Producing

Upcoming

Echolocation

A road trip musical in the dark. A teenage love story without a map.

Echolocation is a musical performed in pitch blackness.

Teenage best friends Ethan and Sadie are polar opposites – he’s a street-smart athlete who grew up inches above the poverty line, she’s a blind intellectual who’s sick of her overprotective family. When a DNA test reveals that Ethan’s long-lost father is alive, it’s a chance for him to chase the family he’s never met and for her to escape the parents who never let her go. And so the secret road trip begins.

Blending score and soundscape, Echolocation is a story you hear and feel but never see.

CREATIVE TEAM:

SAM NORMAN (Book/Lyrics)

ELIZA RANDALL (Music)

SAM HOOPER (Director)

ALIE B. GORRIE (Disability Consultant)

MARYANN WRIGHT (Producer and Dramaturg)

R&D supported by Arts Council England in November 2005 for a staged workshop and public work-in-progress performance at Theatre Royal Plymouth, thanks to their artist development support, for a UK premiere in 2026. Winner of the 2025-6 MTI Stiles + Drewe Mentorship Award.

We Interrupt Your Regular Scheduled Programming

New play commission 2024, in final draft stages for 2026 programming

Written by Liam Maguire

Directed by Sam Hooper

Produced by Maryann Wright

In Development

Second Coming (formerly known as Dreamsong)

Two-act commercial musical musical satire about an evangelical megachurch that stage the second coming of Christ and market him as a Christian pop star. Meanwhile, the actual second coming of Christ occurs.

Book & Lyrics by Hugo Chiarella; Music by Robert Tripolino
Directed by Sam Hooper
Produced by Maryann Wright

First workshop – September 2024, London, supported by Kindred Partners.

Second workshop – November 2024, London, supported by Kindred Partners.

First table read industry sharing – June 2025, London, supported by House of Oz.

JACK

A new spoken word musical by Lauryn Redding based on the life and loves of Anne Lister, aka Gentleman Jack; England’s OG lesbian lothario, told through the eyes and hearts of the five pivotal women in her life and their unrelenting love for the gender queer Yorkshire diarist. 

JACK places female-identifying queer narratives front and centre in the musical cannon. Normally – if you’re lucky – you get one lesbian storyline in a musical, perhaps once a decade. This time, how about five all in one show?

JACK deep dives into the lives and loves of Anne Lister. Having written a diary in “impossible” code every day of her life, Anne thought no one would ever know her many secrets, affairs and dalliances with the fairer sex. But after her sudden early death in Russia, the diaries were left. Her wife buried them in the walls of their home, hoping to keep her secrets safe forever. But 50 years later, they were found and the code was cracked, unveiling everything untold and the women the world was never meant to know about. JACK tells their story.

Cast size – 5 female identifying performers, Band size – 3, Running time 1.5 hours no interval.

Book, Music and Lyrics by Lauryn Redding

Directed by Sarah Frankcom

Produced by Maryann Wright

First draft currently being completed, for a winter 2025 first table read. Currently looking for early stage funding and venue support for a workshop development.

The Hatpin (revival)

80 minute chamber musical for seven female-identifying people.

Music by Peter Rutherford; Book & Lyrics by James Millar
Revival dramaturgically developed by Grace Taylor and Maryann Wright
Directed by Grace Taylor
Produced by Maryann Wright

First workshop – July 2023 – Royal Academy of Music

Second workshop – Arts Council England funded – November 2024 – Australia House

The Hatpin is based on the true story of homeless single mother, Amber Murray, who in 1890s pre-federated Australia advertised her baby in a newspaper trading column in the hope of saving his life. The Makin family take the child in return for regular support payments, but as the story progresses we learn that the Makins are preying on vulnerable women with their own version of survival. The Hatpin is a gripping exploration of how society has and continues to punish women for being poor and pregnant. The Makin v Murray case was one of the most moving criminal trials in early Australian history, which led to the country’s first fostering laws. Its harrowing narrative speaks to the ongoing need to protect the welfare of single mothers and their children.

Paper Stars

Everyone knows her as the woman who created Mary Poppins, but who was P.L. Travers before she became famous? Inspired by real events (yet told with a healthy spoonful of imagination), Paper Stars follows the Queensland-born Lyndon Goff as she sets sail from the docks of Sydney Harbour in 1924, with dreams of becoming a great writer in London. Faced with misogyny and mocked for her ‘Australianness’, she is forced to reinvent herself as P.L. Travers to be taken seriously as an author. As Pamela fights to get her novel Mary Poppins published, she must also reckon with her blossoming love for a female friend and the unexpected arrival of her mother… But can Pamela ever love real people as much as her characters?

With a whimsical and darkly comedic book by Grace Chapple (Never Closer) and Miranda Middleton (Pear-Shaped), and a refreshingly contemporary score by Luke Byrne (Between the Sea and Sky), Paper Stars is a new Australian musical about finding magic in the everyday. Maryann Wright co-producing with Tom Oliver.

Australia writer’s development – June 2024

Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium of Music – November 2024

Currently seeking support for a London development.

Good Omens (on hold due to Gaiman allegations)

In the pantheon of pop-culture apocalypses, one has stood out for over 30 years as the most fun: GOOD OMENS. 

From a best-selling international novel to a hit Amazon television series, GOOD OMENS is a high-concept comedic fantasy full of heart, humour, and magic.

With the blessing of co-authors Neil Gaiman and the late Sir Terry Pratchett, the Australian team of Vicki Larnach, Jim Hare, and Jay James-Moody has adapted this beloved novel into a fast-paced and hilarious musical comedy unique to this genre.

Maryann Wright is working as the development producer of this new brilliant commercial musical to find a home in Australia for the show’s first major production, before setting sights on an international transfer.

Australia Musical Development Fund

Maryann is building a $1 million development fund to nurture and workshop new Australian musicals, and offer them pathways to development in Australia and internationally.

Maryann is meeting with Arts and business leaders across Australia, the UK and the US to examine best-practice sustainability models within the entertainment industry to create a self-sustaining fund not reliant on prolonged government investment.

Please reach out if this initiative is of interest. It’s a long-term project that Maryann will helm as artistic director in coalition with a conglomerate of arts institutions, and she is looking to build partnerships with individuals, businesses and governments to foster this ambitious project.

Previous Productions

Australia-UK Cultural Showcase

Concert performance by the Australian stars of the West End singing the best of Australian musical theatre, for an audience of UK and Australian investors and expats.

May 2024, Australia High Commission’s Australia House, London.

Produced by Maryann Wright and Grace Taylor for Taylor Wright Productions

Musical director: Ben van Tienen

Cast: Jeremy Secomb, Baylie Carson, Robert Tripolino, Naarah, Phoebe Paneretos, Cazeleon, Monique Salle, Belinda Wollaston, Jordan Stamatiadis, Josie Lane, Sam Hooper, Chris Fung, Jessica Condon, Ash Rousettey, Taryn Ryan, Alex Gibson-Giorgio, Maryann Wright.

Ushers: The Front of House Musical (co-producer with James Steel)

The Other Palace, London

12 April – 19 May 2024

Following sold-out runs at the West End’s Arts Theatre and the Charing Cross Theatre, a 10th anniversary production of Ushers: The Front of House Musical played at London’s The Other Palace. 

Set in a West End theatre, USHERS: The Front of House Musical follows a working shift in the lives of the stagiest people in the theatre – the front of house staff – who portray the hilarious, ridiculous and moving stories of ice-cream and programme sellers who dare to dream. A preview performance of a new jukebox musical is due to take place, a three-year workplace romance is on the rocks, an untrained newbie is working her first shift and the amorous manager is under pressure to cut costs. What could possibly go wrong? 

Music and lyrics by Yiannis Koutsakos, lyrics by James Oban, and a book by James Rottger

Directed by Max Reynolds

Cast: Olivier-Nominated Cleve September (Hamilton; Little Big Things), Danielle Rose (SIX), Luke Bayer (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie), Christopher Foley (Mamma Mia), Daniel Page (Billy Elliot) and Bethany Amber Perrins (Something Rotten). 

Death Suits You (co-producer with Sam Hooper)

We all feel underappreciated at work, and Death is no exception. Death (personified) puts a lot of work into the way we die, and never gets the credit he deserves. Across an hour, Death takes us through the artistry involved in ensuring that each and every one of us meets our maker. This musical black-comedy shows the lighter side of the inevitable. 

Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2023

Book and lyrics by Sam Hooper

Music by Robert Tripolino

Directed by Gabrielle Scawthorn

Performed by Sam Hooper

Winner of the Spirit of the Fringe Award; and 2023 Playbill Fringe Pick

Aussies Up Over – Australian Musical Theatre Cabaret

Supporting Australian performers in London as we come out of the pandemic and back onto our West End stages, singing songs from classic and new Australian musicals.

Phoenix Arts Club, London – 8 May 2022

Director: Grace Taylor

Musical Director: Luke Byrne

Producer: Maryann Wright

WITS Festival Fatale

Darlinghurst Theatre Company, 2016

An all-female theatre festival in Sydney, Australia organised by Women in Theatre and Screen (WITS) in partnership with the Darlinghurst Theatre Company and the Eternity Playhouse to celebrate the work of Australian women. It launched in 2016 as part of WITS’ larger work advocating for gender representation on stage and included readings and staged plays. The inaugural festival drew more than one hundred submissions, all written by women with female protagonists, which were narrowed down to twenty programs during the festival. The inaugural program featured six staged productions, four play readings and 10 cabaret acts.

Produced by the WITS committee Lizzie Schebesta, Maryann Wright, Erica Lovell, Matilda Ridgeway, Michela Carattini, Ildiko Susany, Libby Munro, Julia Newbould.  

SL*T, Edgeware Forum

Lolita is a slut. So named, so celebrated, until one day she isn’t. The voice of the patriarchy seeps in, it bubbles up, ingested, internalised. SLUT plays in the grey area of sexual empowerment and dangerous sexualisation. This is a space peopled entirely by young women; Lolita and her girl gang.

In SLUT girls evolve before our eyes; their personalities are in the crucible of adolescence, their potential is unlimited. This is the story of women growing into their bodies, owning their bodies and their bodies being owned by others.

Season: Eternity Playhouse 2016, Old Fitz Theatre 2016

Nominated for Best Ensemble at 2016 Sydney Theatre Awards

5 stars – Time Out Sydney; 4.5 stars – ArtsHub; “A must see” – Stage Noise

Written by Patricia Cornelius

Directed by Erin Taylor

Performed by Julia Dray, Bobbie-Jean Henning, Jessica Keogh, Danielle Stamoulos, Maryann Wright.

Eight, Edgeware Forum

What happens to a named-and-shamed Generation Y? You’re invited to meet these 20-something-year-olds; to witness their electric triumphs, their crushing failures, their bittersweet redemption, their confronting truths and the unexpected glimmers of faith amongst a landscape of wholesale cynicism and drastic financial recession.

BUT, THERE’S A CATCH. We live in an age of hyper choice. Every night the audience will live vote for the 5 characters they want to see. This means that the show is different every night. As different and as opinionated as its audience…

Season: Sydney Fringe Festival 2015

Written by Ella Hickson

Directed by Anna Houston

Performed by Alastair James, Andre de Vanny, Bobbie Jean-Henning, Danielle Stamoulos, David Bruce, Jane Watt, Maryann Wright and Nicholas Starte.