Right off the bat you knew Uked! is an extremely Australian production.
The moment Karla opened her mouth; the stage was set.
Uked! is a musical with ukulele as the only instrument for the musical beats and naturally came with a lot of singing and dancing. There were ‘volunteers’ from the audience to participate and it has a lot of those moments.
Uked! didn’t pretend to be a complicated story; it was very straightforward and at times so straightforward that I felt bits and pieces of the character’s arch was rushed or underdeveloped. However, being a musical, this did not heavily tax the audience experience because when you are going to a musical it is about having a good time, not a groundbreaking epiphany that shatters the heaven and earth. From that perspective Uke’d delivered what it promised to – a good time.
Although Uked! has 4 people on stage, in principle it is a two hander with Josephine Birch as Karla and Ian Stanlake (of Sea Patrol and Mama Mia!) playing various ‘pivotal’ roles in Karla’s ukulele journey. The other two are musicians, chorus and at times supporting roles just for a particular scene. The fifth person who weaved through the production is the stagehand that changes the props and stuff, but she was playful enough to be part of the beats. Josephine as Karla for me was a slow build up, as I couldn’t quite figure out the direction of the character right from the start. However, as the character was built up slowly it became very likeable that sometimes I did find myself yell out loud to answer the questions she asked on stage about her love life. In that sense I think it was a success. Ian Stanlake was a chameleon on stage, or rather I should say on the ‘screen’ on the stage. He was 100 percent committed to all the different personalities he played to guide Karla through her ukulele learning experience and his responsive pause and play were extremely spot on and funny. Ian has always been strong vocally, so the singing on the stage for him really is nothing too difficult to tackle. As for the musicians / jack of all trades on stage, they were great when directing the audience for participation, also when they played supporting roles for the story, they didn’t take you out of the immersion, so that is a plus.
The stage set up was quite simple with your standard walls and a couch. The main attraction was the ‘YouTube’ channel display where Ian popped in and out as different personalities teaching different kinds of approach to learning ukulele. There is also a big screen behind Karla’s sofa projecting the chords for playing and singing along and Karla’s digital world. However, as good as an idea about the digital world part, I do feel that it needs to look more interactive or at least time them a lot better so that they do represent what exactly is happening on stage. There were several moments where I felt really distracting when Karla was telling us she is typing something and then on the screen it was something else or that something only happened a lot later. That kind of disconnection did disrupt the experience quite a bit. If the synchronisation presents to be a difficulty to tackle, then maybe alternative ways of staging of those parts should be considered.
As previously stated, there were a lot of audience playing and singing along moments, which I found ingenious in a way that the musical moments became more impactful for the non-participating audience like me. It also creates a livelier atmosphere across the theatre. It is hard to deliver impactful musicals in a small theatre space, so I think asking some of the audience members to play along was a great move. Having said that, I did find the use of wearable microphones quite a distraction and in a way a disappointment. I do understand that it is a musical and there could be circumstances that the music might overpower the singing but using microphones right from the start as a technical way out, especially on a small stage in a small space was a bit disappointing for a theatrical purist like me. And I think that was one of the contributing factors for my slow warm up to the show, because as soon as I heard the breathing sound from Karla’s mic, I was distracted and can’t help thinking ‘why can’t they just project naturally during conversation and only turn on the mics during musical beats?’
The other thing I noticed that I couldn’t get out of my head was the inconsistent character trait of Karla in the script, when Karla said she was an angry drunk halfway through the show but at the start of the show, where she was drunk, especially right after the breakup, she did not look angry at all. Again, it could be me being overly sensitive to these things, other people might not notice at all.
All in all, I did warm up and eventually enjoy Uked!, even though I can’t play ukulele or didn’t know a number of those songs (not their fault, just the fact that the majority of my childhood was not in Australia). I did have a good time, and my spirit was lifted after the show.
Uked! is now open at the Bondi Pavillion and running till Sunday, 28 June 2026. Tickets are available via the Bondi Theatre Company.
