A spectacular show, and a short runway
MJ the Musical arrived in Australia with its design already proven on Broadway, and with no allowance for the distance. The show's soft scenery called for specific fabrics and specialist manufacturing techniques of the kind normally executed by US scenic shops - and the Australian production needed them made here.
Reveal's scope was the soft scenery. Around it, builds were coming from multiple scenery shops across the globe, and every piece we made had to integrate with work we would first meet at the theatre. Everything needed to be stage-ready in time for bump in.
The references were limited: the methods behind the originals sat with shops on the other side of the Pacific. What we had was the design intent, the deadline, and a sewing floor that has been solving fabric problems since 2001.
Collaboration, craft and a high-stakes sewing schedule
The sewing team ran it the way the workshop runs everything: name the problem, then solve it in fabric.
- Sourced the fabrics the design demanded. Unusual cloths, matched to the design intent rather than substituted away from it.
- Replicated US-style manufacturing methods. Worked out from limited references and proven on the bench before they went anywhere near the real cloth.
- Coordinated with the other shops. So the finished elements integrated cleanly with builds arriving from suppliers around the world.
- Held quality without handing back time. The schedule was the constraint; the standard was not negotiable.
Communication and adaptability carried the schedule. Where a reference ran out, experience filled the gap - problems on a deadline are the job, and this team has been solving them for more than two decades.
