Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Falling in Love with Mr. Dellamort
MTTM Theatrics
Genre: Cabaret, Musical Theatre
Venue: Temple at C Arts, C venues, C aquila
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
New Year’s Eve at Mr Dellamort’s secluded hotel promises love, mystery and transformation. Four guests step into his world, unaware of the dark twist that awaits them. With a live theremin, strong ensemble performances and a score brimming with theatrical flair, the piece conjures echoes of Rocky Horror and Little Shop of Horrors while staking its own claim in the gothic musical theatre tradition.
Review
This is a show that immediately knows how to envelop its audience in atmosphere. Cornelius Loy’s theremin greets us with eerie ripples of sound, placing us squarely in a world of shadows and theatrical seduction. Its bold use is one of the production’s signatures. Occasionally it dominates a little too heavily, but its presence shows ambition and flair—a willingness to make daring choices that mark out this team as inventive and confident.
Robert Tripolino, known for his roles in Jesus Christ Superstar, Les Miserable and The Light in the Piazza, gives Mr Dellamort a flamboyant, overtly camp energy. At times he channels Tim Curry’s Frank-N-Furter with a strut and wink that delight, while also teasing a vulnerability in his exchanges with Grace Farrell’s Janetesque Sue. This dynamic provides sparks of theatrical electricity. There are moments when Dellamort slips into nagging host rather than magnetic seducer, yet the overall impression is of a performer with charisma to spare, laying the foundations of a character we want to see fully fleshed out.
The guests, too, bring strong pedigree and presence. Natalie Arle-Toyne, whose career spans theatre and opera, revels in Ursula’s predatory glee. Chris O’Mara, with credits across the Fringe and regional stages, energises the room with physical comedy and vocal precision, leaning into his camp disco-bunny character with aplomb. Jennie Jacobs, a West End alumna from Mamma Mia! and Stiletto, commands attention with disciplined power and a deliciously unhinged vamp. Grace Farrell’s Sue adds wit and vocal dexterity, particularly in her tongue-twisting solo, balancing sincerity with playfulness. All four elevate their roles, even when the dialogue offers audiences only glimpses of more complex journeys.
That is where the piece most clearly shows its Fringe framing. Storylines appear, dazzle and then fade too quickly, leaving us intrigued but not fully satisfied. The twist that comes late in the show is clever, but without the connective tissue between scenes, its impact is more cerebral than visceral. Rather than undermining the production, this sense of incompleteness makes it feel like a chapter of a longer musical waiting to be written.
And this is what excites most. The songs are strong, the staging witty, the gothic aesthetic richly drawn. The company clearly has the talent and vision to develop this into something bigger, and there is every reason to believe a full-length version could join the lineage of cult musicals it already nods to.
