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Monday, August 24, 2026
EDINBURGH 2026: Review: FLOP! THE BEST SONGS FROM THE WORST…
www.broadwayworld.com: Flop! The Best Songs From The Worst Musicals is a cabaret by Arthur Hull. The premise is that even the bad musicals that failed have at least one good song to redeem them.
Productions don’t all have to be relatable to everyone. Regionally specific humor or topics can make a performance stand out among the others being put on in the area. Different shows will be received differently by each individual audience. Particularly comedy shows benefit from connecting with their audiences as much as possible to bring the audience together as a group and provide a solid structure of familiarity and solidarity to base their jokes off of. I disagree with Geoffrey Asmus’s point of view on the ways in which American and European audiences differ. While I do believe that some parts of the US treat intellectualism with a certain degree of distrust or prejudice, I think that the main difference between these audiences is their type of humor. American audiences tend to enjoy blunt, obvious jokes that hit you over the head with their meaning, while European audiences appreciate jokes that make them feel smart for comprehending the meaning.
I really wanted to read this article because a bunch of my friends went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and all the musicals that they mention in this cabaret about musicals that flopped are musicals that I actually haven't ever heard the music from. They mentioned shows like Carrie and the Spider-Man musical which I've heard a lot of bad things about it technically, but never about the plot or the music from the actual show, so I might have to go take a listen on Spotify after this to listen to those soundtracks so that I can understand why they categorize this as one of the worst musicals they've ever seen (or heard). The show itself that they performed sounds really funny and like a light-hearted comedy relief to what some of the other shows at the fringe might have been. I really do wish I went to the Fringe Festival and saw some of these shows. Noted for next summer.
2 comments:
Productions don’t all have to be relatable to everyone. Regionally specific humor or topics can make a performance stand out among the others being put on in the area. Different shows will be received differently by each individual audience. Particularly comedy shows benefit from connecting with their audiences as much as possible to bring the audience together as a group and provide a solid structure of familiarity and solidarity to base their jokes off of. I disagree with Geoffrey Asmus’s point of view on the ways in which American and European audiences differ. While I do believe that some parts of the US treat intellectualism with a certain degree of distrust or prejudice, I think that the main difference between these audiences is their type of humor. American audiences tend to enjoy blunt, obvious jokes that hit you over the head with their meaning, while European audiences appreciate jokes that make them feel smart for comprehending the meaning.
I really wanted to read this article because a bunch of my friends went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and all the musicals that they mention in this cabaret about musicals that flopped are musicals that I actually haven't ever heard the music from. They mentioned shows like Carrie and the Spider-Man musical which I've heard a lot of bad things about it technically, but never about the plot or the music from the actual show, so I might have to go take a listen on Spotify after this to listen to those soundtracks so that I can understand why they categorize this as one of the worst musicals they've ever seen (or heard). The show itself that they performed sounds really funny and like a light-hearted comedy relief to what some of the other shows at the fringe might have been. I really do wish I went to the Fringe Festival and saw some of these shows. Noted for next summer.
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