Mothman: A Romance Musical Review: Love, Lust and Furry Legs.
★★★★☆
What is sexier than a half-man, half-moth creature with furry legs who only appears when someone is about to die? It is a question I never thought I would ask, but one posed by Mothman: A Romance Musical with such conviction that it may now haunt my dreams.
Mothman delights in absolute absurdity, following three monster-hunting friends into the woods of West Virginia after the untimely demise of their online explorer idol. There is a girl heroically battling her American accent, her clearly gay boyfriend who never seems particularly interested in kissing her, and their slutty, gun-toting friend. What follows is a glorious mess of sexual awakenings, monster romance, sexy moths and precisely the kind of American B-movie trash the show knows you secretly want.
The four-strong cast are uniformly brilliant, self-deprecating, shameless and endlessly likeable, each ricocheting between multiple roles. They gleefully undermine one another both in and out of character, creating the sense that the whole thing could derail at any moment while remaining impressively controlled. Entrances involve forward rolls, exits require awkwardly reversing through an inevitably obstructive curtain, and bears are fought with heroic commitment. It is profoundly stupid, and all the better for it.
The stripped-back staging becomes one of the production’s strongest comic assets. Tree stump seats become the dead brothers surrounding a mystical wisdom tree, mannequins are thrown around the stage with abandon, and whenever a character is needed while their usual performer is already onstage, the only remaining cast member is hurried into a pair of hoochie shorts and sent out in their place. The whole production finds enormous comedy in simple, imaginative theatrical solutions without ever needing extravagance.
The songs sit firmly in service of the comedy. The melodies may not linger long afterwards, but the cast sell every ridiculous lyric and romantic declaration with such conviction that it scarcely matters. Even the genuinely ropey American accent becomes part of the fun. The production knows exactly what it is working with and folds it into the joke so effectively that it becomes another source of charm rather than a distraction.
What makes Mothman work is how confidently it embraces its own nonsense. There is no embarrassment about the furry legs, rampant horniness or deliberately daft theatricality. The cast are clearly having an enormous amount of fun, and that enjoyment is infectious. By the time the company attempts a legally disallowed rendition of Country Roads, the room is completely won over.
There are still places where Mothman could become stronger. The simplicity of the staging works beautifully, but a more permanent visual identity, even something as modest as a forest framing the action, would give the production a stronger sense of place. The audience interaction also feels unnecessary. The cast have more than enough charisma and the material is funny enough without stepping outside the story, and those moments occasionally interrupt the strange little universe the show has worked so hard to build. Mothman is at its best when it trusts its own mythology and lets us disappear into it. It just needs a little more room to spread its wings.
Mothman: A Romance Musical is silly, inventive and enormously likeable, a Fringe musical that understands exactly what it is and commits to the bit with admirable confidence. It may not have convinced me that a furry prophetic moth-man is sexy, but worryingly, I may have flown a little too close to the flame.
Belly Button at Underbelly Cowgate
Until 30th August (except 18th)
1850-1950
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