Flop! Turns Broadway’s Biggest Disasters Into a One Man Triumph at Wilton’s Music Hall

Flop! The Best Songs from the Worst Musicals | Wilton’s Music Hall until 26 September 2026

Handstands, samplers, and a Hiroshima jukebox musical, Flop! has it all.

Flop! The Best Songs from the Worst Musicals is a solo show billed as a love letter to Broadway and the West End’s biggest misfires. It unearths standout numbers from theatre’s most misunderstood, critically panned, and financially catastrophic flops. The show debuted at Adelaide Fringe in 2025, winning the Best Emerging Artist Award, and later secured Best Entertainment at Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s Dark Chat Awards. It is performed by the immensely talented and hyper-energetic Australian, Arthur Hull.

I must confess a fondness for the concept of this show. Over the years, I’ve tried to collect “bad” musicals, as they can often be hilariously awful, though Opening Night and Trainspotting recently challenged that rule. The show definitely has a ‘producer’s vibe,’ a point referenced at the end. It’s the flip side of watching a new musical stumble in real time, as Trainspotting the Musical currently is at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

I found myself slightly triggered, as the show brought back memories of some productions I had seen, and some I’d actually forgotten. Hull is incredibly talented, adeptly working samplers, playing the keyboard, dancing, and even performing a handstand.

He began with Carrie, the musical, which I saw at Stratford-upon-Avon before its transfer to Broadway, where it swiftly became one of the most expensive flops ever! It was staged in a white box and featured Leroy from Fame and the legendary singer Barbara Cook, who made an entrance through what appeared to be an up-and-over garage door, requiring her to duck to avoid decapitation.

There’s a standing joke about this production: when the artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company announced he was doing Carrie, someone remarked, “It needs to be set, it needs to be like Grease,” referring to Grease: The Musical. He, however, interpreted it as meaning ancient Greece! Highlights for me included a rubber pig being shoved through a trapdoor in the stage and, at the climactic prom scene, someone simply plonking a rubber red bucket on Carrie’s head! Hull doesn’t reference these specific moments but performs the full opening gym number solo for us.

He also discussed Moby Dick: The Musical, which I’d forgotten I’d seen and which was unbelievably bad, and then Out of the Blue, which was essentially Hiroshima: The Musical, like Miss Saigon but with an atomic bomb instead of a helicopter. It contained some of my favourite bad lyrics as the doomed lovers, an American G.I. and a Japanese girl, sang to each other: “How can you beeeee my enemeeeee?”

And I must mention The Fields of Ambrosia, the story of a traveling executioner in the Southern states of America with an electric chair in the back of his van. This one featured the lyric: “The fields of ambrosia where everyone knows ya.” I don’t understand why it’s not still running!

Hull doesn’t confine himself to musicals long gone. He also references Grease 2, the film, which I haven’t seen but must catch up on, as it sounds incredible in the worst possible way. Also, Diana the Musical, still on Netflix, is genuinely funny because everyone in it is clearly taking it desperately seriously. Again, I added to my collection of bad lyrics with the paparazzi singing, “Better than a Guinness, better than a wank, take a few pictures, it’s money in the bank!”

While I acknowledge this is a specialist subject for some, I would encourage those less familiar with musicals to experience this show, which is exceptionally well-performed, funny, and warm-hearted.

If you’ve ever sat through a musical wondering how anyone signed the cheques, Flop! is the show that finally explains it, and EyeOnLondon would grab one of the three remaining nights at Wilton’s before this particular flop, unlike so many it celebrates, closes on time.

For more London arts and culture, visit EyeOnLondon at eye-on-london.com.

[Image Credits | Jasper Wood]

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