Mothman: A Romance Musical, Underbelly Cowgate Review
I have seen the future of British musical theatre, and it has antennae. I am as surprised as you are. It's 1943, the Nazis are winning, and America's last hope - a top-secret super soldier machine - whirrs into life with a moth trapped inside. Out steps not a super soldier but a super something: winged, furry-legged, inexplicably alluring, and the star of the most gloriously ridiculous hour at this year's Fringe.
Written and performed by Alex Franklin and Nikola McMurtrie, alongside Alex Prescot and Hudson Hughes, Mothman: A Romance Musical follows a trio of friends into the woods of West Virginia in search of the legendary cryptid, and finds more than any of them bargained for. It is a concept so absurd that it shouldn't work, and yet it works precisely because it's so absurd. This is a show that knows exactly how silly it is and commits with conviction.
The script is funny on the page, but it's the cast who elevate it into something special. All four are superb comic performers, flinging themselves through quick changes, questionable (read: awful) American accents and a small army of characters, with the energy of a company twice their size. The songs, too, are far better than a musical about moth-based romance has any right to be.
And then there's the production itself: proudly, delightedly low budget. The DIY props and costumes aren't a limitation here, they're a punchline. Every cardboard contraption and hasty switcheroo only makes the whole thing funnier, and the show wears its shoestring aesthetic like a badge of honour. It's camp in the truest sense: sincerity and silliness held in perfect, glittering tension.
Beneath the feathers (fur? gossamer?) there's real heart, too - a queer love story about identity and self-acceptance that lands its emotional beats without ever losing its grip on the comedy. You will, against all odds and possibly against your will, find yourself rooting for a half-man half-moth full romance.
Camp, chaotic and completely irresistible, Mothman: A Romance Musical is the flame and you are the moth. Fly, don’t walk.
Mothman: A Romance Musical is playing at Underbelly Cowgate until August 30th
★★★★★
Written by Ellora for Theatre and Tonic, August 2026.
