A performance revue like you'll never get in an office tower. This cheeky number, fresh from a sold-out season at NZ Int’l Comedy Festival, takes on the ridiculous and objectionable in the modern workplace in the form of the blues, rap, latin plainchant and more to see what meets expectations and what needs improvement.
The sketches, written and composed by Amy Mansfield in a wicked range of genres, play with such hot topics as coworker communications ('Mansplain it to me'), Uniformity and Exclusion ('CEO Song: Okay so I'm white') and endless restructuring. This season includes new material, and direction by Katie Burson.
Drawing on influences as diverse as musical comedy TV series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs, H.R. The Musical will have you laughing with despair, and wondering - along with the rest of the world - when the revolution is coming, then putting it on your to-do list.
The cast includes Mika Austin, the critically acclaimed darling of Artsense Productions' I Didn't Invite You Here to Lecture Me and you are [not] alone here, along with the madly talented Zoe Triggs, Amy Mansfield and special guests, who'll sing, dance and play various blowable and plucky instruments throughout.
Gather your co-workers and your boss and get to this work!
RUNAWAY COMEDY HIT H.R. THE MUSICAL CIRCLES BACK TO TAKE CONTEMPORARY WORKPLACE CULTURE TO TASK
Just in time for silly season office outings, Artsense Productions announces the return of NZ Int’l Comedy Festival sellout H.R. The Musical by Tāmaki-makau-rau Auckland's Amy Mansfield, with a team of extraordinary women joining the show.
Presented as a series of musical comedy sketches in the style of a gig/revue, H.R. The Musical refers to the now almost retro term, “human resources” (H.R.), but the show considers more generally the curiosity of work in the present day. Audiences will recognise themselves, their co-workers, and everyday challenges they face given a comic - and potentially therapeutic - treatment, with previous audiences commenting the show is “so close to the bone” and “like lancing a boil”.
Mansfield says it’s necessarily a comedy, with the wide range of musical genres she employs - from ballads to blues to rap to latin plainchant - offering some “delicious and unexpected juxtapositions” which allow the audience to view the subject matter through a variety of hilarious lenses. “If you ask me, there just aren’t enough middle-aged Pākeha women rappers,” she quips.
All the songs are originals, written especially for H.R. The Musical, including: 'Corporate Anthropologist Blues', 'Lay Your Global Hands on Me' and 'Mansplain it to Me'. For the November season, Mansfield has written some new sketches and songs, and hopes audiences will return as the show keeps developing. “The world of work keeps changing, and so does this show!”
Performers Mika Austin, Zoë Triggs and new cast member Hayley Dallimore, along with Mansfield herself, will bring the work back to Q Theatre’s Rangatira, this time joined by a Bridgerton-inspired band of string-players Kate Saunders (cello), Dr Kirsten Locke (violin) and Leith Macfarlane (violin and alto sax). Director Katie Burson and dance comedy choreographer Lara Fischel-Chisholm join the creative team to take it to the next level. Quite by coincidence, half of the cast members and band this season have in fact worked as HR professionals, adding a kind of meta layer to the themes and messages of the work. As well as singing and dancing, each of the cast members will also play various instruments, including keys, guitar, bass ukelele, melodica and percussion.
H.R. The Musical plays at Auckland’s Q Theatre, Rangatira 6 - 8 November, 6.30pm and 8.30pm.
Tickets available at https://www.qtheatre.co.nz/shows/hr-musical
Audiences from the sold-out seasons in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch said:
“I was laughing so hard I nearly fell out of my seat”
“Loved every moment of it”
“Bloody brilliant”
“Irreverent, provocative, unmissable”
“Every word cleverly crafted, every song belly-laughingly witty”
“Everyday HR and corporate terms rightly denuded into their ridiculous reality.”
“The full house – regardless of age or background – laughed their cotton socks off. - Theatreview Auckland
“The absurdity of office nitwittery is on full display in this show and it is a riot.” - Theatreview Christchurch
H.R. The Musical
6-8 November, 6.30pm
Q Theatre, Rangatira
