At its centre is Bondi mum-of-two Carmen Pavlovic, chief executive of Global Creatures, who admits with the jewel in the crown, Moulin Rouge, opening to lavish praise on Broadway in July, there’s no stopping the little Aussie company that could.

And neither, it seems, the woman at its helm. And just like Muriel was a girl from a small town arriving in a big city, Pavlovic says the universal themes in the musicals they produce reflect the company in many ways:

They all have an outsider in common.

She says that’s a very Australian trait, and exactly why she is raising her young family in Bondi.

“Only in Bondi do your kids get to go to school in wet suits with surfing part of the curriculum at Bondi Pubic,” she laughs ahead of a trip back to New York for the Tony Awards on Monday night, where Kong was nominated for three awards.

Her set designer husband, Peter England, was among them, nominated for his work on King Kong in set design.

The couple have just moved back home to be close to Pavlovic’s family after a year of being home schooled while the family lived in New York overseeing the musical based on the Baz Luhrmann film.

“I send photos of the kids to my friends who can’t quite believe it.

“There’s something about the space in the Australian psyche … it gives us the confidence to move about, to go exploring to other areas and see other places.”

And explore she has.

Since growing up in Canberra, earning her Arts degree in Melbourne, moving to Bondi and then leaving for Europe, Pavlovic, who turned 50 last week, spent years working at Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group in Double Bay.

She also headed up international production for Dutch company Stage Entertainment, taking Cats to Russia, The Lion King to France and Dirty Dancing to Germany.

She met her husband in Shanghai.

“I do find people in London and NY can’t quite believe we run a company from Australia with as much work as we do.

“It’s in our DNA. You grow up with this sense of pushing out — and it seems very normal for us to go somewhere else to work.

“I often look at the kids running up and down the beach, and there’s something in that freedom that gives you that desire and strength to run forth.”

Pavlovic was happily ensconced in Copenhagen, when Aussie businessman of Jayco caravans fame Gerry Ryan — destined to be her business partner in Global Creatures — approached her to run the company.

She said as tempting as the offer was, she wasn’t interested in coming home for one Dinosaur show (said Dinosaur show has to date grossed over $455 over a decade of tours).

She did, however, like the idea of flipping the model of a bigger company with an international network and bringing it home.

“Instead of Australia importing West End and Broadway licences, which is what had been happening in musical theatre back home ‘til then, would he be interested in creating a company that gave all those young, passionate, creative people (from Dinosaurs) … a path for a future?”

The answer, it turned out, was yes. Since that decision in 2008, Pavlovic hasn’t looked back. There have been many highs and lows but she says she has never forgotten the words Ryan shared with her at a low point — when the company had many titles in development, they couldn’t secure a theatre on the West End, King Kong didn’t have date and she wondered if it had all been a mistake. “He said, ‘Carmen, I will share with you the nine words my mother said to me: ‘Don’t give up, don’t give up, don’t give up’.”