Actor who became accidental producer

TIM Lawson's success as a theatre impresario is helping him to buy a flying car.

Tim Lawson

TIM Lawson, producer of the Australian revival production of A Chorus Line, was upset yesterday to learn of the death of its creator, Marvin Hamlisch.

"His talent touched so many hearts," Lawson said. "Including mine."

In the spirit of "the show must go on", the producer was busy arranging flowers for Hamlisch's family and appropriate tributes for yesterday's performance while finalising preparations for today's cast announcement for his latest show, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which opens in Sydney in November before touring nationally.

The Scottish-born, Perth-reared graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts has not had a big presence to date as a musical theatre impresario on the nation's main stages. He is best known for the summer circuses he stages at the Sydney Opera House. That relative anonymity about to change.

In December, Lawson opened A Chorus Line in Adelaide, where across five weeks it grew into one of the year's sleeper hits. After playing to 80 per cent full houses it transferred to Melbourne, where demand resulted in the five-week season at Her Majesty's being extended by a week.

The Melbourne season ended up grossing $5 million. Now in Sydney, a larger theatre has resulted in even stronger returns of $1m a week. On Monday, with seasons still to come in Brisbane and Perth, A Chorus Line received six Helpmann nominations.

Now Lawson is considering taking the show to London.

British Equity laws would prevent the Australian cast touring with A Chorus Line, although he says they would be welcome to audition. "We'd probably just take the eight mirrors, the costumes and add water," he says, acknowledging that one of the charms of A Chorus Line is the simplicity of its set and costumes that allow the performers to shine.

Lawson bankrolls his own shows rather than bringing in financiers. The success of A Chorus Line has enabled him to take an even bigger gamble on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which at $5m is costing him double what the present show is setting him back.

Lawson has bought costumes, by designer Anthony Ward, and the set, with its flying car, from the 2002-05 production in Britain, which had audiences agape at the London Palladium. The show still holds the record for that venue's longest running musical. "Fourteen containers are leaving London next week," Lawson says.

Australian productions often have new sets and costumes created for them at about the same cost of buying shows and shipping them here. Lawson says he was unwilling to attempt to re-create the flying car. Having committed to the car he thought he might as well buy the whole package.

Provided Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is creatively successful -- Roger Hodgman is director and Peter Casey musical director -- it will have every chance of commercial success, with two major markets primed for family musicals. In Sydney it will compete against Legally Blonde while in Melbourne it will follow the popular success of Annie to compete for ticket sales with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, War Horse and a return season of Jersey Boys.

Elsewhere in Australia the market for musicals is quiet.

For a man who describes himself as an accidental producer, the scale of Lawson's enterprise belies any hint of accidental success.

In addition to A Chorus Line and preparations for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Lawson is also juggling the light family entertainment that he credits for funding his foray into the bigger musicals. The Illusionists is his latest show.

It began last summer at the Sydney Opera House and this week completed a season of 13 arena shows in Mexico, where it played to 10,000 people a performance.

The circus-style event consists of a 40-person company, including seven headline acts, and has caught the eye of the William Morris Agency, which has offered Lawson a deal to take over management of it.

When he was a child growing up in Scotland, Lawson thought he was always going to be a performer. After his family relocated to Australia, he went through WAAPA with Lisa McCune and nabbed a few roles in big shows, mostly in the chorus and as an understudy. He appeared in a production of Grease for producer John Frost in Chiang Mai, Thailand. For Jon Nicholls he toured in Me and My Girl. In the 1991 production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying he was the understudy to Tom Burlinson in the lead.

Then, when he found himself climbing up and down ladders as a member of the ensemble in Phantom of the Opera, he decided to jettison his pursuit of the limelight.

"I thought: this really wasn't my dream," he says with a laugh. "I felt a little bit stifled (as a performer). My friends told me I always wanted to be a producer."