Review: Dune! The Musical, Fringe 2026

I last saw the critically acclaimed one-man show Dune! The Musical at Cymera Festival in 2025 ahead of its third year at Fringe – and it made so much of an impact that I even bought a CD. Is it somehow possible that Dan Collins has delivered an even more stunning performance than last time? Yes, actually.

Vibe

The vibe is a combination of comedy and tragedy, with spice, worms, stillsuits, betrayal, murder, and the deaths of 61 billion people. In other words, it’s pure Dune, told in a unique and original fashion with masterfully written tunes and lyrics.

Collins is back at the Voodoo Rooms this year, but he’s got a (very warranted) bigger room. There’s already quite a queue ahead of me (and the husband I’ve finally managed to get along to his show), and there’s still around 30 minutes until start time. It only grows. The first half of the queue is ushered into the bar off the Ballroom, whilst more wait outside because there’s not enough space.

When we finally enter, Collins is sitting quite calmly strumming away, and setting up a relaxed ambient vibe for the music we’re about to experience. It’s one man and a guitar; a nice vibe. Everyone gets comfortable and settled in for an utterly brilliant show.

Performance

Dune! The Musical takes elements from Frank Herbert‘s epic sci-fi novel series Dune, along with the David Lynch and Denis Villeneuve movies, and has cleverly crafts them into an engaging, at times laugh-out-loud funny, captivating show. It’s also an outstanding performance by Collins.

The music is so well-written as Collins takes the audience through the terrible story of Dune! and Paul Atreides, with some of my favourite songs being Bless the Maker, Terrible Purpose and Twisted Mentat. For the most part, the tone is skillfully devised folk music and ballads, with a strong shift into heavy rock music at one point of the story. It’s a riotous clash that works.

An accomplished musical storyteller, Collins embodies characters including Gurney Halleck, Baron Harkonnen and Paul Atreides with such panache and charm. So much into each and every song that you’re absolutely captivated by his performance throughout, hanging on his every word.

Dune! is musical storytelling at its very best, and I can’t recommend this show highly enough. The fact that it’s free is just astounding, actually, because Collins has perfected this show with such genius writing, powerful delivery and incredible energy. Unmissable true spirit-of-the-Fringe brilliance.

Overall

I knew what to expect from Dune! The Musical, but for some reason I was even more blown away than ever before. The word’s definitely gotten out, and the show has even more of a cult following than it did previously. I also wasn’t surprised were plenty of people lining up to buy the CD afterwards, just like I had. I’m curious (and hopeful) to see what Collins will come up with next.

I only have one request, Dan. Any chance you could add Dune! The Musical to Apple Music?! Pretty please.