Theatre History: The Company Scandal

In 2007, the Australian theatre company Kookaburra earned worldwide attention for all the wrong reasons when it cut scenes from a performance of the Stephen Sondheim musical Company. TROY DODDS investigates...

The Kookaburra Theatre Company's 2007 production of Company was incredible for a number of reasons. It opened on July 5 to outstanding reviews and included a cast of some of theatre's biggest names, including David Campbell, Tamsin Carroll, Simon Burke, Anne Looby and Chelsea Plumley. Making the opening night special was that the show's composer, Stephen Sondheim, had made a special trip to Sydney to be in the audience. He was in heavy praise of the production and on July 6 participated in a special forum at the Theatre Royal, speaking about his incredible career.

Just weeks after the euphoria of the Sondheim visit, Company was thrown into one of the biggest scandals in Australian theatre history that saw it capture international headlines.

Christie Whelan, a young actress playing the role of April, fell seriously ill on Wednesday, July 18. Kookaburra, at the time, did not employ understudies and hence, a decision had to be made about how the evening's performance would go ahead. Kookaburra's CEO and Artistic Director, Peter Cousens, incredibly ordered that the director and cast press ahead with the show, minus all scenes involving April. It saw at least 20 minutes cut from the show and, within 48 hours, all hell had broken loose.

The Sydney Morning Herald claimed the cast were "fuming" over the decision. No announcement was made to the audience.

Further drama came when Cousens was contacted by the Herald. He claimed he was unaware of the cuts, despite knowledge within the industry that he had made the decision.

"I was in Melbourne … I certainly didn't hear anything," he told the newspaper. "I don't think anyone had a problem. I think people enjoyed the show last night [Wednesday]."

The next day, the story was on the front page of the Herald. The story said that Sondheim was so angry over Kookaburra's decision to cut vital scenes from Company that he threatened to pull the plug on the show mid-season by withdrawing the rights.

That didn't happen, but Kookaburra grovelled in apology.

In a statement, Cousens said: "Kookaburra celebrates the work of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth and apologises for interfering with the integrity of their work."

Cousens also dramatically confirmed that he was the one who ordered the cuts to the show, despite what appeared to be a clear denial of this just 24 hours earlier.

"I instructed the director, musical director, cast and crew to make the cuts to the show, and of course it was my decision to keep the curtain up," Cousens said.

Cousens also announced a charity performance of Company, with profits going to the Actors Benevolent Fund and Oz ShowBiz Cares, a charity nominated by Sondheim.

As the Herald went nuts on the story, international news outlets got word of it. Both American and London media outlets were running story about how an Australian producer thought it would be ok to massacre Sondheim's work.

Opinion writers and many within the industry had called for Cousens' resignation, but he stood firm. On August 6, 2007, he appeared as a presenter at the Helpmann Awards. During the ceremony, several jokes were made by host Jonathan Biggins in reference to the scandal.