Come all you no hopers, you jokers and rogues, Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical is at the Theatre Royal Brighton and it’s not something you want to miss!
Based on the incredible true story of the folk Cornish Sea shanties group from Port Isaac, and the 2019 feature film Fisherman’s Friends this musical comedy tells the story of London music exec, Danny who finds himself in the small fishing village of Port Isaac for a friend’s wedding and witnesses the shanty-singing fishermen and ends up promising them a record deal and suggests the possibility of even performing at Glastonbury! Danny also finds a love interest along the way in Alwyn but can a Londoner and Cornish Sea shanty girl really work?
Londoner Danny is played by Jason Langley who played the role perfectly, very similar to the way Daniel Mays plays the character in the 2019 feature film, and love interest Cornish shanty-girl Alwyn is played by the incredible Parisa Shahmir. When Shahmir sung, the whole audience went quiet, her voice was truly stunning and really captured than Cornish twang (are they called rifts in a song, when you go up and down?) well anyway she mastered those, and I thought she was fabulous.
Jim the bands foreman is played by James Gaddas (yes Neil Grayling from Bad Girls! My fave G-Wing governor) who I thought was a perfect casting for the role, his rough and ready Cornish persona was true to life and my what a set of lungs he has on him too. You can tell Gaddas put his heart, soul, and emotion into his portrayal of this character.
This show was cast heavy, so I won’t be mentioning all names, but here are a few of my standout stars of the night. Dakota Starr as Ben, he is the funny one of the group and added some hilarious one-liners to the show which got the audience laughing (the London Gay scene part of the shows is exceptionally funny). Pete Gallagher as Leadville, again for his comedic values, in particular the facial expressions! And Hazel Monaghan as Sally, when characters Sally and Alwyn sing during the show its dreamy, I was actually getting sleepy during some of the songs due to them being so calming.
The staging and set I thought was absolutely excellent, sometimes when a show is touring rather than having residency at a specific theatre, staging can be quite standard and lets be honest pretty boring, but this was anything but! Set & Costume Designer Lucy Osborne, Lighting Designer Johanna Town and Sound Designer Dan Samson did a fantastic job in brining Port Isaac to Brighton. The show’s opening scene was the fisherman on a boat in the sea, and the use of light, smoke, sound and movement was so immersive I loved it.
I think you can probably tell from this review, that I LOVED this musical, and since the show, have been listening to sea shanties by Fisherman’s Friends on Spotify, I even found myself checking tour dates for the actual band but noting down South at the moment, and I bet you’re all wondering did they ever get to Glastonbury? The answer is YES, they played the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 2011, the same year Beyoncé headlined, and If I had been at Glasto that year, I 100% would’ve been in the audience for Fisherman’s Friends.
Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical is at Theatre Royal Brighton until Saturday 11th March 2023 with shows every evening at 7:30pm and matinees on Thurs & Sat at 2.30pm. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets, I can guarantee you wont regret it!