When it comes to staging a performance of any live musical (or an opera, for arguments’ sake), there are a whole lot of moving parts that must come together. The pitch-perfect live orchestra, the actors emerging from quick costume changes, leaping straight into painstakingly blocked choreography, delivering carefully memorised lines and lyrics *with conviction* as a whole squadron of unseen people steer all of the technical elements to keep the train on the track – when you witness all of these pieces come together in real time, there really is nothing else quite like it.
So what happens when you take all of the delicate elements of live theatre, and up the stakes by thrusting it onto an outdoor stage the size of “a football field” suspended over Sydney Harbour, and top it off with a big smattering of fireworks? That’s what you get at Handa Opera on the Harbour (HOSH), and this year’s bombastic take on the musical comedy classic, Guys & Dolls, which director Shaun Rennie describes as “one of the best musicals ever written”.
“It's a unique beast, that's for sure,” says Rennie, who is also Opera Australia’s associate director. “It's part spectacle, part musical theatre – and yet, there are logistics that you wouldn’t even think about. Like the wigs, if it rains, all have to be reset – and there’s literally not enough time to reset them all.”
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According to Rennie, the “genius people in the OA props department” have “a solve for everything”. For example, the “guys” of Guys & Dolls are famously partial to some illegal street gambling – and when they throw down money to “shoot craps”, each note has been fixed with a magnet so that it sticks down to the stage, and doesn’t go floating off into the harbour.
Each autumn, the entire 3,000-seat pop-up theatre is assembled especially for the month-long run of shows – and this also includes the five-storey bar and restaurant hub, and the (surprisingly decent!) public toilets. The stage sits on an 80-tonne over-water grid that is transported to the site between 12 semi-trailers. Below this, and under the audience's feet, the backstage world is tucked out of sight – like a secret underground village built from shipping containers.
Aside from the fact that the stage is more than twice the size of that of the average indoor theatre, it is also entirely exposed to the elements. Wind, rain, fluctuating temperatures, seagulls – the cast and crew must contend with everything that Mother Nature can throw at them.
“You have to consider things like the timing to travel [from one side of the stage to the other] and negotiating the raked stage, and then negotiating the weather,” says renowned choreographer Kelley Abbey, who has created all-new dance formations to along with the reworked orchestrations by Jack Earle and musical director Guy Simpson. “There's a lot to consider, and it's challenging, but it's also been great. I mean, who would think that you'd be watching a show on Sydney Harbour, that has New York set against the Sydney landscape? It's kind of wild, isn't it?”
“Here, we've got a moving landscape – we've got party boats, the city lights, and you know, bats… It’s very easy [for audiences] to just drift off and look at the magical setting, but you want to keep compelling people to come back to look at the stage. And I think choreographically, we have to physically speak a language that really drives harder and further than what you would even normally pitch, energetically, in a normal theater scene,” adds Abbey.
And if the heavens open? The show goes on! (Except for in special circumstances, like electrical storms.) The cast are tasked with memorising a wet-weather version of the show, which tones down some of the bigger acrobatic moves for safety; the backstage crew has warm dressing gowns, towels, and hot tea stations at the ready; and the costume department is prepared with wet-weather alternatives like slip-resistant shoes. (Not to mention, there’s all those wigs that need to be re-set.)
It’s a particularly demanding challenge for any performer, let alone for a well-known celebrity making his Australian musical theatre debut. This is the case for Cody Simpson, who is stepping into his leading man moment as Sky Masterton, the character famously played by Marlon Brando in the 1955 film adaptation of Guys & Dolls.
“He’s just fantastic,” says Abbey, when asked about working with Simpson. “You can tell, anyone who has been a pop star on the global stage at such a young age, and who then decides to swim in the Olympic team – you see that guy is hardworking, focused, and just wants to know how to make it better. And he takes direction really well, he's always asking ‘what can I do better here?’”
It’s also a change of pace for Jason Arrow, who is now “rocking the boat” as Nicely Nicely Johnson after earning a name for himself as Australia’s own Alexander Hamilton in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. “People have just witnessed Jason rapping for the last four years, no one really remembers that he can really sing [classic musical theatre]. He just knocks the ball out of the park, he's vocally incredible,” says Abbey. And as noted by Time Out’s critic in our four-star review, all of “the production’s stars are uniformly excellent”.
Established by Opera Australia some 14 years ago as a way to encourage more people to take a chance on opera, HOSH has earned its stripes as a world-class theatrical experience – and it’s not all just about the views. Since 2019’s epic production of The Phantom of the Opera on Sydney Harbour, Opera Australia has been alternating operas with classic musicals on the outdoor stage (which is great news for anyone who struggles with surtitles).
“I'm aware that it's a contentious point for some people,” says Rennie, speaking on the mixed response from OA’s rusted-on audience of operatic diehards. “But opera has always been popular entertainment, it should be popular entertainment, and I'm of the belief that anything we can do to get people to become excited about coming to the theatre [is a good thing]. This art form has continued to evolve, and you know, I don't see them as separate streams [operas and musicals]. I see that there is a line between Verdi and Guys & Dolls, you know? And I think if you get the balance right, there's space for all of it.”
Guys & Dolls on Sydney Harbour must close on April 20, 2025. Do “HOSH like a boss” with our guide to Guys & Dolls on Sydney Harbour, and book tickets over here.
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