Australia’s musical theatre industry is small, but before Squabbalogic it was decidedly smaller. Founded by director, producer, writer and performer Jay James-Moody in 2006, the company was instrumental in establishing a boutique, director-led trend of small but mighty productions of modern musicals that would never sustain a tour of the country’s biggest theatres (Carrie, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) – and reinvigorated classics (the original, grittier Grease; Man of La Mancha) for new audiences.
Squabbalogic – and companies like it – offered an alternative to out-of-the-box Broadway replicas and threw down a challenge to the industry: could we make room for innovation between rounds of Les Mis and Cats? The industry listened, and Squabbalogic was a co-founder of the Hayes Theatre Co in Sydney, now widely known as Australia’s home for this approach to song-and-dance stories.
