Will “Hot Mess” be the first climate-crisis musical to make it to Broadway – and the second Broadway musical, after “Six,” to have originated at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival?   The idiosyncratic romantic comedy features Earth and Humanity as star-crossed lovers. This is not to say their relationship resembles Romeo and Juliet’s; it’s longer and more complicated, and the partners are far older: Earth (Danielle Steers) has been putting up with bad dates for almost a billion years. when Humanity (Tobias Turley) first enters the picture: “What’s a planet like you doing in a place like this?” he says to her —  the oldest pickup line in the universe.

That’s not the only groan-worthy comic moment in this high-concept show,  but most of them are hard to resist. When they’re getting to know one another, he tells her “I’m more of a hunter-gatherer but I can be pretty fluid,” and she tells him defensively “I’m not picky; I’m naturally selective”

What’s most impressive about “Hot Mess” is the consistency with which the creative team maintains the central metaphor, and the two performers’ noteworthy voices, which make the most of the loud, hard-charging pop score.

While Humanity is at first smitten and Earth reluctant, Earth comes around. But then Humanity turns fickle. The relationship is ever-evolving, often testy.

Earth resents it when Humanity starts acting possessive, talking about “my crops.” Humanity resents Earth’s reluctance to share her wealth — “You sit there basking in your riches with your big mountains and your billions of trees” – and is outraged when she floods the field he’s been working.

Things eventually get “Better With Time” – the title of one of the better songs, in which they boast of having become a power couple, listing lyrically what they have been able to achieve together, rhyming “irrigation” with ‘hand-pollination,” as well as

Humanity: The wheel
Earth: The plough
Humanity: Hinduism
Earth: Holy Cow

Here’s a music video of the song:

Ultimately, though, this is a relationship that isn’t working, thanks to Humanity’s arrogance and neglect; we see him finally in a spacesuit, in search of another lover.

I don’t see “Hot Mess” as ready anytime soon for Broadway: It’s too slight, too short; the production is not visually interesting; I’m not sure there is enough chemistry (or is it enough earth science?) between the two leads. But people are talking about it, which is apparently a main activity at the Fringe  –  speculating about the next Six (and the next Fleabag and the next Baby Reindeer.) 

There are some signs that the speculation is more than idle, given the ambition and connections of the “powerhouse team” behind the show (as they are described in a press release.) They mean business. My initial press reservation to attend the show was pushed back because, I was told, they were “only accepting very select reviewers” within the first week of its three-week run. The show, which previewed earlier this year at Birmingham Hippodrome, is already scheduled to transfer to London’s Southwark Playhouse in October.  The cast features two high-profile pros: Steers was in the original West End cast of “Six.”  The creative duo who came up with “Hot Mess,” songwriter Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote, who wrote the book and directs the production, previously worked together on “42 Balloons,” their first musical, which debuted in Chicago in June, based on the strange true story of Larry Walters, who flew 16,000 feet in the air sitting in his lawn chair lifted by 42 weather balloons.  That musical was produced by Kevin McCullum, Tony-winning producer of 33  Broadway shows, including “Rent,” “Avenue Q,” “Oh Mary” – and “Six.”

Hot Mess is running through August 25 at Pleasance Courtyard as part of the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.