The Tuck Shop Ladies are musicians Sam Lohs and Rosie Burgess. For each of their Melbourne Fringe performances of There’s a Song in That, they will write a new song in under an hour, taking their start from an audience suggestion.
Judging from the merch stand outside of the venue, when the pair aren’t improvising, they have a musical act. We had a glimpse of this in the songs used to bookend the show’s main activity. The pair show themselves capable on their electric bass and guitar, and they harmonise well.
Pre-show audience input was written on slips of paper and dropped into a top hat, for later scrutiny. The format is a brave choice. If you’ve ever seen a crass improv show, you’ll know that adults who use anonymity to become middle-schoolers hamper aspirations to clever humour.
Following their opening song, Lohs and Burgess were able to quickly cull the more juvenile or raunchy suggestions. (One commented that it was a surprisingly “sexy” lot of prompts tonight).
However, they also discarded more offbeat suggestions, like “Poodles in pyjamas eating pineapples” – that seemed to provide a lot of scope for creativity. From the very few viable contenders, the selected thought was “when someone bumps into you and you’re the one to say sorry” – possibly going for everyday relatability.
The Tuck Shop Ladies diligently worked away, starting with the chorus, in workshopping ideas, and choosing chords to fit the nascent phrases. A rhyming dictionary (and possibly some alcohol) was used to provide more options for our evolving musical tale of supermarket argy-bargy.
This was a preview of a new show, and there was the odd difficulty. Fortunately, friends were in the audience to make suggestions or hold up the butcher’s paper with draft lyrics for viewing. Also, the “Ladies” couldn’t seem to decide if they wanted our input, or for us to “shut up”. Those expecting the “family friendly” show promised might be in for a surprise or two…
If you ever wanted to see a compressed version of the songwriting process in real time, with its repetitions, u-turns, and moments of inspiration, then you might find this worth a look on an evening of Fringing at Trades Hall. Certainly the audience here were very happy to sing along with the final verse-chorus-bridge-chorus composition.
Tuck Shop Ladies: There’s A Song In That
Trades Hall – Quilt Room, Corner Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton
Performance: Wednesday 8 October 2025
Season continues to 12 October 2025
Bookings: www.melbournefringe.com.au
For more information, visit: www.tuckshopladies.com for details.
Image: The Tuck Shop Ladies – photo by Nick Manuell
Review: Jason Whyte