Don't like musicals or plays? You'll love The Choir of Man

Australia's growing appetite for theatre, bar culture and music arrives in a show hitting the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre on September 30.

The Choir of Man was founded in 2017 by director and producer Nic Doodson and Andrew Kay. The first performance was conducted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

Their success brought them across the United Kingdom and even globally, including several visits to Australia, consisting of Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide. 

Nic was thrilled to have his play performed at the Merringong Theatre for the first time as he has history with the IPAC.

“I have a really strong connection with Wollongong. I have been visiting Wollongong for quite a long time and have fallen in love with the place because it is very beautiful,” Nic said.

“In 2024, I moved my entire family to Wollongong … it was only a temporary move.

"I didn’t have an office, so I used to come sit in the lobby of the IPAC because they had free Wi-Fi, and I could do all my emails and look at all the shows that were coming here and go 'oh, maybe when Choir of Man’s over here I could come here'.

“It's a great opportunity. It's a shame we don’t live here; my family doesn't live here, but my sister is bringing loads of people down, and all the friends we made here, my kids and their friends.

“They're going to come and see the show, so it's really special to have it here.”

The performance features an on-stage fully-functioning bar that the audience is allowed to use throughout the event.

Asked whether the rise in bar culture has helped in having more Choir of Man tours to Australia in general, Nic said United Kingdom and Australia had similarities.

“Australia and the UK, in my opinion, are very close cousins, so we have a very similar comparison: hotel for you (Australia), pub for us (UK), similar hotel culture or RSL culture,” he said.

“I think the bar culture can be very useful as a gathering space.”

Nic wanted to remove the idea of a target audience and instead have a performance that appealed to everyone, especially in bringing in people who won’t watch musicals or plays.

It's the whole goal of Choir of Man and its success.

“I don’t think we set out to have a target audience… part of the success of our show is it attracts people who wouldn’t necessarily want to go and watch The Lion King or want to watch a straight play like Hamlet,” Mr Doodson said.

“We often find that people come and see the show and then bring someone who wouldn't normally go to the theatre because they’re like “, Oh, my husband would love this; he loves having a beer and listening to songs that he knows, so I will bring him along this time’.

“They come to the theatre, a place they’re not usually used to going to, and they get a beer put in their hands, and they listen to songs that they know, and they laugh, they cry and say 'oh, this is great’.”

As for what to anticipate on stage, there will be popular songs from different eras to evoke a sense of nostalgia.

“This has songs from people like Sia, Adele ... we sort of go all the way from Paul Simon in the 1960s up to Sia, Adele, all the 2000s music, so there is always something in there that people are going to recognise,” Nic said.

“If you hear a particular song from a particular time in your life or a feeling … that's really useful for us because people immediately have an emotional connection with the song and then with the show.” 

Accompanying the songs will be planned dances that create a realistic and immersive sight of men in a bar dancing poorly and awkwardly.

Their moves, however, progress into fast-paced and professional moves to subvert the audience's expectations. 

“It's actually highly choreographed; we direct and choreograph to look like they don’t know what they’re doing or like it's all made up,” Nic said.

After their performance in Wollongong, The Choir of Man will come to Australia again, this time in Sydney, at the Sydney Opera House, and will run from December 11 to January 24.