Hayes Theatre Co Season 2024
The Hayes Theatre Company, under the artistic direction of Richard Carroll and Victoria Falconer, is celebrating its 10th Birthday in 2024, with its first full year subscription season since 2019.
The season encompasses Zombie! The Musical, the new show from Laura Murphy (The Lovers, The Dismissal); the Australian premiere of the subversive, hilarious and surprisingly moving Ride The Cyclone; and a co-production with Griffin, Flat Earthers: The Musical, featuring the queer electro-pop stylings of theatre-comedy provocateurs Lou Wall, Jean Tong and James Gales.
These Hayes productions will be complemented by several other musicals presented by independent producers - The Hello Girls (Heartstring Productions), Tell Me On a Sunday (Michelle Guthrie), Little Women (Joshua Robson Productions) and Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn, along with Neglected Musicals seasons of Promises, Promises and They're Playing Our Song.
The Hello Girls
Book Music and Lyrics by Peter Mills. Book by Cara Reichel
Heart Strings Theatre Co
Jan 10 – Feb 12.
Will you answer the call?
March into the extraordinary world of The Hello Girls, a contemporary musical brimming with folk and pop earworms, charting the journey of a feisty bunch of trail-blazing women who turned the US Army on its head and made history.
Zombie! The Musical
Book, Music and Lyrics by Laura Murphy
Director Darren Yap
Mar 8 – Apr 6
It’s like 42nd Street... but with ZOMBIES!
Sydney, Australia. It’s the turn of the 21st century, and a dedicated community theatre troupe are frantically rehearsing in the final hours before their big opening night. Little do they know that beyond the theatre's walls, a highly infectious disease is rapidly spreading through the city - turning its victims into full-blown zombies. Will humanity take its final bow, or can the power of musical theatre save the friggin’ world?
Tell Me On a Sunday
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics by Don Black.
Apr 12 – May 5
A new look at the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black’s Tell Me On A Sunday; a one-woman show that charts the course of a young English girl newly arrived in New York. Brimming with optimism, she sets out to seek success, companionship and, of course, love. But as she weaves her way through the maze of the city and her own anxieties and heartaches, she begins to wonder whether - in fact - she’s been looking for love in all the wrong places.
Director Blazey Best
Musical Supervisor Guy Simpson
Musical Director David Gardos
Starring Erin Clare
Ride The Cyclone
Book, music and lyrics by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell. Additional Material by Alan Schmuckler
May 23 – Jun 2
The lives of six teenagers from a Canadian chamber choir are cut short in a freak accident aboard a rollercoaster. When they awake in limbo, a mechanical fortune teller invites each to tell a story to win a prize like no other - the chance to return to life. Bursting with witty, memorable songs and featuring some compelling characters, this remarkable show makes a uniquely uplifting and deeply funny case for what makes a life worth living.
Director: Richard Carroll
Musical Director: Victoria Falconer
Choreographer: Shannon Burns
Little Women
Book by Allan Knee. Music by Jason Howland. Lyrics by Mindi Dickstein. Based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott
Jul 12 – Aug 11
Joshua Robson Productions (City of Angels, Bonnie & Clyde) present Little Women.
Little Women captures the essence of sisterhood, love, and the pursuit of one's dreams. In a world where gender equality and the empowerment of young people are ongoing conversations, Little Women serves as a poignant reminder of the strength and resilience of women throughout history.
Director Amy Campbell
Music Director Zara Stanton
Costume Designer Esther Zhong
The Turn of the Screw
Opera by Benjamin Britten
Libretto by Myfanwy Piper after a story by Henry James
Director Craig Baldwin
Aug 16 – Sep 15.
For the first time ever, an opera in the intimate Hayes space with Benjamin Britten’s spine- chilling masterpiece The Turn of the Screw.
This gripping tale unfolds in a remote English manor, as a young governess arrives to care for two orphaned children, Flora and Miles. She soon discovers that the grounds, and the children themselves, are haunted by mysterious apparitions. As the governess fights to protect her wards from the sinister forces that surround them, the line between sanity and madness becomes thrillingly blurred.
Flat Earthers: The Musical
Book & Lyrics: Jean Tong & Lou Wall
Songwriting: Lou Wall & James Gales
Music Production: James Gales
Director: Declan Greene
Oct 11 – Nov 9
Somewhere on the fringes of the internet, Ria e-meets Flick and instantly falls in analogue love. They’ve never actually met IRL, but their passion is as real as the moon landing, the Loch Ness Monster and the flying saucers over Roswell. That is, until Ria learns with horror that Flick is a ‘Flat Earther’ - and Flick learns with horror that Ria is a ‘Globe Earther’. In this beautiful and chaotic electro-pop musical epic, star-cross’d lesbians tumble into the depths of the dark web - where the most far-out, dangerous conspiracy theories turn out to be very, very real…
Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn
Based on the film from Universal Pictures
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
Book by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge
Director Sally Dashwood
Choreographer Veronica Beattie George
Nov 2 – Dec 22
Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn tap dances onto the Hayes stage to ring in the Christmas season.
Hoofer Jim Hardy says goodbye to the hustle and bustle of big-city showbiz to settle down on his farmhouse in Connecticut. He longs for fresh air and ‘Blue Skies’, but it turns out life isn’t the same without his beloved song and dance. Enter Linda, a passionate schoolteacher with talent of her own. Together, Jim and Linda - with the help of unlikely friend and local handy-gal Louise - transform the farmhouse into a fabulous inn, with dazzling performances to celebrate the holidays. It isn’t all bright lights and razzle dazzle, however, when Jim's best friend Ted tries to lure Linda away to be his new Hollywood dance partner. Will Jim be able to salvage his last chance at love and finally dance ‘Cheek to Cheek’ with Linda?
Neglected Musicals
They’re Playing Our Song
Book by Neil Simon. Music by Marvin Hamlisch. Lyrics by Carol Bayer Sager.
Feb 14 – 16
Promises, Promises
Book by Neil Simon. Music by Burt Bacharach. Lyrics by Hal David.
Nov 13 – 15
Special Events
House is Open
The 10th Birthday Party
Feb 10
Theys At The Hayes
Feb 19
Carlotta - The Party’s Over
Feb 28 – Mar 3.
In Vogue - Songs by Madonna
Mar 1 – 3.
Home Grown
Musical Theatre by Australian Writers
Mar 24
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