"Uh-Oh It's The Ukulele Orchestra" by Various, Nuo (2023/2023), National Concert Hall (NCH), Dublin, Ireland

As soon as the Orchestra appear smartly on stage in their formal concert attire, the audience feel in safe hands. The performers are experienced, relaxed, funny and virtuosic, and have made friends with ticket holders at their sold out shows from Svalbard (in the arctic circle) to Tasmania (150 miles south of Australia), from Glastonbury, The Vienna Opera House, The Electric Picnic and Carnegie Hall to Shanghai Symphony Hall The toe-tapping oldies lull you into a false sense of knowing what the show is all about. But then the twisted rock covers and the unexpected lush orchestrations, all generated with only ukuleles and voices astonish you with their variety. And when the puns, corny jokes, daft gags, and disarming self-deprecatory humour are added to the rocking beats of the all acoustic twanging and the soaring vocals, the audience forgets that it’s only ukuleles and lets rip with the laughing and stamping New York Times: “An unexpected dose of musical hipness”. “The Independent: “The best musical entertainment in the country