Anand Shankar steps onto the stage with a captain’s hat on, the show’s called ‘All Aboard’, and that’s all we need to be whisked away to some mid sea other place. Welcome to the HMS Princess Diana, where the man in charge has a ‘history’ – and humorously large extended family. Not least being his grandson (or great grandson, it’s confusing but doesn’t matter a bit) Maximilian, who we meet later. And a couple of onboard entertainers in the form of a magician and a comedian. It’s the whole kit and caboodle of family and work comedy colliding, as well as a showcase for Shankar to exercise his acting and writing chops. Of which film director and screenwriter Shankar has plenty.
There’s something of a hit and miss approach to ‘All Abroad’ from the off, a sketch of a show only filled out in parts and showing glimpses of its fully developed self. There are a few laugh out loud lines that stand out in the script, specifically in South African magic man Jamie’s reminiscences about his past in marketing and wide-boy comedian Marky’s dark spirit highjacked honeymoon. But the captain’s attempts at crowd work come across as inexperienced and simply hopeful that it’ll come to him on the night, not really accounting for the fact that the interaction is a practised skill – and not one that can be picked up on the hoof while troubleshooting tech. Having said that, the riff he did on the unexpected Netflix homescreen was an enjoyable sweet spot.
There’s clearly some bones of an interesting and well written show here, and the hint that some of that was obscured by the loss of at least one possible plot point with the tech obstacles suffered on the night. But ideas are not enough, the devil’s in the details. When all of those have fully boarded then this good ship could be an absolute pleasure cruise.
Comedy at the Caxton, 15 May 2026, 7.15pm, £10.50/8
