetto, but I was delighted to discover his wit and flair for theatrics. This is no mere recital. The crowd is with him all the way.
He clambers over the seats to serenade an eager audience member, casts another as King Kong, and bends the knee to a third, who sports a mask of the exalted Andrew Lloyd Weber.
He delivers a fantastic rant about Tom Hooper’s Cats and rounds off the show with an energetic number from The Producers and finally Tim Minchin’s ‘When I Grow Up’. In the land of musical theatre, Arthur Hull is one to watch.
Arthur Hull’s FLOP: The Best Songs From The Worst Musicals Ever Written runs until 24 August at Braeburn at Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower.
Art of Andalucia is a stunning blend of different styles of Flamenco across Andalucia, says Frankie Reason.
★★★★
Guitarist Daniel Martinez returns to the Fringe with more mesmerising compositions, accompanied by dancers Gabriella Pouso and Angel Reyes. ‘Accompanied’ is deliberate here.
Though tradition dictates that the guitar follow the dancers, in this performance the dancers respond expertly to the guitar. Martinez describes this innovation as a conversation – no two exchanges are ever the same, and the meeting of movement and music is constantly evolving.
Each performance is unique. Pouso, and particularly Reyes, are extraordinary, but Martinez is the highlight here.
His nimble fingers move deftly over the strings of the guitar, and the music flows effortlessly between drama, sorrow, and joy. The sheer energy of Flamenco guitar is thrilling on its own, but Martinez’s artistry is something special.
Art of Andalucia runs until 25 August at Imaginex at YOTEL Edinburgh.
The Cambridge Footlights is trading on a name, Frankie Reason says.
★
At an extraordinary £17 a ticket, this show had a lot to live up to and fell well below the bar. The series of sketches we’re presented with, aptly named ‘Fragile Contents,’ are overwritten, rife with non-sequiturs, and commonly lacking a punchline.
Awkward, unconvincing acting exacerbates the problem and twenty minutes in, audience members begin walking out. Which is not to say that the show was devoid of laughs. The consistently deadpan delivery of cast member Reese Patel is chuckle-worthy material – though I occasionally found myself wondering whether it was wholly deliberate – and the shoplifting sketch was clever enough, but for the most part I was at a loss.
I have seen the Footlights perform (badly) for years now, and though the Cleese-Chapman and Fry-Laurie eras seem an impossible standard, I nevertheless hope the troupe will produce something even half worthy of the name in the coming years.
The Cambridge Footlights runs until 25 August at King Dome at Pleasance Dome.
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