Sydney Lyric — entertainment plus!
Image: Sydney Lyric theatre.
With a maximum capacity of 2000 patrons seated, Sydney Lyric is one of this city’s largest theatres, which means it can and does host some of the biggest shows and performers. Since it opened in 1997, the Lyric has hosted world premieres, including Strictly Ballroom the Musical and Dream Lover, Australian premieres including Legally Blonde the Musical, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Matilda the Musical, and successful runs of smash hit shows such as Annie, Grease, War Horse, The Book of Mormon and Saturday Night Fever.
Next February, the highly anticipated MJ the Musical will hit the Lyric stage. This is a semi-biographical show based on Michael Jackson’s 1992 Dangerous world tour, and it is said to be absolutely electrifying.
Meanwhile, Hamilton has returned to the Lyric after having had its premiere season cut short by the pandemic in 2021. Lin Manuel Miranda’s internationally acclaimed musical is as popular as ever and, with eight shows weekly, it brings anywhere up to 16,000 people a week into Pyrmont — and there are plenty of things for them to do before and after the show.
“Obviously, being within The Star precinct there’s lots of dining opportunities here,” says Laura, commercial director of Sydney Lyric. “There’s the top end restaurants like Black and all those beautiful fine dining restaurants offered within The Star. And then the food court and the cafes around. So lots of people come in and make a night of it.”
Many restaurants and bars, not just within The Star but around Pyrmont, offer show-related deals and promotions: from serving an express pre-show meal, to creating themed cocktails and desserts, to fancy dress competitions and other fun offerings.
The Sydney Lyric also offers their own function packages for small parties before the show and during intermission. Held in a private function room within the theatre area, the packages allow for a selection of canapés, drinks, and choc-tops.
In some really exciting news, the Lyric is about to open a second smaller theatre just off the main theatre. It will be called Foundry Theatre.
“It will be a 360 seated theatre or 630 standing, and it’s going to be a really beautiful space to do comedy, live music, smaller intimate plays and musicals,” explains Laura. “It’ll be a really great place to grow new works, work with new producers and creative teams on things that are not quite ready to fill big theatres but have great products that would suit smaller theatre.”
Sydney Lyric was originally intended as a repertory theatre with alternating shows playing during the same season. As such, it had a massive off-stage area that accommodated an entire set for a one show, while the stage held the set for the current show. However, the Lyric ended up hosting just one major production at a time, which meant the extra space off-stage wasn’t being used. The Foundry will now make use of that space.
The new, smaller theatre will be ready by the end of this year. It will have a flat floor and no fixed furniture, which allows for various room arrangements: raised seating, cocktail tables, catwalk, open floor, anything.
“We’re hoping to do late night shows there…patrons leaving the main Sydney Lyric theatre could then go in and do some jazz or late night music,” says Laura. She also sees opportunities for smaller shows that may have done well at other theatres to be given a longer life with a season at Foundry.
“We’re aiming to keep as many people coming to great theatre as we can. Great theatre experiences for everyone who comes through our doors is our aim.”
55 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont
www.sydneylyric.com.au
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