Feature. A musical romantic comedy.
LOU STONE (28) is a man with a mission: to kick his retro jazz band into shape so they can make the bill for the upcoming jazz festival. The problem is that they’re actually... well, rubbish. A slapdash collection of misfits and prima donnas, living off that one glorious night a few years back when they rocked the Dog & Duck like no other band before or since.
Only Lou can see that they need to buckle down and try to gain a proper understanding of the 1930s style. If they don’t, the local jazz festival promoter JOHNNY CABLE says he won’t even let them be in the audience, let alone play on the stage.
Help comes in the form of MIRANDA (21, music student), who works part-time in a rest home, where she’s discovered cantankerous Afro-American LESTER JOHNSON (90), who used to arrange for all the great dance bands of the 1930s and played trumpet regularly at the Savoy.
Miranda hopes that if she can help Lou to ingratiate himself with Lester, then Lou might notice her more. But Lou is still paralysed by his unrequited love for JUDY, the band’s singer and resident femme fatale.
That’s not the only problem. Lou quickly finds that Lester isn’t the pushover he imagined...
Learn To Croon is a present day romcom driven by a soundtrack of 1930s love songs. Imagine The Commitments, but with a swing band and a love triangle at its heart.