So-called jukebox musical theatre productions have been very popular over the past few years, with many examples enjoying West End runs. Whether it be Elvis, Michael Jackson, The Kinks, The Four Seasons, the Live Aid concert, Madness, Tina Turner, etc, the back catalogue of major musical icons has been raided to deliver a number of hugely commercially successful shows.
Caroline – A New Musical is a very welcome addition to this canon. It had its world premiere at the New Wolsey Theatre earlier this year and has been released via a digital on-demand format until 19 September 2026.
For just £15, audiences receive access to a link to stream the show for 72 hours, with one pass allowing them to watch together with family and friends. This is a laudable initiative from the East Anglian Touring Consortium to extend the reach of the show to those who are unable to attend the theatre. Captioned, Audio description and BSL versions of the stream are also available.
Such a move is to be applauded and is something that other smaller venues might consider to extend their reach via social media away from their core, but necessarily limited, audience base.
In addition, the show’s co-producers Eastern Angles are touring the filmed version around Suffolk with a focus on rural areas, independent cinemas and community centres, allowing those who would otherwise find it difficult to access theatre in their area to experience the production. A throwback here to the film units that toured such same areas in the 1940s to extend cinema’s reach to the masses who didn’t live near to major cities.
Those who invest their money in watching this show online will be well rewarded, as it is a hugely enjoyable, energetic, effervescent show detailing the true story of Radio Caroline in the mid-1960s, the most famous of the so-called pirate popular music radio stations that did so much to revolutionise the commercial broadcasting of popular music in the UK, and force the BBC in 1967 to dismantle their fuddy duddy principles and create two new radio stations devoted to “popular music”, Radio 1 and Radio 2.
Written by Vikki Stone and directed by Douglas Rintoul, this is a fast-paced, funny yet occasionally poignant musical set to the soundtrack of the sixties about love, loyalty, change and a cultural phenomenon that altered the way in which we listen to and relate to popular music.
It is hard to believe now, in these days of instant streaming gratification, that the only way teenagers could hear new pop music was to illicitly tune their radios into Radio Caroline, a cocky new station, broadcasting from an old radio ship, anchored off the Essex coast where a band of young, maverick DJs, (including Tony Blackburn. Dave Lee Travis and Simon Dee) played the latest discs.
Indeed, an opening prologue, referencing Spotify, Napster and MP3s, is a very valuable reminder of how what we are about to see fits into the overall history of popular music.
The plot of Caroline – A New Musical is partly fictionalised, and will be very familiar to those who saw the 2009 film The Boat That Rocked, with many plotlines following the pattern of the film.
The story of Caroline is told largely through the eyes of Robbie, an unemployed young man struggling to make his way in the world until his love of pop lands him a DJ job, and his childhood sweetheart Caroline, supporting his dreams but wrestling with the challenge of sharing him with his affection and dedication to the boat that shares her name.
Interspersed with their story is the tale of the station’s founders, Kitty and Declan, and their battle with the British Government to keep Radio Caroline solvent, legal and on the air.
The play features an extremely talented ensemble of actor-musicians, who effortlessly and slickly play a variety of instruments in perky displays of choreography and adopt believable and appropriate characterisations throughout.
The musical dexterity of the group, and the obvious enjoyment that they are having in delivering so many major hits of the ‘60’s is infectious, and helps power the narrative in a manner which sparkles and never falls flat. The musical numbers dovetail and segue effortlessly into the plot construction and there is never a jarring note.
It all feels so completely natural and well-integrated into the story. Whether it is the authentic Radio Caroline and accompanying advertising jingles that permeate the show (from Kent Cigarettes through Bulova Watches to Ballito Stockings) through to such timeless classics as “My Generation”, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, “Twist and Shout” and “Dead End Street”, everything fits and complements the action. No musical number felt shoehorned into an artificial plot construction or struck an awkward note when it appeared in the narrative. No mean feat.
Particular praise must go to Jake Halsey-Jones and Claire Lee Shenfield, as Robbie and Caroline. Their vocal performances are excellent on all the numbers they perform (with “You’re My World” being especially outstanding), whilst their chemistry brings a genuine, authentic warmth to the story, making their relationship, and how it develops amongst their many challenges and difficulties, engaging and absorbing to watch.
Similarly, Gareth Cooper relishes his pantomime villain persona of the Paymaster General, hell-bent on closing the pirate radio stations with his assertion that “What comes out of the Wireless is controlled by the Government and is going to stay that way!”
There are some areas that could have done with some judicious tightening, with a little too much time expended upon the station’s founders (Declan and Kitty), and their desires to keep Caroline afloat, whilst there is some repetition in Governmental machinations that are unnecessary once the battle lines have been drawn and clearly delineated.
But these are very much minor quibbles.
Caroline – A New Musical is a rumbustious, fun-filled, foot-pumping show, driven by a superb cast of actor-musicians combining to deliver an exciting show packed full of feel-good joie de vivre that never flags or overstays its welcome.
Combined with an innovative and committed attitude towards enabling theatre to be ever more accessible, this show, and this concept, merits high praise.
Celebrating the spiritual essence of the 1960s: youthful defiance, cultural change and the fight for new voices to challenge conventional orthodoxy, this is a show that, in every sense of the word, really rocks.
Review by Johnny Oxford
Caroline dreams of something more than stacking shelves at the local greengrocers. Her days are routine, but her nights come alive, walking the pier, sharing laughs with her best friend Mary, and spinning records with Robbie, her music-mad boyfriend who’s big on charm but short on direction.
But a music revolution is coming, and Robbie lands a shock gig with Radio Caroline—the pirate radio station blasting pop, soul and rock ’n’ roll from a ship off the Essex coast and suddenly everything changes. Caroline is swept into a tidal wave of music, mayhem and a movement that would shake up British culture forever.
Set to a soundtrack of iconic hits from the 60’s, Caroline is a vibrant, heart-warming and rebellious new musical about love, ambition and discovering your own voice.
She’s not a DJ. She’s not a rock star. But in the middle of Britain’s radio revolution, Caroline might just steal the show.
Nicola Bryan – Betty
Gareth Cooper – Postmaster General
Jake Halsey-Jones – Robbie
Joey Hickman – Declan
Rhiannon Hopkins – Kitty
James Lawrence – Steven
Claire Lee Shenfield – Caroline
Jerome Lincoln – Private Secretary
Perry Meadowcroft – Dave the Fish
Eloise Richardson – Mary
Sound Designer – Helen Atkinson
Set & Costume Designer – Stella Backman
Dramaturg – Titilola Dawudu
Voice Coach – Charmian Hoare
Fight & Intimacy Director – Haruka Kuroda
Lighting Designer – Callum Macdonald
Director – Douglas Rintoul
Choreographer – Sundeep Saini
Musical Supervisor – Paul Schofield
Writer – Vikki Stone
Co-Director – Alex Thorpe
CAROLINE – A NEW MUSICAL
Available on demand until 19 September 2026
