#1
Posted: 3/3/09 at 11:32pm
Is anyone besides me really pissed off that Peter Cousens drove KOOKABURRA into the ground in under two years?
#2
Posted: 3/4/09 at 12:15pm
I really don't think it was that much of a surprise, It was more about his ego, than anything else.
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
#3
Posted: 3/4/09 at 7:11pm
I think the main problem was trying to do too much too soon. Talk about wanting to run before you can walk.
#4
Posted: 3/5/09 at 2:29am
Absolutely. He needed to concentrate on starting out slowly, and building. Instead of just hitting us with three shows, concert galas, school shows, youth schemes etc. It was all just too much too soon, which is a shame, because the company had the potential to do a lot of good. A combination of bad luck and mismanagement lead to this situation, which I think was fairly inevitable from the start.
"I will join this conversation on the proviso that we stop bitching about people. Wigs, dresses, bust sizes, penises, nightclubs and bloody Kylie!" - Bernadette, Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical
#5
Posted: 3/5/09 at 3:57am
Whoever thought Pippin, Company and Floyd Collins were great shows to start off a new musical theatre company is rather stupid. Maybe in their fifth or sixth season when they have made a substantial subscriber base, but as their opening season! What were they thinking?
Has the official announcement of them closing down been released yet, or are we just relying on here say from aussietheatre and the like?
Has the official announcement of them closing down been released yet, or are we just relying on here say from aussietheatre and the like?
Updated On: 3/5/09 at 03:57 AM
#6
Posted: 3/5/09 at 5:42am
They've officially cancelled I Love You..., but they still haven't announced their closing yet.
I think one of the most stupid things is when it was starting to flounder they should have brought in a third-party opinion. If what you're doing isn't working have a look at some other models, and talk to people running other arts programs in Aus. And even if you don't do that, at the very least issue some sort of statement or anything. Don't just shut up and run away.
I think one of the most stupid things is when it was starting to flounder they should have brought in a third-party opinion. If what you're doing isn't working have a look at some other models, and talk to people running other arts programs in Aus. And even if you don't do that, at the very least issue some sort of statement or anything. Don't just shut up and run away.
#7
Posted: 3/6/09 at 8:13am
When I heard Kookaburra was forming, I told my partner we needed to support this company, because if we didn’t, we could only blame ourselves if the business did not succeed. As we both love musicals, we WANTED it to succeed.
Here is what I know.
1. Cousens chose PIPPIN to launch the company because he loved the song, 'Corner Of The Sky'.
2. Several PIPPIN shows were cancelled because there were no understudies.
3. There were no understudies for COMPANY. Some shows were cancelled before Cousens decided to play one performance with all of April's scenes cut. Sondheim found out and nearly terminated the show's run. Cousens was forced to play a charity peformance of the show. (Also, dozens of tickets were given away for early performances – I got 4 for my friends.)
4. FLOYD COLLINS was cancelled due to poor tickets sales.
5. SIDESHOW ALLEY (a new Australian musical), TELL ME ON A SUNDAY and LITTLE WOMEN announced for 2008. SIDESHOW ALLEY cancelled before the season even starts.
6. Cousens associates Kookaburra with a new Australian musical starring Caroline O’Connor – HATPIN – even though the show has no involvement with Kookaburra.
7. TELL ME ON A SUNDAY does okay (what do you expect with a one-woman show with a mimimal set?)
8. LITTLE WOMEN performs poorly and Cousens releases 800 seats at $2 a pop.
9. 2009: ONE DEAD KOOKABURRA which had nothing to do with the Victorian bushfires.
It doesn’t take a genius to know that if you’re starting a new musical company, you need to get the money rolling in, and to do that, you aim at the demographic who loves musicals – 40+. Put on shows for the first few years that the older folk love: the Rodgers & Hammersteins, the Rodgers & Harts, the Lerner & Loewes, etc… you get the picture. After a few successful years, and with lots of money in your coffer, THEN you start being a bit more adventurous and introduce ONE non-mainstream musical along with your two or three stock standards.
At the beginning of this post, I said my partner and I could blame ourselves if Kookaburra didn’t succeed. Well, now we lay the blame solely with Peter Cousens who single-handedly killed an art form I love.
Here is what I know.
1. Cousens chose PIPPIN to launch the company because he loved the song, 'Corner Of The Sky'.
2. Several PIPPIN shows were cancelled because there were no understudies.
3. There were no understudies for COMPANY. Some shows were cancelled before Cousens decided to play one performance with all of April's scenes cut. Sondheim found out and nearly terminated the show's run. Cousens was forced to play a charity peformance of the show. (Also, dozens of tickets were given away for early performances – I got 4 for my friends.)
4. FLOYD COLLINS was cancelled due to poor tickets sales.
5. SIDESHOW ALLEY (a new Australian musical), TELL ME ON A SUNDAY and LITTLE WOMEN announced for 2008. SIDESHOW ALLEY cancelled before the season even starts.
6. Cousens associates Kookaburra with a new Australian musical starring Caroline O’Connor – HATPIN – even though the show has no involvement with Kookaburra.
7. TELL ME ON A SUNDAY does okay (what do you expect with a one-woman show with a mimimal set?)
8. LITTLE WOMEN performs poorly and Cousens releases 800 seats at $2 a pop.
9. 2009: ONE DEAD KOOKABURRA which had nothing to do with the Victorian bushfires.
It doesn’t take a genius to know that if you’re starting a new musical company, you need to get the money rolling in, and to do that, you aim at the demographic who loves musicals – 40+. Put on shows for the first few years that the older folk love: the Rodgers & Hammersteins, the Rodgers & Harts, the Lerner & Loewes, etc… you get the picture. After a few successful years, and with lots of money in your coffer, THEN you start being a bit more adventurous and introduce ONE non-mainstream musical along with your two or three stock standards.
At the beginning of this post, I said my partner and I could blame ourselves if Kookaburra didn’t succeed. Well, now we lay the blame solely with Peter Cousens who single-handedly killed an art form I love.
Updated On: 3/6/09 at 08:13 AM
#8
Posted: 5/25/09 at 11:14pm
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/sydney-too-parochial-for-kookaburra-says-founder-20090525-bkse.html
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#9
Posted: 5/25/09 at 11:33pm
Thanks for that. There are more musicals in Sydney this year than there has been for a long time, so I'm not buying his disinterested public crap. More like inflated, self-indulgent ego was responsible for its demise.
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