I recently saw Fisherman’s Friends The Musical at the New Theatre Oxford and I’ll say straight out, I had a whale of a time…I promise that will be the only fisherman pun I’ll make in this review.
It was a good time. I can say that going in I had no concept of the real-life group of singers that this was based on. Nor did I know that there was a film that also tells this story. If you’re a fan of either of those I’m sure you had an even better time than I did going in cold.
The story, for those who perhaps like me don’t know about in before you go in, is about a music producer called Danny who finds himself as a fish out of water (sorry second fish pun) in a pub in Cornwall where he meets a local group of men who sing traditional fisherman sea shanty’s. He’s instantly smitten, but that’s because he also meets a love interest in Alwyn, who is a feisty take no nonsense daughter of the leader of the band.
Whilst love is in the salty air for Danny and Alwyn, he also sees huge potential for the men and tries his best to get them a record deal. This is the true life story of what happened and how they went from unknown fisherman to the top 10 in the music charts.
At one point they sung the drunken sailor song, and a short section of the Wellerman sea shanty song, and although my eyes lit up as I knew this one, its inclusion was just as a joke. Despite not knowing any of the other songs I had a great time with them, and I know this got my interest to check out the songs of the Fisherman’s Friends in the future. Partly though because I often found that whilst enjoying the songs I couldn’t always understand the lyrics with their accents.
The set of the show is simple in that it is one main area with a balcony that easily transforms between a pub, a London gay bar and even the high seas themselves. The most elaborate, but impressive set piece is the scenes set at sea where a boat on ropes manoeuvred by the cast pulling ropes is super clever and effective.
The show has likable characters, although as I was watching I felt like this was a multiverse version of the Hobbit and the members of the group were the dwarves in Bilbo’s party. Some of them had more to do than others, but as a group they had a charm which made them likeable.
The show is filled with humour and a few soppy moments as every musical does, and whilst it wasn’t a musical that will blow your socks off, it was a consistently fun time from start to finish.
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