Islander

THE MIST UNFURLS. AN ISLAND DIVIDES. A FUTURE IS BORN.

There is a girl. She stares out to sea and dreams of a new life beyond her lonely island. Myth and reality collide when the tide washes a mysterious stranger onto her beach. ISLANDER transports you on a magical journey combining a contemporary Scottish folk/pop-inspired score and epic storytelling.

“Transfixing and Magical” (TheaterMania), ISLANDER is the Winner of Musical Theatre Review’s Best New Musical at Edinburgh Fringe 2019. “Gorgeous, Sharp, Moving, Funny” (The Daily Beast) “The songs are bops, one and all!” (Theaterly).

Kirsty Findlay (Olivier Award nominated) and Bethany Tennick (The Stage nominee Best Performer in a Musical) create a world of characters while live-mixing and layering their voices, harnessing looping technology to create a dazzling and unexpected soundscape.

If the ocean is calling your name this spring and summer, go on an island adventure with Islander. After acclaimed runs in Scotland and England, the new musical is going up on the island of Manhattan. Get Islander tickets on TodayTix.

The Islander musical follows Eilidh, the last remaining child on a Scottish island that's been financially devastated. Most of the island's residents have fled for the mainland, and the lonely Eilidh wishes to travel across the sea and start a new life, too. One day, though, the sea brings something to her: A mysterious stranger, washed up with the tide. As this stranger's presence changes the island, reality and fantasy collide.

Islander had its world premiere at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, where it won Musical Theatre Review’s award for Best New Musical. Later that year, the show transferred to Southwark Playhouse in England and met rave reviews there. The cast from those productions is also leading Islander off Broadway: Kirsty Findlay and Bethany Tennick. Though billed as Arran and Eilidh, respectively, they take on all the musical's characters.

Get tickets to Islander in New York on TodayTix now.

What to Watch For

• Islander takes inspiration from lots of Scottish culture. Finn Anderson's score is inspired by the sound of Scottish folk music, and the mysterious stranger from the sea is based on Scottish myths about "fin-folk." In the age-old legends, the fin-folk are shapeshifting sorcerers who kidnap unsuspecting humans — but Islander's take on the creatures is much less dark.
• Islander is performed entirely a cappella. The two performers sing their melodies, and looping technology is used to mix, layer, and replay their voices as they move on to say or sing the next part of the story.
• Islander isn't the only new musical this season where myth and reality blur. Coming off Broadway in June is Between the Lines, based on Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer's book about a lonely girl who befriends the prince in her favorite book when he comes to life.
• Islander is the first show to play at the new Playhouse 46 @ St. Luke's. From 2006 to 2020, St. Luke's Church operated St. Luke's Theatre, but that venue then shut down, and the church built Playhouse 46 in its place.