Review: Potty The Plant at Wilton’s Music Hall

28 Jun

⭐⭐ (Two Stars)

Potty The Plant, currently performing a short run at Wilton’s Music Hall in London before heading back to the Edinburgh Fringe for its third year, is an hour-long musical that plants itself somewhere between chaotic charm and comedic cringe. Set in the cartoonish world of Little Boo Boo’s General Hospital, the show follows a trio of overly enthusiastic nurses and their botanical sidekick as they attempt to unravel the secrets of the seemingly villainous Dr Acula. It’s a premise that promises campy fun, but only delivers sporadically.

The cast is undeniably enthusiastic. Stephanie Cubello, Sam Ridley, and Joe Winter as the trio of nurses bring the giddy energy of children’s TV presenters, and there are some hysterical line readings from Dr Acula (Ash K-B) and his love interest, Miss Lacey (Lucy Appleton). Baden Burns, as Potty, the titular puppet-plant, cheekily breaks the fourth wall with self-aware nods to the audience. There’s real effort here, particularly in the face of ongoing technical issues: microphone problems plagued the show, and entire lines and lyrics were unfortunately swallowed by overly loud backing tracks.

Many of the jokes, penned by Aeddan Sussex, Baden Burns, and Sarah Burns, feel like a time capsule of early-2010s humour, leaning too heavily on tired tropes such as ginger hair jabs and shock-for-shock’s-sake gags that have long since lost their bite. While there are a few laugh-out-loud moments, too much of the humour relies on being purposefully offensive, and feels somewhat outdated.

Baden Burns, who also directs, delivers some quirky and inventive staging, most memorably a hilariously surreal moment involving one actor dressed as the sun violently bludgeoning another actor dressed as the moon before dragging their lifeless body off-stage in order to indicate the passage of time. But elsewhere, transitions are clunky, and blackouts that fail to fully dim leave actors awkwardly visible as they exit the stage.

Ultimately, Potty The Plant has a scrappy charm that I imagine would flourish better at the Edinburgh Fringe than on a London stage.

Potty The Plant runs at Wilton’s Music Hall until 28th June 2025.

Tickets are available here: https://wiltons.org.uk/whats-on/potty-the-plant/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22578377482&gbraid=0AAAAACdXUcEyJov77xqDjQf9R44TJgAuo&gclid=CjwKCAjw3MXBBhAzEiwA0vLXQY8MriupsNWBn7GSAxGbrTfUp9OrZkwgIOH6GY98pLxux_xya9HXMxoCUNMQAvD_BwE