Two years down the track and Kookaburra Theatre Company is making moves toward its grand vision of a becoming Australia’s first national musical theatre company. But that largely depends on how Melbourne audience respond to their next production; Tell me on Sunday, opening at the Her Majesty’s Theatre next month.

In Melbourne to sell the pitch, Kookaburra’s artistic director Peter Cousens (pictured) is confident of the company’s early achievements.

“We learnt last year that we needed to think a little more commercially,” he told bnews. “We’re dealing with an audience that are not used to stepping beyond the boundaries of where they feel safe.

Musical theatre audiences are quite conservative, says Cousens and part of Kookabura’s brief is to win them over slowly.

In its hometown on Sydney, Kookaburra’s first year has been trial by fire. While its production of Pippin was well received, garnering three Helpman Award nominations, the later production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company left many in the industry slack jawed.

To make a long story short, a decision to cut one of the roles (for reasons of cast illness) mid-season, raised serious issues around integrity – especially as the night in question, one of the company’s key benefactors, Alan Jones, was in attendance. 

But Cousens is not interested in dredging up the past.

“I raised $1.2 million last year to fund this company literally by going through doors,” he says defiantly. “There have been some major donations who believe in the vision and trust the brand. This first Melbourne season is way of us saying, “we exist, this is one of our shows, we’d like to come and live here and became part of this cultural world.”

Tell me on Sunday stars Jolene Anderson (winner of It Takes Two in 2007) and is directed by Peter Ross.

Her Majesty’s Theatre
September 2 – 14
Tickets on sale now
Ticketek 132 849
Details: www.kookaburra.org.au