Shantify Underbelly Boulevard, Soho ★★★½

Shantify: The Shanty Show That Leaves You Wanting A LITTLE More Shanty

Shantify opens with a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder, and within seconds we are at sea in the hands of a crew of West End singers who clearly relish every moment of it. Shantify began life in 2021 as an online project, the brainchild of director/producer Jo Parsons and musical arrangers Harry Style and Ashley Jacobs: West End voices performing musical theatre favourites in sea shanty style. Their shantified version of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 went viral, clocked over two million views, and the rest, as they say, is maritime history. After Edinburgh Fringe runs, a stint at the Ambassadors Theatre and a sell-out at Cornwall’s Minack, the show has dropped anchor at Underbelly Boulevard in Soho, and it has lost none of its energy in transit.

The concept is simple and the show knows it. Six performers playing versions of themselves, Joe Bishop, Cal T King, Jack Whittle, Alfie French, Michael Riseley and Ollie Wray, navigate a thin storyline about a seaside community, family businesses and the constraints they place on individual choices, with a genuinely touching nod to the RNLI and the quiet heroism of those who go out in all weathers to bring others home.

The RNLI is currently under attack from some unpleasant quarters, so it is particularly good to see them lauded as they deserve. The songs are served with a large dollop of seaside humour, some puns landing stronger than others. The story is, at times, a little twee. By the interval I wondered whether it was really doing much work. But nobody in the audience seemed to mind, and by the second half, an imagined performance at the local pub, the whole thing had found its rhythm and the plot largely got out of the way of the singing, which was the right decision.

The interval was perhaps unnecessary. The second half felt noticeably short, and Six, which also features six performers and runs at around 80 minutes, manages without one. A tighter 70 minutes straight through might have served Shantify better, keeping the energy unbroken and the audience inside the experience rather than queuing at the bar.

What makes Shantify genuinely worth your time is the quality of the voices and the arrangements. I had hoped some original shanties might shine alongside the shantified versions, and the boom of the Wellerman version the show opens with suggests they could, but the show never quite leans into them the way you want it to. As a teacher, singing the Wellerman is, I should declare, my class’s favourite treat, so I may not be an entirely unbiased witness. But there is something there that felt underexplored.

The shantified songs are good fun, but the real highlights of the second half are an affectionate reworking of Six the musical and a genuinely affecting a cappella “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, different enough in tone and lighting from its shantified counterpart to feel like two entirely separate things. The Six choreography is captured with an amusement that compliments rather than mocks, and “Sorry Not Sorry” delivered in a bass voice is something I will not forget in a hurry. Speaking of voices: Michael Riseley‘s long notes are extraordinary.

Audience participation is handled with humour and genuine affection, and the warmth in the relationships between these men feels real and is rather lovely to watch. But here is the thing about sea shanties: they were traditionally call and response work songs, designed to be sung collectively, to coordinate labour and bind people together. The show never gives the audience the chance to do that. For a production built on the communal power of the form, it felt like a missed opportunity, and one the audience around me would clearly have relished.

Chris Hall‘s choreography makes good use of levels and formations across a simple set of crates and planks, and the space never feels underused. If Shantify is not quite Choir of Man on the water, it is a good-natured, well-sung evening that had the audience very happy by the end. Just do not be surprised if you leave wanting more shanty than you were given.

A good-natured, well-sung evening. Just do not be surprised if you leave wanting more shanty than you were given.

Shantify sets sail for Edinburgh Fringe from 5 August, playing daily at 3.05pm at Palais du Variété, Assembly George Square Gardens. Tickets are available via the Assembly Festival box office at assemblyfestival.com.

Images: Alex Brenner

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