Sydney’s brand new entertainment venue is off to a running start, with the first audiences to fill the Foundry Theatre praising the venue’s impressive sound quality, top-notch lighting tech and intimate atmosphere. After none other than Tim Minchin christened the stage with a sold-out five-show run in February, the schedule for the year ahead is already packed with an impressive line-up of gigs, comedy, cabaret and musicals.
You’ll find the Foundry tucked behind the Sydney Lyric Theatre in Pyrmont (which, we would argue is one of the city’s better venues for musical theatre, aside from the fact it’s inside a casino). To make your way there, enter the Lyric’s foyer, hang a left, and follow the elaborate series of backstage passageways. (Hot tip: you’ll stumble across the Foundry’s own mini foyer on your journey, so you don’t need to fight the Lyric’s substantially larger audience for access to the candy bar.)
If we were to sum up the vibe, we’d say it feels kind of like someone squished the Enmore Theatre into a loading dock, smoothed the Art Deco accents down into a more minimalist look, and maintained the killer lighting rig and audio quality – and we're into it!
A venture of Foundation Theatres, the company that owns both the Sydney Lyric and the stunning Capitol Theatre, the intimacy of the Foundry is a welcome addition to the Sydney performance circuit. A flexible space, it can seat 360 seated guests, or up to 630 standing.
This is just the beginning, too, with Foundation Theatres recently cementing a deal with The Star to transform the casino into a ‘West End’ style theatre district. This includes plans to convert The Star’s events centre into a 1550-seat proscenium arch theatre, and a separate 1000-seat room for contemporary music and comedy. However this pans out, we’ll just be happy to see Sydney gain some slick new theatres!
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