Review: Very Hot. Very Messy. Underbelly Cowgate

How to begin a review about a show that Everything Theatre has championed from its very first full run at Camden Fringe 2025? Even back then we slapped 5 stars on it, calling it “a spectacular physical comedy guaranteed to leave you wondering what on earth just happened.” Since then, performer Georgia Polly-Taylor and director Nancy Hannigan have gone away and thought about every small detail of the show, asking the simple but obvious question: how to make it even greater, even funnier and even messier? It would be so easy to sit back and just gaze at your poster, adorned with a string of 5 stars and amazing quotes, but the pair knew there was more to draw out of this character, so admiring the poster would have to wait.

And so, with an updated title (damn you Hot Mess the musical, how dare you sully the name), Very Hot. Very Messy. finds itself at Underbelly Cowgate. Let’s get straight to the point: it’s not the same amazing show it was in 2025. It’s not even the same brilliant, revised version that I travelled all the way across London on a chilling February night to see. It’s now a whole new beast, one that makes you wish we could give out an extra star on top of the five it already has just to show that it is even better than those previous incarnations.

Very Hot. Very Messy. sees socialite wannabe Hot Mess dream of attending the Met Gala, except when that dream becomes a reality, her IBS strikes at completely the wrong moment. In the aftermath of her international embarrassment, she tries to find redemption and reclaim her story from a world that has seen her pebble dash the Olsen Twins. But if that all sounds very deep and meaningful, don’t worry, it really isn’t asking you to think hard about how we view celebrities or our views on scatology. You can if you want, it’s all there, carefully crafted into the narrative, but it’s really not the reason to go and see the show.

No, Very Hot. Very Messy. is the show for when you simply need to laugh at the world, at yourself, as the very silly, very brilliant Polly-Taylor. She clowns, she does puppetry (Stan the talking toilet is surely the replacement for Graham Norton we all need right now), she does crowd work, she does confession, she even does burlesque. But most of all, she knows we all need a stupidly good laugh now and again, without it ever being mean. Hell, she even does consent, politely asking each audience member if they are ok to be her next target before she lays her head on a lap or sprawls across a row to declare that David Bowie is dead (sorry for the spoiler there, he really is dead you know). In fact, her crowd work is something many others should study: the act of asking for consent is both out of genuine concern for her audience, but also part of the joke as she repeats it over and over, because it’s important to remember that no means no.

As I sit in an audience of strangers for an hour watching Polly-Taylor perform once again, I feel the collective joy spreading throughout the room. You know people will be telling their friends about this show later. Very Hot. Very Messy. is just pure joy from start to finish. This will not be the last time I see this show.

Written by Georgia Polly-Taylor

Directed by Nancy Hannigan

Very Hot. Very Messy. plays at Underbelly Cowgate until Sunday 30 August as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.