Merrigong Theatre Company is hoping Guy Sebastian’s upcoming concert at Wollongong Town Hall will be a drawcard for other national and international artists to book the venue.
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The hall is undergoing some upgrades in sound, lighting, staging and seating capacity in order for national and international acts to take it seriously – such as acts suited to Sydney’s Enmore Theatre.
“We’re getting back into the game, we’re going to be making improvements to the venue stage by stage,” Merrigong’s program manager strategic and commercial, Kristopher McDowell said. “It’s going to be a major spot on the touring calendar.”
In March, superstar comedian Jimmy Carr performed to a near capacity crowd – pre-sound and lighting alterations – so Sebastian will be the big test, McDowell said.
“That was a really good sign. We thought ‘yep, if we can do that with a stand-up comedian we can handle it … we just have to step it up an extra level for music’,” he said.
Sebastian, a part-time Gerroa resident, will kick-off his extensive regional tour at the town hall on Saturday June 9, a feat which Merrigong had been negotiating since last November.
“It hasn’t been really open for this kind of concert for a very long time,” former Australian Idol Sebastian said.
It’s been decades since the walls were shook all night long to the likes of AC/DC and Sherbet, but McDowell is confident that will happen again.
“It needs to be commercially viable but still accessible to the community and that’s the biggest challenge. You want to be able to serve two levels,” he said. “[We just want] to put it on the map.”
Merrigong has nearly secured three more big-name musicians for the venue, though McDowell said they weren’t ready yet to announce who they were.
The plan is for eight to nine large-scale concerts in 2019, intertwined with regular chamber music and symphonies, Wollongong City Council events like ComicGong, and smaller scale variety nights aimed at nurturing the arts like Made From Scratch.
McDowell’s role with the not-for-profit theatre company was created in 2017 specifically to help grow an already diverse artistic program.
This announcement comes as the company gears up for the opening of its second Spiegeltent season on Thursday.
From Apirl 12 until May 6 the temporary venue – an antique mirrored big-top – will host shows every day which range from the cabaret circus act Limbo, children’s production Barrel of Monkeys, comedians like Peter Helliar and Tom Gleeson, and local acts like So Popera and Circus Monoxide.
To see what shows are coming up visit www.merrigong.com.au