No vaccine, little social distancing: blockbuster musicals – and audiences – return to Sydney

The eyes of theatre-goers worldwide will be on Sydney this month as the city prepares for the imminent opening of three blockbuster musicals. Some of the country’s most prominent performing arts companies have also just announced their summer seasons, and, judging by the record ticket sales, customers are sending a clear message — theatre is back.

As the West End tries to sputter back to life in the face of Government dithering and lockdown, Broadway remains shuttered until May, and all hopes depend on a working vaccine, Sydney is set to become the new home of the big-ticket theatrical production.

Restrictions on theatre audience numbers are currently capped at 50 per cent. Pippin, which opens at Sydney Lyric Theatre on November 24, will be the city’s first major mass-participation live performance. If Pippin is a Covid-safe success story, those in the arts sector are expecting theatres to return to full capacity in time for the opening of Disney's musical Frozen at the Capitol Theatre on December 1.

And come March, Sydney’s 2,000-seat Lyric Theatre will likely be home to the only production of Hamilton in the world. (The London production of Frozen has been delayed from October 2020 to - fingers crossed - April 2021, while Hamilton is yet to be given a return date.)

A spokesperson from the office of the Minister for Tourism, Stuart Ayres, said that while Sydneysiders are cautiously optimistic, restrictions would lift only as per the advice of the Chief Health Officer. However, if New South Wales continued on the same positive trajectory of little to no community transmission of Covid-19, there could be some “good announcements regarding theatre capacities in the coming weeks.”

This week saw the much-anticipated cast announcement of the Australian production of Hamilton — set to open in Sydney in March 2021 — with a cast composed almost exclusively of people of colour from Australia and New Zealand. The title role of Alexander Hamilton will be played by relative newcomer Jason Arrow, who previously performed in the ensemble of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Aladdin.

“When we put Hamilton on sale [in September 2020] there was a real moment where we questioned what the demand and what the audience’s appetite for returning to the theatre would be,” says the show’s producer Michael Cassel. “We were absolutely blown away. The response was unprecedented. It was the biggest sale ever for a musical in Australia.”

Cassel maintains that the show will be pushed back if it can’t open to a full capacity audience. “But I’m very optimistic,” he says. “I think it’s entirely realistic for us to be playing to full capacity in March.”

Opera Australia, the country’s largest performing arts company, has just announced their three month Covid-safe season, starting January 2021, with performances of Ernani, Bluebeard's Castle, The Merry Widow and Tosca, to be performed at The Sydney Opera House.

“The public will have to wear masks, have their temperatures taken, and hands sanitised,” says Opera Australia’s Artistic Director, Lyndon Terracinni. “My feeling is, with the way the virus is being controlled in Australia at the moment, I’d expect we will be playing to 100 per cent capacity by January.”

And ticket sales support his rosy attitude. The opera company sold more than AUS $500,000 worth of tickets within the first 24 hours of opening. “That says to me that people want to go out,” Terraccini says. “It was really heartening to have a great kick off like that.”

So, are theatregoers really ready to dust off their dress coats and return to sharing intimate spaces with strangers, all in the name of art?

“Absolutely,” says Cassel. “As soon as the government tells people it’s safe to go back to theatres I think people are going to flock there. I think there’s pent up demand for theatrical experiences. It’s part of our DNA, and we are going to want those experiences more than ever.”

Sydneysiders began a staged return to public spaces after a comparatively short six weeks in lockdown and have spent the last six months cautiously getting used to a new kind of normal.

The Sydney Theatre Company closed its doors in late March, and, after a six month closure, reopened in September with a production of Wonnangatta, starring Hugo Weaving and Wayne Blair. Social distancing regulations meant the play opened to a greatly reduced audience — 152 seats in an 880 seat theatre.

“Those shows lost money but we felt that it was an important investment in beginning the process of bringing people back and making them feel comfortable coming back to the theatre,” says Executive Director of Sydney Theatre Company, Patrick McIntyre. “We had a strong demand and our first shows sold out quickly. We had lots of really great feedback saying that people were happy to be back and that they appreciated the safety measures we put in place.”

The theatre company announced the first five plays of its 2021 season this week. The season will mark the reopening of the company’s newly renovated theatres and will include an adaptation of the classic Australian novel Playing Beatie Bow and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' play Appropriate, starring Sam Worthington.

“We’ve only been on sale for a day and the initial response has been phenomenally strong.” McIntyresays. “It’s actually slightly higher than it was last year before coronavirus. What we are seeing is an excited, relieved and supportive response from our true believers. Our real fans are getting in early and enthusiastically.”

Tickets to Frozen are selling in line with current government guidelines. “Each time that we’ve announced a new milestone for the productions that we’re reopening with, the response from theatre-goers grows and ticket sales improve,” says Graeme Kearns, Chief Executive Officer of Foundation Theatres. “There have been some moments of disbelief over the last nine months, but now we have casts, crews and creative teams working on these shows on our stages, the strong appetite to return to our theatres to experience the magic that theatre-makers create is very exciting.”

With Pippin set to open in just over a week, Sydney is on track to be the only major city in the English-speaking world with a fully functioning theatre scene. No pressure, guys.

“I do think the eyes of the world, and the theatrical community in particular, are going to be on Sydney,’ Says Cassel. “And that’s exciting because Sydney will be able to deliver. I hope that it will be a beacon for other cities around the world to see that as soon as the virus is contained and managed, theatre is going to return and we will continue to see audiences flock to it.”