The first full-year season to be programmed by Artistic Directors, Richard Carroll and Victoria Falconer, the Hayes Theatre Co has announced its 2024 Season.
Bringing together a season of work produced by the Hayes team, as well as productions by independent partners, Hayes has sought to exemplify the company’s role within the performing arts world in Australia and beyond.
In 2024, audiences are being invited to see musical theatre differently. The Hayes is a unique space that offers incomparable musical and theatrical experiences. This record of originality is why the Hayes has gone from strength to strength in its first 10 years.
“When we started in our roles as Hayes’s first ever Artistic Directors, almost a year ago, we said we wanted to broaden the scope of what this incredible theatre company puts onstage – continuing to honour and re-invent the canon, while bringing in more premieres from Australian and overseas, and incorporating other works that combine the arts of music and storytelling,” said Richard Carroll and Victoria Falconer.
“This collection of shows, our first full-year season as Artistic Directors, is an indication of where we hope the company is heading as we celebrate our 10th anniversary. Whether a show is 70 years old (like The Turn of the Screw), or a world premiere (like the two new mainstage musicals we’re presenting in 2024) – we want to point to the future by inviting audiences to see musical theatre differently.”
Originality is certainly the watchword for the Hayes-produced shows this year – which encompass the hotly-anticipated Zombie! The Musical, the new show from musical theatre virtuoso Laura Murphy (The Lovers, The Dismissal); the Australian premiere of the subversive, hilarious and surprisingly moving Ride The Cyclone; and a co-production with Griffin, Flat Earthers: The Musical, featuring the queer electro-pop stylings of theatre-comedy provocateurs Lou Wall, Jean Tong and James Gales.
Add to this a partnership with Adelaide Cabaret Festival to launch a joint cabaret commission, and Hayes’s first ever Festival of New Work – alongside a rich selection of shows from independent artists and producers both new and returning.
Other exciting productions for the 2024 Season include The Hello Girls – the story of a team of female telephone operators on the front line in World War One; Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tell Me On A Sunday; and the classic Little Women.
For the first time ever, opera will fill the intimate Hayes space, with Benjamin Britten’s spine-chilling masterpiece The Turn of the Screw; and just in time for Christmas, audiences will be treated to Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn.
Hayes will also offer a feast of cabaret shows from artists including Carlotta (The Party’s Over) and Michael Griffiths (In Vogue), two shows in the long-running Neglected Musicals series (They’re Playing Our Song & Promises, Promises), a celebration of gender-diverse talent with Theys At The Hayes, the Sydney premiere of Melbourne institution Home Grown, musical improv from Musical Bang Bang, plus a range of other events to celebrate Hayes Theatre Co’s tenth anniversary.
For more information about the Hayes Theatre Co’s 2024 Season, visit: www.hayestheatre.com.au for details.
Image: Hayes Theatre Co’s 2024 Season (supplied)