Cockatoo Co Lab, Sugary Rum Productions & Arenamedia | HD 8 x 7’ or 1 x 60’

Five minutes before curtain on a long-running musical, Simon and Helen settle into their nightly dressing-room ritual – gossip, grand plans and the occasional meltdown.
Helen, once the undisputed queen of the stage, is fighting to keep her increasingly unreliable voice, while Simon is convinced his big Hollywood break is just around the corner.

Around them, a gloriously eccentric cast of performers, understudies and backstage regulars navigate the nightly rituals, rivalries, romances and ridiculous dramas of life in the theatre. Because when the lights go up, everyone has a part to play – and backstage, the real performance has already begun.

Set almost entirely in Helen’s dressing room, the series uses the nightly countdown to curtain as a pressure-cooker frame for comedy, conflict and confession. What unfolds is a sharp, camp, insider comedy about ego, ageing, ambition, disappointment and the pathological need to hear applause.