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Canberra Today 15°/17° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

The clash of the blockbuster musicals. Evita v. Mary Poppins

Canberra Philharmonic Society has been basking in the glory of good reviews for “Cabaret,” but just look at the flyer for their big 2015 show, “Evita.”

evita

Philo says the performance rights to the famous Lloyd-Webber musical have not been released to amateurs in 20 years, so it’s pretty chuffed at getting them. The show will be directed by Jim McMullen.

But alas and alack, the run is scheduled to open in March 2015. Rings a bell? It’s the same month as Free Rain’s planned “Mary Poppins”.

When, we ask, will Canberra arts organisations start talking to one another?

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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3 Responses to The clash of the blockbuster musicals. Evita v. Mary Poppins

thatguy says: 17 July 2014 at 10:13 pm

Just to note – it’s worse than you think. Phoenix Players have already announced they’re doing the musical “High Fidelity” in February (a month before both of these) as well. There’s currently noticable issues with five musicals running locally in the June/July period (and then no musicals running at all for August and September – there were also none in April and May). Squishing everything into the same few months is bad for audiences, it’s bad for performers, it’s bad for musicians and it’s bad for crew. Why does this keep happening?

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Ingrid says: 18 July 2014 at 9:43 am

Apart from the obvious issues with theatre booking availability/schedules, theatre companies won’t talk to each other because the local theatre scene has turned into a hugely competitive award-chasing playing field – trying to get information out of any of them as to future planning is like trying to get blood from a stone. It’s all about who can get the biggest show, get the most local CAT awards and never mind about the others. 15 years(ish) ago there were less than ten theatre companies, now there are over twenty, all (ok some) wanting to come out on top and make money at the expense of the others. It’s a sad state of affairs 🙁

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Big Tim says: 8 August 2014 at 1:27 pm

From what I heard there was a time when transparency and openness was a thing in Canberra Theatre. Until companies started using it against each other, purposefully conflicting schedules and even sniping show rights from under other companies. That is what I have heard when asking this same question.

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