PLEASUREDOME The Musical

Warehouse off Rosebank Rd (TBA on purchase of tickets), Auckland

28/09/2017 - 05/11/2017

Production Details



The ultimate 80s Musical Experience.  

Forget everything you knew about musicals, this is an immersive experience set within a fully realised Manhattan streetscape just off Rosebank Road, 10 minutes from Auckland’s CBD. Here your journey begins before being transported back in time to the heart-stopping, booty-shaking, mythical Pleasuredome nightclub. This is the night you never dreamt possible.

Lucy Lawless is Sappho, the show’s sexy, hedonistic diva whose lavish performances have made Pleasuredome synonymous with glamour and excess. Also starring Moses Mackay (Sole Mio), Ashleigh Barlow (Wicked), Vince Harder (The Lion King), Stephen Lovatt (Neighbours) and a 20-strong cast of local and international performers all supported by a state of the art light & projection extravaganza. 

This is a story of desire, addiction, greed, and the power of love, set on the dance-floor to some of the biggest tunes of the era.

Directed by Michael Hurst (Chicago) and produced by Rob Tapert (Spartacus), Pleasuredome will be the most electrifying theatre experience ever staged in New Zealand.

“As a twenty-something youth in the 80s, a friend dragged me to an underground club in New York City – it was something you could only find in that city, a fusion of beautiful people, music, lights – a sensory overload. It was the most incredible and wildest night of my life and, for near forty years, I’ve been working on the right vehicle that could re-create that seminal ride for others.  Pleasuredome is a classic tale of desire, love, and greed set at the party you’ve only dreamt about – all mixed to an 80s soundtrack.” – Rob Tapert

“In the shimmering world of the Pleasuredome, all that glitters may burn a girl out. My character, Sappho is in the fight of her life to rescue true love from the ashes. It’s a wild, funkadelic, joyful ride. Let me take you there….” – Lucy Lawless

Pleasuredome takes place in a site specific warehouse off Rosebank Rd in Auckland. Upon purchase of tickets you will be communicated the exact address.

From 28th September to 5th November
Doors into NYC street: 7:00pm
Doors into Pleasuredome Nightclub: 8:00pm
Wednesday 7:00pm–11:00pm
Thursday 7:00pm–11:00pm
Friday 7:00pm–Late
Saturday 7:00pm–Late
Sunday 5:00pm–9:30pm

BOOK HERE

CLICK HERE to view street food menu.

Group Tickets
Treat your group to an experience they will never forget. Groups of 10 or more qualify for special ticket offers. 


http://www.pleasuredomethemusical.com/cast-and-crew/ 

CAST AND ENSEMBLE
LUCY LAWLESS:  SAPPHO
ASHLEIGH TAYLOR:  LILITH
VINCE HARDER:  JR
MOSES MACKAY:  OTIS
STEPHEN LOVATT:  VICTOR
BYRON COLL:  SETH
JAMES GORDON:  REMY
JAMES LUCK:  DOM
HANNAH TASKER-POLAND:  MONA
JADYN BURT:  LISA
BLAISE CLOTWORTHY:  MINK
AEYLA DUNCAN:  SHANTOYA
OLIVIA TENNET:  ENSEMBLE
REBEKKAH SCHOONBEEK-BERRIDGE:  ENSEMBLE
HEIDI CHEN:  ENSEMBLE
JANE STRICKLAND:  ENSEMBLE
KURT STOWERS:  ENSEMBLE
LEIGHTON RANGI:  ENSEMBLE
TODD WILLIAMSON:  ENSEMBLE
SHANELLE LENEHAN:  ENSEMBLE & REHEARSAL DIRECTOR
BRYONY SKILLINGTON:  HOUSE ENTERTAINER

CONTRIBUTORS
ORIGINAL BOOK MARK BEESLEY
STAGE CREATION MICHAEL HURST & CHARLIE MCDERMOTT
DIRECTOR MICHAEL HURST
CHOREOGRAPHY KAYLA PAIGE & ANDREW CESAN
MUSICAL DIRECTOR JO LODUCA
ASSISTANT MUSICAL DIRECTOR JASON SMITH
ADDITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS SEAN DONNELY
PRODUCTION DESIGN NICK BASSETT
ART DIRECTOR NICK CONNOR
COSTUME DESIGN BARBARA DARRAGH
AV DIRECTOR JON BAXTER
LIGHTING DESIGN DAVID EVERSFIELD
TECHNICAL MANAGER MIKE COLE
PRODUCTION MANAGER TIM NUTTALL
ACCOUNTANT BREN MACKENZIE
ASSISTANT TO ROB TAPERT HANA BOTHA
STAGE MANAGER CAROL HARDING, LUCIE CAMP, JANINA PANIZZA
MARKETING & BOX OFFICE CRAIG IVANOFF
GENERAL MANAGER ROMOLA LANG
GENERAL MANAGER CHLOE SMITH
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER FLEUR SAVILLE
PRODUCER CHARLIE MCDERMOTT
PRODUCER ROB TAPERT

ADDITIONAL CREATIVE
ADDITIONAL STAGE DRAFT DAN MUSGROVE AND GARETH WILLIAMS
ADDITIONAL CHOREGOPRAPHY MARY JANE O'REILLY
ADDITIONAL COSTUME DESIGN ADRIAN HAILWOOD

ART DEPARTMENT
PRODUCTION DESIGNER NICK BASSETT
ART DIRECTOR NICK CONNOR
SET DECORATOR GARETH EDWARDS
GRAPHIC DESIGNER SCOTT SATHERLEY
PROPS BUYER GIM BON

COSTUME
COSTUME DESIGNER BARBARA DARRAGH
COSTUME SUPERVISOR JAINDRA WATSON
COSTUME SUPERVISOR YLONA MCGINITY
WARDROBE MISTRESS RUTH ENGLAND
WARDROBE MISTRESS EMMA EDWARDS
COSTUME ILLIUSTRATOR YIP LEE
PATTERN CUTTER ANN MOCKETT
PATTERN CUTTER MARION OLSEN
COSTUME PROPS AMANDA PIEARCEY 

LIGHTING LIGHTING
DESIGN DAVID EVERSFIELD
LIGHTING PROGRAMMER KARL JENKINS
SCENIC LED TECHNICIAN BRIAN MAHONEY

MARKETING + PUBLICITY
AUGUSTO LTD
MARKETING MANAGER CRAIG IVANOFF
CONTENT MANAGER AND SOCIAL STRATEGIST LUCY O'CONNOR

MUSIC
MUSICAL DIRECTOR JOE LODUCA
VOCAL DIRECTOR JOSH CLARK
ADDITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS SEAN DONNELLY
DJ PRODUCER OLIVER PETERHOF 

RIGGERS
RIGGER NATHANIEL GAUDIN
RIGGER STEVE WILSON

SPECIAL EFFECTS
SPECIAL EFFECTS LIVE FX

STAGE MANAGEMENT
REHEARSAL STAGE MANAGER ROBYN GRACE
ASSISTANT REHEARSAL STAGE MANAGER GUY CAMPBELL
SCRIPT EDITOR BENEDICT PAXTON-CRICK
STAGE MANAGER CAROL HARDING
STAGE MANAGER JANINA PANIZZA
STAGE MANAGER LUCIE CAMP
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER DAVID MCSMITH
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER NATASHA HOYLAND
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER MICHAEL CLARK
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER DAISY LAWLESS
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER HANA BOTHA
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER (SFX) WILLY GOER  


Theatre , Spectacle , Cabaret ,


A long way from home

Review by James Wenley 01st Oct 2017

It’s one of the most audacious and head-spinningly ambitious theatrical endeavours ever mounted in New Zealand. Promising to transport us to 1984 and the notoriously hedonistic underground New York clubs (the last hold-outs from the disco era), audiences arrive in Henderson and enter, via a subway station portal, a NYC wonderland. You walk a block-long city street before you even get into the Pleasuredome club. In the opening number, Lucy Lawless makes a grand golden entrance riding a roman chariot and with a burst of flames. The audience are ready and primed for a great night.

No expense is spared – on opening night there is even a mounted NY cop on horseback out the front, patrolling the queue. And there are many opportunities for us to splurge too – on drinks, street vendor hot dogs, and Southern Maid donuts. The venue has capacity for 800 people each night. An entire industry of costumed actors, waitstaff and ushers have popped up in this industrial warehouse. This is a try-out before they go offshore to conquer the world of entertainment.

Unfortunately, for all there is to admire about…..

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A courageous extravaganza – hugely enjoyable

Review by Kathleen Mantel 29th Sep 2017

Pleasuredome – The Musical is the brainchild of Executive Producer Rob Tapert (producer of Hercules, Xena, Spartacus).  In his 20s Tapert was dragged into a New York City underground club and had one of the best nights of his life: a sensory overload of music, lights, dancing and beautiful people.  He has been trying to recreate that wild night for 40 years.   Mark Beesley wrote Pleasuredome “as a love letter to New York from a skinny white boy at the bottom of the world, drowning in the cultural desert of Mt Roskill in the 70s and 80s.” 

New York in the 1980s was not the clean, law abiding, mostly safe city it is today.  The city had run out of money and couldn’t afford essential services, things like enough police officers and garbage collectors.  Rats, drugs and crime were rampant. The city was broke.  But during this time the arts scene flourished, as did the gay scene. By 1984, when Pleasuredome is set, AIDS is ripping through communities and money hungry tycoons have begun to plan the gentrification of the city.  Greed is becoming the new art. 

Pleasuredome is the story of a nightclub and its crew of hedonistic singers and dancers who will do whatever it takes to stop a rich property investor from buying the club to develop it.  It’s an intoxicating mix of sex, drugs, lust, love, coming out, going back in and coming out again, greed, rebirth and music.  Lucy Lawless is Sappho the middle aged coked-up diva and star of the Pleasuredome.  Her star shone bright some time ago, but after years of partying her star has started to fade.  

Pleasuredome is staged in an industrial area of Avondale.  The audience is immersed into 1980s New York City from the moment you walk through the doors of the subway and into a city street complete with hot dog stands, graffiti, a bar and hookers.  The show brings together the creative energies of practitioners at the top of their game from the music, television, film and theatre world.  New Zealand has so many people working in the film industry and it is so exciting to see those skills being tapped into.  

The Pleasuredome club itself is at the end of the street and once again the set design for the show itself is ingenious.  Audiences can either stand, sit, or those with a bit more cash can book tables with table service throughout the show.  The stage is designed in an X shape so wherever you sit you are close to the action. 

The story of Pleasuredome is very Broadway.  There is singing, dancing, boys and girls meeting each other, falling in love, a climax and a resolution.  It’s hard for a musical to touch you and I wasn’t moved by it on an emotional level.  But perhaps that is a part of the genre of ‘the musical’.  There are struggles … but then there is music and dance and that has the power to overcome.  “Dancing gives us strength, it gives us hope and gets us laid.” 

Lawless gives a wonderfully believable layered performance of the faded Sappho.  Her rendition of The Human League’s ‘Don’t You Want Me’ is the highlight of the show for me and the use of video is powerful.  Vince Harder is the perfect bad ass drug dealing pimp and his musical performance is faultless, as is Sole Mio’s Moses Mackay.  Because Pleasuredome is staged in an enormous industrial venue the sound can be patchy at times.  The actors are not all professional singers and this becomes apparent during some of the vocal renditions, although it’s not helped by the sound. 

Barbara Darragh has designed some truly flamboyant and wonderful costumes for the show.  One particular set of costumes is outrageously fun and quite disconcerting.  I won’t spoil it by going into too much detail.  Hair was big in the 1980s and Stefan Knight’s hair and makeup work is divine.

Pleasuredome is a courageous extravaganza of a show that is hugely enjoyable.  It’s a treat to see such risk taking putting on a show of this scale.  So, dig out your leg warmers and arrive early for some trashy glam NYC 80s street life.  You’ll have a ball.
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A sublime hot mess

Review by Janet McAllister 29th Sep 2017

Pleasuredome – the Musical is huge: huge space, huge hair, huge show. It’s fun, entertaining – and a hot mess. The production values are uneven but put up with the ridiculous to enjoy the sublime.

There’s an immediate wow factor: via a graffitied subway, you emerge on a grungy rain-slicked sidewalk. It’s like Auckland Museum’s much-lamented Centennial Street got an early 1980s New York makeover, complete with porn cinema, hot dogs and a working bar.

It’s utterly immersive and very impressive. [More

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