The debate that won’t go away

A few weeks ago I gave a big “who cares” to the Sydney v Melbourne debate when it comes to major musicals. After all, we’re hardly a massive country and the fact that huge shows premiere an hour or so away by plane is not really a huge issue.

A few weeks ago I gave a big “who cares” to the Sydney v Melbourne debate when it comes to major musicals. After all, we’re hardly a massive country and the fact that huge shows premiere an hour or so away by plane is not really a huge issue.

However, let’s pretend for a moment that it indeed is big issue. Let’s say that these million-dollar figures we often hear about in terms of economic boosts etc are accurate, and that Sydney is indeed missing out because of Melbourne’s dominance when it comes to securing major musicals.

For those who have been living under a rock, Melbourne has truly become the theatre capital of the country in the past few years – hosting major premieres like Wicked and Jersey Boys and preparing for Hairspray, Mary Poppins, Rock of Ages and other shows.?

So the question is, how can Sydney attract these premieres? Why Melbourne?

The answer lies in three parts: risk, theatre availability and financial support.

On the matter of risk, I think it is fair to say that opening a show in Sydney is far riskier than doing it in Melbourne. Apart from the disaster that was The Full Monty, very few major shows have struggled in Melbourne in recent times. It is a market that is more theatre-oriented and ‘selling’ a show in Sydney is much tougher. If I was a producer, I would feel more comfortable taking a show to Melbourne first, but how do we overcome that? The answer lies in parts two and three, and also in Sydney’s general nightlife. Sydney after dark is a scary place, particularly for those in the theatre’s target market, and overcoming that is a major society problem that will take much effort to be addressed. You can’t convince people to go out to the theatre if they’re scared out of their wits about what may or may not happen.

There has been much talk about the need for a new theatre to be built in Sydney and that cannot be argued. The Lyric Theatre, Capitol Theatre and Theatre Royal are Sydney’s theatre hubs and with changes to the Sydney Opera House they will become less and less available. A new, flashy theatre would go a long way to convincing producers to head to Sydney, particularly if they were consulted about its design, capacity and location. If the major producers in this country were involved in every aspect of such a new theatre, it would only make sense that they supported it by bringing major shows there first. There needs to be a roundtable discussion regarding exactly what needs to be built – there’s no point in creating a Sydney white elephant.

We shouldn’t be facing the problem of a lack of theatre in Sydney as it is and history shows us we made some very wrong calls when it came to demolishing some of our finest venues.

We move to financial support and it’s no secret that the Victorian Government has played a big role in securing major events for Melbourne, including theatrical premieres. That’s a huge boost to any show because the financial side of things is assisted and promotion suddenly skyrockets.

Whilst the Victorian Government was giving these shows a boost, the NSW State Government was too busy changing Premiers to even notice.

Whether it be through Events NSW or some other format, the State Government in NSW needs to pull its finger out, have a conference with producers like John Frost and Rodney Rigby and openly discuss what needs to be done to ensure NSW is getting its fair share of premieres.

Much can be done to give Sydney a boost but at the moment we all seem full of complaints and ideas with no real action.

The powers that be need to formulate a major discussion to work out a way forward, or at least map out the hopes and dreams.

Perhaps we at AussieTheatre.com can look at hosting such an event if nobody else puts their hands up.

As I said previously, I don’t think there’s a problem with Melbourne having more major premieres, but I do think there’s an issue with even balance at the moment Sydney is getting a raw deal.