Shantify - Palais Du Variete Assembly George Square Gardens - Edinburgh Fringe Review

Brothers, best mates and a boat load of pop hits transformed into sea shanties, a recipe for Fringe success and the premise of hit new musical ‘Shantify’, running daily at the Palais Du Variete in Assembly George Square Gardens.

It would be easy to suspect that this show may simply be a concert of song after song, but rest assured that this is a full production with a heartfelt and heartwarming story complete with wonderful songs and performances that will leave you grinning from ear to ear.

Six performers, boasting many a West end credit to their names, play a variety of characters living and working in a English coastal town from fisherman to coffee shop workers and chefs, whilst volunteering for the RNLI and meeting in the local pub every Friday night as The Shanty Boys, performing many genres of songs as sea shanties. One is looking to propose to his long-term girlfriend, another has a date to look forward to whilst brothers Danny and Jack find themselves in charge of their fathers fishing boat after his death. Danny has returned from a high-flying job in London to help out, whilst Jack dreams of a life on the stage rather than the seas.

The day to day stories of the six men are cleverly interspersed with songs, ranging from 9 to 5, Let me Entertain You, and One Shot, to Blow Gabrial Blow and Teenage Dirtbag, if you can name it, this show has shantified it to great levels of success and vocal brilliance.

Jack Whittle, Danny Colligan, Michael Riseley, Ollie Wray, Alfie French and Callum King bring powerhouse vocals and a shed load of heart to this production, creating characters who are both realistic and relatable. These are characters that you could easily find in any coastal town, the coffee shop owner being priced out by chains, the fishmonger choosing between selling to locals or selling overseas, and those who feel that they have to join the family business when they dream of something else.

With the performance that I attended taking place at the peak of Storm Floris, in a miraculously still operational spiegaltent, you have to laugh and call Floris themselves a paid actor as it felt that every storm a storm or thunder was mentioned, a gust would rattle through the roof, raising many a giggle and the cast handled it all with ease.

With absolutely incredible vocals and a story that packs a punch, it is really no surprise that Shantify is flying through its second fringe season with thunderous applause and a great number of sold out shows. It will leave you cheering through its roof raising finale and leave you unable to sing certain songs the original way ever again, and I am so excited to see what is next for this production as it sets sail beyond Edinburgh.