Mothman: A Romance Musical - Belly Button Underbelly Cowgate - Review

What happens when you activate a super spy making machine, in the depths of the Second World War, without realising that there is a moth trapped inside the mechanism? Well, what doesn’t happen is the creation of a super spy. Instead, out steps a beast, part human part moth, 100% mystery and a creature that becomes a myth, lurking in the woods of West Virgina, hunted for years but never found. Flash forward and three friends following in the footsteps of the explorer they love from his online videos venture into the woods in search of the mythical Mothman in what grows to be an hilarious exploration of friendship, romance and queer identity in the aptly named Mothman: A Romance Musical.

Anna - surname fivesixseveneight - played by Alex Franklin, who also wrote the piece alongside costar Nikola McMurtrie, is desperate to find the Mothman alongside her boyfriend Kevin (Alex Prescott) who she has never kissed. Her friend played by McMurtrie is much more confident than the reserved Anna and isn’t afraid of the legend that the Mothman only appears when someone is about to die, where Kevin is more than ready for the adventure. Hudson Hughes completes the cast, playing a variety of characters who throw themselves (quite literally) into the action.

The plot is ridiculous, with out there love stories, bumbling explorers, police officers who don’t know what’s going on, a wisdom tree who offers terrible advice and a monster that seems to have the strange ability to make everyone it meets fall in love with it, but it’s wonderful. It’s laugh out loud funny, the characters lovable and the scenes, as silly as they are, flow nicely at a lively pace that keeps you entirely engaged.

With the show having many more characters than it does cast members, Prescott, McMurtrie and Hughes prove that they specialise in the art of the quick change, bustling around in the wings to disappear as one character and appear as another throughout. This places Franklin’s Anna as the central lead whilst cleverly unfolding this world of strange and wonderful characters around her as she discovers more about the mothman and about herself.  It also gives this wonderful sense of what the fringe is about, theatre on a budget where performers must multi role and it becomes a joke if quick changes are fumbled or large costumes become entangled in curtains, it’s all a part of the fun. And who cares if the American accents are a little ropey, and that some characters add very little to the context - a policeman who is a clown called Stabbo? Why not, throw them in there for laugh, it’s all good.

The songs are well written, well performed and catchy, fitting the fun tone of the show whilst retaining the heart needed to show that these characters are learning about themselves and exploring their identities. From Kevin’s (Prescott) boyband style number to Anna’s (Franklin) big moment of discovery, the songs fit and flow perfectly.

Overall, Mothman: A Romance Musical is madcap, bold and hilariously funny, exploring sexuality, exploration, teenage lives and myth busting in a fun, outlandish manner that celebrates the budget do it yourself style that has come to be associated with the Edinburgh fringe.