Jeanne Pratt AC, the founder and Chairman of The Production Company in Melbourne, announced today that the company will present its final musical in May 2020.

Jeanne Pratt AC (Chairman of The Production Company) with Ken Mackenzie-Forbes AM (Artistic Director) and Rachel D Taylor (Executive Director). Photograph supplied

Founded in 1999, The Production Company was established to present musicals in semi-staged productions. Over the years it has presented popular fare such as Gypsy, Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Funny Girl, Guys and Dolls, and The Boy From Oz, as well as less familiar shows like Music Man, Call Me Madam, Little Me and David Bowie’s Lazarus in May this year. The productions gradually became increasingly sophisticated, though they were turned around on a dime with just two weeks rehearsal and one work of technical rehearsal before opening.

In its 21 years, the company has staged 65 musicals including the Australian premieres of Grey Gardens, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Curtains, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sugar, She Loves Me, Thoroughly Modern Millie, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Lazarus and Ragtime, which opens this November.

“I started the company in 1999 to stimulate the industry, create opportunities...