AusLeisure

Leading Australian live entertainment producer Michael Cassel Group has announced two significant appointments to the organisation’s production and creative development teams.

Annelies Crowe, who was the Associate Producer for the Australian and international tours of Hamilton and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, has been promoted to Deputy Head of Production overseeing all Australian productions including the Australian premieres of Titanique, Dear Evan Hansen, MJ and Beetlejuice and the highly anticipated return of Hamilton to Sydney.

Crowe, who previously held senior production roles with Sydney Theatre Company, reports to Todd Lacy, Head of Production, who will continue to oversee all production activity, including the company’s global roll out of original content and major international tours.

Announcing Crowe’s appointment, Producer and Chief Executive, Michael Cassel stated “Annelies’ pursuit of excellence, her unwavering commitment to ensuring our productions are world class, her inexhaustible passion for theatre and her incredible leadership skills make her the ideal person to shepherd our Australian slate from concept to completion.

“Along with Todd Lacy’s tremendous experience and with his guidance, I am thrilled to have such an expert team to care for our productions all over the world.”

The company also revealed the appointment of Anna Fox as Creative Development Manager, based in London.

Fox is a Director and writer who has more than a decade of experience in regional, international and West End theatre. Most recently she served as the Associate Director of the musical & Juliet in the United Kingdom and Australia.

She will report to Head of Creative Development Jane Abramson who is based in New York.

Asian Growth
The theatre production company is also continuing its expansion in Asia following the launch of two blockbuster productions in September last year.

This included Hamilton beginning its first ever international tour in the Philippines featuring cast members drawn from productions in Broadway, London, the US tours, Germany and Australia.

The production played at Manila’s The Theatre at Solaire until 26th November in an unprecedented record-breaking run, ahead of a season in Abu Dhabi from January this year

The company is now planning to release eight original shows in the coming years, with the first planned to reach the stage by the end of this year.

Cassel told Gordon Cox that the desire to create its own work came during the COVID-19 pandemic induced lockdowns, advising “we were twiddling our thumbs after COVID hit, but we thought: Well, what we can be doing is thinking and creating.

“I really think that we might have one of our first original shows on stage at the end of next year.

“The aim is that in 2025, ’26, ’27, we’ll start to see the fruits of all the efforts and investment.

“Because I’d like our original work to be an equal balance with our licensed titles.”

One of the reason for looking at Asia is a lack of theatre space in Australia.

Here Cassel notes “right now you can’t get a theatre in Australia until 2028.”

This is due to Sydney and Melbourne each having a limited number of venues capable of staging large-scale musicals.

As a result, Cassel is looking to further explore outside of Australia following success in Singapore and the Philippines.

He adds “the strategy is to go where it may not be sustainable to invest in a full-fledged, local language production, but there’s an appetite for great theatre.

“When we look at what sort of wholly new creative pieces we want to wrap our arms around, our mantra is: They have to be global, and they have to be evergreen.

“We want to create our own content and then go and find out whether it can play in Abu Dhabi, or in the Philippines, or Argentina, or wherever.”

The company, founded by Michael Cassel in 2012, established itself with a flurry of big-name Broadway replicas around Australasia including Les Misérables and The Lion King.

Images: The Michael Cassel Group's production of Hamilton (top), Annelies Crowe (middle) and Michael Cassel (below). Credit: Michael Cassel Group.

Related Articles

27th July 2024 - Parliamentary inquiry looks at future Australia’s live music industry

11th July 2024 - New seats, lighting and staging among major upgrades planned for Adelaide Festival Centre theatres

9th July 2024 - ACT Government seeks construction industry partner for Canberra theatre project

6th June 2024 - Australian theatre company ‘Legs On The Wall’ goes international in its 40th year

23rd May 2024 - Winning design revealed for $188 million redevelopment of Parramatta’s Riverside Theatres

15th May 2024 - Live Performance Australia welcomes Federal budget funding while continuing to push for theatre tax incentives

11th May 2024 - TEG Live stages Australia’s ‘biggest beach party ever’

10th May 2024 - TEG appoints Belinda Shaw as the Group’s Chief Financial Officer

5th March 2024 - Live Performance Australia calls for tax incentives to boost Australian theatre investment

5th May 2022 - Promoter and producer Michael Cassel receives Honorary Doctorate from UOW

15th March 2022 - Live music industry set to experience significant growth in the Asia-Pacific region

28th January 2021 - Frozen the Musical at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre a model for future global performances

20th November 2020 - Pippin opening set to mark return of musical theatre to Australia

27th July 2020 - Leading theatre producer, Michael Cassel Group announces new partnership with TEG

26th August 2019 - NSW Arts Minister concedes shortage of theatres in Sydney

18th April 2019 - New Western Sydney Performing Arts Centre to be named Sydney Coliseum Theatre

22nd June 2018 - NSW Government invests in musical theatre and visitor economy

8th July 2016 - Musical theatre has a major impact on Victoria’s economy

13th May 2016 - MEAA says live theatre devastated by Australia Council cuts

1st February 2016 - Sydney theatres underutilised and inaccessible

25th March 2014 - Michael Cassel Group appoints new head of Marketing and Communications

5th March 2010 - Children’s Theatre Thrives in Dubai

---

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.