Fisherman’s Friends: the Musical is to sail around the UK and Ireland next year. The show premiered in October this year at Truro’s newly-refurbished Hall For Cornwall, where it was the biggest-selling production in the venue’s 25-year history.
The tour will open at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth on September 1, 2022, and further dates include The Lowry in Salford (September 27-October 1) and Leeds Grand (November 8-19). Dates through to 2023 are still to be announced.
The musical – like the hit 2019 film – is based on the true story of the band Fisherman’s Friends, which was created by a group of Cornish fishermen. They teamed up, much like the women involved in the earlier Calendar Girls phenomenon, in their case to sing traditional working songs they had sung for generations in the hope of raising money for charity.
Nobody, least of all the fishermen, expected to find themselves on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury and the subject of a feature film based on their true story.
The musical is a feelgood voyage about friendship, community and music, packed with more sea shanties than you can fit in a lobster trawler, including Keep Haulin', Nelson's Blood, No Hopers Jokers & Rogues, Sweet Maid of Madeira and many more.
Fisherman’s Friends was written by Amanda Whittington, who has created more than 30 plays for theatre and radio. Her work is widely performed by companies across the UK, with recent productions at Hull Truck, Oldham Coliseum, New Vic Theatre and Nottingham Playhouse.