Merrigong Theatre Company’s inaugural Spiegeltent season came to a close this weekend and exceeded expectations, says the artistic director.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Simon Hinton said the luxurious antique tent hosted around 15,000 guests across the 21 days of mixed entertainment, well in excess of their 13,500 target.
Mr Hinton said official numbers and statistics were still being finalised but expects the disco circus, Velvet, starring Marcia Hines to have drawn in more than 6,500 – on track to being Merrigong’s highest grossing show ever.
“We had some sold out performances of Velvet, obviously not every [night], but Dave Hughes sold out, Wil Anderson sold out,” he said.
“Comedy did particularly well but also the local things have done really well, so Circus Monoxide sold really well and I Pagliacci’s Opera Canivale (which is a partnership between the Wollongong Conservatorium and the Sydney Conservatorium) that’s sold really well.”
In the next few weeks Mr Hinton will be part of a debrief and discussions on next year’s season, looking at what went well and what didn’t.
He admitted some of the contemporary musical acts didn’t sell as well as expected but felt the company’s audience database is more theatre focused at present.
Mr Hinton was pleased the tent brought out a lot of new faces to Wollongong’s Arts Precinct.