Billy Buckett – A Rock ‘n’ Roll Love Story
- 12 May 2020
Home-grown musical Billy Buckett – A Rock ‘n’ Roll Love Story rocked the Logan Entertainment Centre in 2018 with musical numbers ranging from toe-tapping rockers to spine-tingling ballads.
What
An original stage-musical written by Logan-based artists Jay Turner and Cath Mundy, Billy Buckett is set in 1959 England at the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll and has been described as a musical with drama, pathos, and a delightfully daffy British sense of humour – all with fabulous tunes performed by the talented all-singing, all-dancing cast and live band The Asteroids.
With the story originally created by British singer-songwriter Jay Turner back in 1987, Billy Buckett has a long history and made its return – bigger and better than ever – to delight and entertain audiences.
The season previewed to an audience of sponsors and invited guests on 16 May and opened to the public for four shows from 17 May. The two Saturday shows were professionally filmed and audio-recorded to create a live album and full show video for online viewing and downloading, along with promotional YouTube clips of each song.
When and where
Logan Entertainment Centre, 16 to 19 May 2018
Key stats
- Total audience: 1,015 at Logan Entertainment Centre, 190 at promo gigs
- Artists employed: 34
- Volunteers: 29
- More than 98% of respondents rated the activity as good or excellent.
Arts Queensland investment
$8000 – Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF)
RADF is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Logan City Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland. In 2018-19, Arts Queensland invested $2.08 million in the RADF partnership across 58 councils statewide to support local talent and arts experiences.
Outcomes
- Creative outcomes included fine-tuning and testing the quality of the script and score with a smaller ensemble, giving the actors and creative team the opportunity to significantly advance their performances and characterisations; and developing a set design that could be toured.
- Financial outcomes included profit-sharing to actors, musicians, creative and production team and crew as a result of good ticket sales.
- Promotional and archival outcomes include the extensive promotion of the Billy Buckett and Footlights Theatrical Inc brand, and a professional quality video and soundtrack of the live performance, which will serve as a marketing tool for licensing the show internationally and to be made available online.
- Contributed to a sense of community in Logan using local performers
Feedback
The audience response was very positive, with more than 98% of respondents surveyed post-show rating the activity as good or excellent.
Some of the survey comments included:
“It was an opportunity to see a wonderful show written and produced locally at an affordable price. I would love to see more funding for this type of activity.”
“Billy Buckett was an amazing show and the first time I’ve been involved with a production at a professional level. An awesome experience!”
“RADF is critical in making shows like this possible. They have a big part to play in making the arts accessible.”
Reflections and learnings
- Many things worked well, including inviting a reunion cast to build on their performances from the five years of experience and skill they’d developed.
- A multi-pronged approach to marketing worked well, particularly word-of-mouth once the show started (a longer season would have capitalised on this).
- Staff should be fully trained in the venue’s technology so that any issue with light, sound or projected visuals can be resolved quickly.
- Needed microphones on the audience for the live recording. Luckily, the video camera mics recorded enough of the audience response to be used for the video soundtrack.
What next
The production is in a good place moving forward to market the show to wider audiences.