The Artist, The Audience, The Box Office

I've been thinking a lot about the future of Australian commercial theatre.

Australian theatre has no shortage of extraordinary performers, writers, musicians or producers. What concerns me is that somewhere along the line we've lost the cultural ecosystem that once connected Australian artists to Australian audiences.

There was a time when live performance was woven into everyday Australian life. Programs like Good Morning Australia, The Don Lane Show, The Mike Walsh Show, Midday, The Morning Show, Hey Hey It's Saturday and even The Footy Show, complete with its live house band, regularly welcomed Australian performers into our living rooms. Theatre casts performed musical numbers. New artists launched albums. Established performers became familiar faces. Audiences developed genuine relationships with Australian artists long before they purchased a theatre ticket.

Those platforms weren't simply entertainment. They were audience builders.

Today, many of those opportunities have disappeared. As a consequence, we ask audiences to buy tickets to performers and productions they have had little opportunity to discover. We spend millions producing world class work, yet comparatively little ensuring Australians encounter the artists behind it in the first place.

This isn't about nostalgia. It's about recognising that successful commercial theatre depends on more than great productions. It depends on cultural visibility.

I'm also conscious that there are many people doing important advocacy around producer offset arrangements, taxation settings and government investment. That work matters enormously and should continue. But I also wonder whether government assistance alone is the answer.

Perhaps the bigger question is whether we've allowed our industries to become disconnected from one another. If we're in the business of selling theatre and music, why aren't we investing more deliberately in the platforms that introduce audiences to the artists creating it? Why aren't broadcasters, producers, presenters, record labels, digital platforms and governments thinking together about how Australian stories travel from the screen, to the stage, and back again?

The most sustainable future for Australian commercial theatre may not simply be found in larger subsidies. It may lie in rebuilding the cultural pathways that once turned Australian artists into household names and audiences into lifelong theatregoers.

Until we once again celebrate Australian artists in the everyday rhythm of Australian life, we cannot expect audiences to instinctively celebrate them at the box office.

Great theatre begins long before the curtain rises.