book, music & lyrics by Amy Clare Tasker
At the Seaside Ukulele Festival, music brings a community together – but fierce competition at the song contest threatens to tear it apart again. Sparks fly between ex-bandmates Bibi and Ben, while festival host Jeremy tries to hold everything together. Think Pitch Perfect meets Much Ado About Nothing, with a ukulele score spanning genres from folk and comedy songs, to blues, jazz, and hip-hop.
DEVELOPMENT
23 November 2023: Musical Bites, a lunchtime series of new musical readings. Presented by Mercury Musical Developments & The Other Palace.
25 & 26 May 2023: BEAM Showcase at Oxford Playhouse. The UK’s biggest showcase of new musical theatre, curated by Mercury Musical Developments & Musical Theatre Network.
4 & 5 February 2023: Into the Works scratch night at VAULT Festival, curated and produced by Music Box Theatre.
GET INVOLVED
Check out our crowdfunding campaign and choose from backers’ rewards including access to early recordings, songwriting workshops, ukulele lessons, and more.
Download a Ukulele Starter Guide and the “Friends in High Places” songbook from Amy’s Ko-Fi shop. The PDFs are available for free, with optional donation.
Sign up for the Ukulele Days newsletter
Connect on socials: @UkuleleDaysMusical on Insta & TikTok and @UkuleleDays on Twitter
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer Amy Clare Tasker is a theatre maker and songwriter. She taught herself to play the ukulele in 2019, and discovered a wonderland of music-lovers, community events, festivals, and creative expression. Amy is a co-director of Pinecone Performance Lab, where she writes, performs, directs, and embraces an all-around “theatre maker” ethos. Amy previously wrote and performed the show HOT (Helen of Troy), which premiered at The Cockpit in February 2020. Since 2022, she has been a member of the Book Music & Lyrics workshop, honing the craft of writing for musical theatre. Amy also works with The Cockpit on the Voila! Europe Theatre Festival and the Theatre Maker artist development programme.
Director Nicky Allpress‘s recent credits include The Shape of Things (Park Theatre), The Walworth Farce, and Romeo & Juliet (Southwark Playhouse); Crackers! (Polka Theatre), My Fair Lady (The Hexagon, Reading); Market Boy (Union Theatre); Invisible Me (Bloomsbury Festival); Moment of Grace (Lockdown Film); Summon up the Blood (RSC Open Stages community project, director and adapter of Henry IV, V and VI). She is currently in preparation for he 60th anniversary tour of Oh What a Lovely War with six actor musicians. As Associate Director she worked on Dragons & Mythical Beasts (Regents Park and Tour); My Brilliant Friend (National Theatre); Summerland (film dir Jessica Swale); Finishing the Picture (Finborough Theatre).
Nicky works closely with writers in the development of new plays and musicals, creating a a new writing residency at the Swiss Church Covent Garden to help 16 writers host readings, workshops, and development rehearsals to further their new work. Nicky is about to start her third year in the Book Music & Lyrics workshop, under the auspices of Tim Sutton, Jason Carr and David James.
Dramaturg Tricity Vogue, AKA Heather Tyrrell, is a seasoned scriptwriter and lyricist, as well as a celebrated ukulele player and cabaret performer. Her most recent theatrical collaboration was as lyricist on Alma, a new original musical produced by Théatre de Namur, Belgium, created by director Fabrice Murgia and celebrated drag queen Peggy Lee Cooper.
Tricity spent a decade working in television (credits include My Family, Totally Frank, Holby City, Byker Grove and the Teletubbies) before she fell down a rabbit hole into London’s cabaret scene. As an international cabaret performer and musician, Tricity Vogue has staged five hit Edinburgh Fringe shows, and played venues including London’s Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Wiltons Music Hall with her All Girl Swing Band. Her “drag action musical” Heels of Glory, co-written with composer Richard Link, was awarded development funding from the Arts Council of England, and headlined the Pride in London Festival 2016 at Chelsea Theatre.
THANK YOU!
We’ve raised over £2000 with our crowdfunding campaign, to support the development of the show in autumn 2023, working towards a showing in November and a first production in summer 2024. Please check out our Greenlit page and consider backing the campaign. Thank you!
With support from: Alice & Jon Steinberg, Amanda Thomas, Andrew & Jo Cripps, Anne & Ian Cripps, Annette Corbett, Chris Newman, David Megarrity, Davinia Hamilton, Debra Salem, Dominic Varney, Emily Louizou, Emily Rose Simons, Emma Wolfin Golding, Ernaldo Data, Grace O’Keefe, Greig Rapley, Gretchen Brosius, Helen & Chris Jones, Ian Fleming, Ilayda Arden, Jack Dryden, James Sherwood, Jeanne de Rougemont, Jo Millar, Jo Stephenson, Justine Abri-Hodder, Kandy Rohmann, Karina Garnett, Kate Tasker, Kirsty Greenwood, Lizzie Vogler, Maria Marquis, Maura Halloran, Michael Clulow, Mick Tasker, Monica Krogstad, Namrata Trivedi, Neil & Val Tasker, Neil Abrahams, Neil Bastian, Paige Rogers, Paul & Linda Wray, Sarita Lewis, Sharlit Deyzac, Shauna Carrick, Steve & Di Tindell, Sue & John Wilks, Tom Arnold, Tom McGrath.