‘Lost for leadership’:Cassel calls time on new theatre for Sydney

Renowned theatre producer Michael Cassel has lashed the NSW government for a lack of leadership on long-debated plans to give Sydney a new theatre,saying it would be a shame if another term was wasted by whoever wins the March state election.

Cassel – who broughtHamilton,Mary Poppins andHarry Potter and the Cursed Child to Australia – was intrigued by an architect’s proposal tobuild four theatres on the site of the Domain carpark,as recently revealed by theHerald.

He said the vision would “create a nice cultural entertainment ribbon for the city” and solve the perennial problem of Sydney’s venue scarcity,which has been discussed for years.

Cassel accused the government of being more talk than action,arguing it was time to pick a site for a new lyric theatre and get the ball rolling – whether it was at the Domain,CBD south,Pyrmont (as preferred by Cities Minister Rob Stokes) or near Moore Park.

“It seems to be a conversation that ebbs and flows,” Cassel told theHerald. “It tends to come up every time a new show is announced that isn’t opening in Sydney. But we’re not doing anything to actively address the problem.

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“It’s up to the government to say,‘This is where we want it,this is where it best serves the city’. At the moment we’re a little bit lost for leadership.”

In a statement,NSW Arts Minister Ben Franklin said the government understood there was a market and an appetite for new theatres in Sydney.

“The development of a business case to address this need is currently under way through Create NSW and any decision will be subject to its outcomes,” he said.

A 2016 cultural infrastructure review by Infrastructure NSW identified the need for a new Sydney theatre that could host big musicals,to complement the Capitol and the Lyric (2000 seats each).

Sydney’s other major venue for top-tier musicals,the refurbished Theatre Royal,has 1100 seats,while the State Theatre’s stage is too small and irregularly shaped for musical theatre.

That means Sydney lacks a 1500-seat theatre for musicals,which is about the size of Melbourne’s Princess or Her Majesty’s theatres,and often misses out on premieres – or shows touring at all.

For example,Cassel’s&Juliet,which debuted on London’s West End in 2019,will premiere in Melbourne next year and will not visit Sydney because of a lack of venue availability.

“For the theatre owners it’s great because there’s a line-up of shows waiting to play here,but it means audiences are missing out,” Cassel said. “We shouldn’t be waiting seven years for these shows to arrive on our shores.”

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Late last year theHerald reported the state government wasscouting sites around the Haymarket end of George Street,near the Capitol,with plans to potentially create a proper theatre district.

And in response to theHerald’s report earlier this month aboutthe radical proposal to turn the Domain into a theatre precinct,Stokes said he liked the concept but would prefer to put it in Pyrmont or Ultimo.

Cassel called on the government to hurry up and choose. “It seems to be something that everybody says ‘yes,yes,we want to support’,but there’s never any solution,” he said.

“It would be a real shame to find ourselves continuing to have this conversation in two or four years’ time.”

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