When Carmen Pavlovic co-founded Global Creatures with Gerry Ryan in 2008, she was determined to create new work. The company has had its hits and misses, but as Pavlovic tells Jo Litson, they wouldn’t have been able to produce their red-hot hit Moulin Rouge! without learning from their previous shows, which include the musicals Strictly Ballroom, King Kong and Muriel’s Wedding.

Carmen Pavlovic
Carmen Pavlovic. Photo © Matthew Murphy

In June 2019, Australian producer Carmen Pavlovic, who heads the Sydney-based live entertainment company Global Creatures, had one of the strangest, most intense, roller-coaster weeks of her career.

On June 25, her company announced that King Kong would end its Broadway run in August, less than a year after opening, having failed to recoup its enormous capitalisation costs of around $30 million. The musical – which features...