Small Musicals Take Centre Stage

The Hayes Theatre Co’s three Helpmann Awards have shone a spotlight on independent musical theatre companies. One of its gurus is Producer/ Writer and Director Neil Gooding. As well as producing The Hatpin, LoveBites and Thank You For Being A Friend, he is known as the writer of Back to the 80’s, the producer of big Pro-am productions in the suburbs and as an investor in more ‘arty’works. *David Spicer reports.

Success usually comes slowly. Other times it hits like a hurricane. The team which formed the Hayes Theatre in Sydney’s Kings Cross moved into their venue in January and opened their first production only a month later.

They were scrambling to get the run-down venue ready. Family members were enlisted to sew the curtains, sand blast the floors and David Campbell and his wife Lisa donated their living room furniture to the foyer. 

“We were in there literally painting when the audience was walking in,” says Neil Gooding, chairman of the Hayes Theatre Co board.

“Three hours later they were walking out and it exploded – Sweet Charity was already selling out.”

Word spread that it was the hottest ticket in town. It sold out, so did the following production of The Drowsy Chaperone, the audience kept coming for a cabaret season, while even a season of a new Australian musical sold 2000 tickets.

“We all banded together having done numerous small scale works around Sydney. It was hard work. Audiences didn’t know who was producing them or where to find them.

“We felt if there was a home for small musical theatre and cabaret, there was a base audience for that.”

Neil Gooding admits that Sydney had some catching up to do on Melbourne. It has a range of venues including Chapel off Chapel, Theatreworks and 45 downstairs which provide similar support for producers. He says the dividend from Melbourne’s venues is a generation of stars and creatives.

“We thought it would take at least 12 months for people to even know where we were. That just happened overnight with Sweet Charity.”

He attributes that “instant” success to the dedication and talent of the artists and creatives in the first season.

“That is unique. Now we’ve got options. We can start doing a wider range of shows.”

Neil Gooding does not fit the cliché of the struggling artist. He has several other successful enterprises under his belt.

In western Sydney he runs a theatre company called Packemin Productions. Twice a year it stages large cast pro-am musicals in the Riverside Theatre Parramatta. This year they were Annie and Beauty and the Beast.

“I make it very clear which roles are paid roles and which are open for unpaid.”

He says the cast enjoy rubbing shoulders with, and learning from, the professionals.

“Artists like Amanda Muggleton and Wayne Scott-Kermond offer so much to a young cast. I throw everyone in one pot and it works in beautifully.

“We are filling a gap in the market to see quite large shows with ticket prices less than $50. It is accessible for young families and we are attracting a lot of first time audience members.”

A family tradition is that his two young daughters always appear on stage in one performance in the chorus.

Neil Gooding has also tried his hand at less commercial new Australia musicals. Productions of The Hatpin and Breast Wishes were staged initially in Sydney and kicked on to either a regional tour or community theatre and university theatre seasons.

He was able to take these risks thanks to a nice little earner called Back to the 80’s. He wrote the juke-box musical filled with 80’s hits twelve years ago and it still has 100 + productions in schools and community theatres around the world each year.

“My producing and directing risks are largely funded by the royalty stream of Back to the 80’s. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do things like The Hatpin without it.”

Putting the musical together used his skills as a writer but also drew upon his background studying law and accounting. Negotiating with song publishers is a ‘challenge’.

Now a decade on he’s written a 90’s show with actor and writer Nicholas Christo. 

“I said I would never do it. For 15 years people said am I doing the 90’s show. Then I was in the shower and had an idea!”

The new work is called Popstars! The 90’s musical. It is not a sequel to Back to the 80’s but has a new storyline based on a Girl Band competing with a Boy Band.

As well as music from icons such as The Spice Girls and The Backstreet Boys there are rap songs and some of the best of 90’s rock.

“There is always a cycle for the next decade to be far enough in people’s memory to become retro.

“There is also the pop culture of what was on television at the time (to draw upon) such as Seinfeld and Friends.”

(*Here is a shameless plug by this writer. Popstars! The 90’s Musical and Back to the 80’s are available now at www.davidspicer.com.au )

As if Neil Gooding does not have enough to do, he is also directing a season of Stephen Sondheim’s Passion at the Arts Centre Melbourne in November and has set up a new wing of Packemin Productions during the summer holidays at the Concourse Theatre in Chatswood, for under 21 year olds. He’s also started dabbling in investing in Broadway plays and musicals. 

Not everything goes swimmingly all the time. Success can bring its own challenges. There has been a little push back against the Hayes Theatre in Sydney in the ‘blogosphere’. 

There were complaints that Hayes Theatre Co should not have been eligible for the Helpmanns as its actors are in a co-op and not paid award wages.

Neil Gooding says, “everyone would love actors to be paid more.”

But in a venue with only 110 seats and no Government subsidy this is not possible. The actors were paid a minimum fee and a share of profits. 

“The Producers are also in the co-op, the same as the stage manager and lighting manager.”

He says what Australia needs is a small theatre award as is the case in the US, to apply in the small and regional venues.

Another hobby-horse of Gooding’s is having some Government funding for musical theatre. Why shouldn’t musical theatre be treated seriously like Opera, Dance and Drama he pleads?

But Neil Gooding is conversely a good advertisement against Government funding. Go out and produce something people want to buy tickets to then reap the rewards. 

Small Musicals

Sydney

Hopelessly Devoted by Elise Greig, featuring the music of Olivia Newton-John. Aug 26-31, Glen Street Theatre.

LoveBites by Peter Rutherford and James Millar. Sept 10 – Oct 5, Hayes Theatre Co.

Sondheim on Sondheim. Australian Premiere. Squabbalogic. Oct 1–18, Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre.

Miracle City by Nick Enright and Max Lambert. Oct 17 – Nov 16, Hayes Theatre.

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim. Nov 18 – Dec 20, New Theatre.

Beyond Desire by Neil Rutherford and Kieran Drury. World Premiere. Nov 21 – Dec 13. Hayes Theatre Co.

The Legend of King O’Malley by Bob Ellis and Michael Boddy. Nov 26 – Dec 13, Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre.

Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. Feb 2015, Hayes Theatre Co.

Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, Joe Darion and Mitch Leigh. Squabbalogic. Feb 25 – Mar 21, 2015. Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre.

Triassic Parq. Australian Premiere. Squabbalogic. June 17 - July 4, 2015, Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre.

Melbourne

Calvin Berger – the Musical by Barry Wyner. Australian Premiere. Sept 10 – 13. Southbank Theatre, The Lawler

High Fidelity – The Musical. Music by Tom Kitt; lyrics by Amanda Green; book by David Lyndsay-Abaire; based on the best-selling novel by Nick Hornby. Australian Premiere. Sept 11 - 21. Chapel off Chapel.

Parade by Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry. Sept 17 – 28. 45 Downstairs.

Carrie The Musical by Lawrence D Cohen, Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford. Sept 25 – Oct 12. Ghost Light / Moving Light Productions. Chapel Off Chapel.

Passion by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. Life Like Company. Nov 5 – 8. The Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne.

This article was originally piublished in the September / October 2014 edition of Stage Whispers.

Images: Sweet Charity (Photographer: Kurt Sneddon) and Neil Gooding.