A Very Naughty Christmas - Alex Woodward
Christmas is a time to celebrate family. As we all get older though we realise that family comes in 2 forms, the family we are born into & the family that we chose. For musical theatre creator Alex Woodward this realisation spurred him to create the adults-only Christmas comedy show, A Very Naughty Christmas.
Alex describes A Very Naughty Christmas to Pario as a "silly, irreverent mixture of comedy, dancing, singing, parody that is like Carols In The Domain, meets Rocky Horror Picture Show, meets Magic Mike."
As we mentioned the spark that led Alex to create this show was the desire to celebrate Christmas in a unique way with his closest friends. Growing up in Brisbane & developing a passion for musical theatre as a teen Alex thought that would be the ideal option. However, upon completing his art studies Alex realised there weren't many entry-level theatres in Brisbane. There were even fewer doing Christmas shows that weren't targeted only towards kids or families.
"Every year my group of friends would have a 'friends Christmas' where we'd all get together & do a dodgy secret Santa. There was something really fun & special about that, so as a person who loves theatre I wished there was a theatre show that I could go to with that family. What I found when I looked for something though was that there wasn't really anything that wasn't aimed at kids or religious in some ways. I wanted to see a show that I could go to with a few mates, have a few gins, have a laugh & just have a great night out."
Rather than complain about it though Alex fell back on his roots in music & bands, hustling to get booked. Thus A Very Naughty Christmas was born.
"After graduation people in Brisbane would often have to move to Sydney or Melbourne to find an entry-level job in the arts," explained Alex. "People would complain about it but I said 'why don't we do something' & it kind of started just like that. I found a small theatre, booked it & got together a small group of my colleagues from university to start putting on shows. From there it was like a tumbleweed that just grew & grew & grew."
In the 6 years since then Alex & his company, Woodward Productions, have done a whopping 17 professional productions. The most successful of which has been A Very Naughty Christmas.
A Very Naughty Christmas has been so successful in fact that this year the show will make its way to Sydney's Riverside Theatre for 3 nights. A development that Alex is incredibly proud of & excited for.
"It seems like a lifetime that we've been waiting to do this," beamed Alex before continuing. "We were meant to tour the show down the east coast in 2020, but obviously that didn't happen. So this has been the first opportunity that we've had to get out of Brisbane... It's just taken forever but we've been so ready for years."
That's not the end of their journey though. Alex has even loftier dreams for 2023.
"An east coast tour is the plan for next year," said Alex. "We're also hoping to take the show to London next year as well. That will involve us having multiple casts doing the same show in different places, so that will be an interesting challenge in itself. We've been working towards that & putting the pieces in place for a long time to be able to just that though."
Over the years Alex & his team have learnt a lot. This learning process has seen the show being constantly refined so that it's now a powerhouse that can take over the world.
"When we first did the show we had no idea what we were doing," recalled Alex. "We knew what we wanted & we learnt very quickly what worked & what didn't... Over the years it's taken us a lot of time to figure out what is most important & now we know that thing is comedy. You've got to have good, natural comedic timing because if everything else goes array if the show is funny it doesn't matter because people are having a laugh & a good time."
Dec 21-23. Riverside Theatre, Tickets & Info: www.averynaughtychristmas.com
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