Picture: Danny With A Camera
Shantify continues at the Underbelly Boulevard Soho, London until 14 June 2026.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Having originally set sail at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2024, returning for another season in 2025, and scheduled again to play this summer’s programme, Shantify has also dropped anchor in the West End for two weeks at Underbelly Boulevard Soho.
A hybrid of Mamma Mia!-esque jukebox musical and Six-style pop concert, Shantify brings together six exceptional male performers – Michael Riseley, Jack Whittle, Alfie French, Joe Bishop, Cal T King and Ollie Wray – as ‘The Barnacle Boys’, childhood friends from a fishing village.
Via a loose plotline in Act I, the boys each have solo moments detailing their own circumstances, ranging from lifeboat crew experiences to London stage ambitions and love life tribulations. Their stories are underpinned by a very clever interwoven net of well-known theatre and pop medleys, under the skilful musical direction of Harry Style and Ashley Jacobs.
There surely hasn’t been a setlist containing Wheatus, The Greatest Showman, Dolly Parton, Eminem and the Spice Girls before, and it’s unlikely there ever will be again, but such is the magic of having all these well-known and loved songs ‘shantified’ into traditional maritime tones and tempos.
Act II becomes more concert-style, focusing on a gig put on by The Barnacle Boys in their local pub, and what little there is of a storyline falls by the wayside. However, in its wake the performers get to further show off their impressive presence onstage, supported by Chris Hall’s excellent choreography.
Granted, the plot is not the strongest here of any musical production you’ve ever seen, but the plot is also very much not the point. The musical talent, camaraderie and showmanship of this company, holding stunning six-part harmonies throughout the majority of the 90-minute runtime, is undoubtedly at the core of Shantify’s brilliance. This will hopefully keep them on course for extended runs and further West End stage time in the very near future.
Sorcha Exworthy
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