Review: Caroline – A New Musical (streamed from New Wolsey Theatre) ★★★½

Caroline is a new musical, with a 1960s playlist, telling the true story of Britain’s pirate radio revolution. This year it has completed a stage tour and also a digital tour where audiences were able to pay to stream a version of the show filmed at the New Wolsey Theatre.

A show about a pirate radio station is a fine opportunity to shape a jukebox musical around as it is, after all, the music that these radio stations were all about. Songs such as My Generation (The Who) and Wouldn’t it be Nice (The Beach Boys) are performed with verve and also fit the plot well. Others, such as These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ (originally by Nancy Sinatra) feel slightly more shoehorned in with the tone fitting the story more than all the words do.

We have been taken back to a time where the BBC had a complete monopoly on broadcasting and modern music was not represented on their playlists. To get around this, pirate radio stations began to base themselves on boats at sea so they were outside the legal jurisdiction of the UK. The cat and mouse games they had to play with the government as ministers explored ways of closing them down is well explored, though I did find the Postmaster General (Gareth Cooper) is written as a bit too much of a caricature. He did, indeed, want to “walk all over” the pirate stations.

The show is exceptionally well-researched: some of the more implausible-seeming storylines such as live-on-air weddings are all factual. Also true is the launching of competitions where proof-of-purchase had to be sent in: the stations had to be funded somehow and this was a way of demonstrating their impact.

At times, the gap between the working classes and the London elite are well-observed but there are times where it feels a little like it is tipping into the condescending. For example, a scene where new DJ Robbie (Jake Hasley-Jones) and his fiancée Caroline (Claire Lee Shenfield) are uncomfortable knowing how to behave in a restaurant would have had the same impact without the gags about how to pronounce lasagne and spaghetti bolognaise.

The cast of actor-musicians move seamlessly between their acting parts and then playing a range of instruments. The simple but effective set means they are always in view but lighting and sound choices mean it is always clear where we are. Ocean and seagull sounds are especially evocative.

The ending is particularly strong. As the government regains control of the broadcasting situation, difficult choices have to be made. There is a debate about what success looks like. While many pirate radio stations closed down, many of their staff joined the BBC, and new stations and playlists meant that the music of “this generation” was given a legal place on the airwaves.

The characters of Caroline are sometimes a little too glossed over as individuals but serve well as a vehicle for telling the wider story. The songs are infectious and, I suspect, would be even better in a live setting. One to watch out for if it comes to a theatre near you.

Images credit: Will Green Photography

[Thank you to Alison Duiguid PR for free access for an honest review.]

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