8th October 2009

Bankrupt stage show Buddy the Musical will be back, but only after the current production's employees have received all their entitlements, the show's producer says.

Insolvency firm SV Partners, appointed to manage the liquidation of the show on September 30, announced on Thursday that the Adelaide run of the musical's national tour had been its last.

The musical, based on the life of 1950s rocker Buddy Holly, had its October season in Perth cancelled last month after a 10-month national run.

Its cast and crew of 33 had already played in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide and were to have gone to New Zealand and the Gold Coast for shows next year.

Producer David White said the production had been forced to wind up, largely because of poor ticket sales brought on by the financial downturn and local natural disasters such as bushfires and floods that had coincided with the shows in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

He said the show had also struck problems in dealing with "external" difficulties, including negotiations with unions.

"We simply couldn't get to Perth because we didn't have the money," he said on Thursday.

"The Regal Theatre were going to buy this show but they just couldn't afford it.

"The cast and crew were prepared to work for two weeks without pay, but it was disallowed by the unions."

SV Partners managing director Paul Sweeney said in a statement that unsecured creditors, owed $1.1 million, were unlikely to see any return.

This included the Australian Taxation Office, which was owed $440,000.

"There is also a secured creditor owed $2 million which is an associated entity," Mr Sweeney said in a statement.

Mr White echoed comments by Mr Sweeney that the priority in liquidation would be to realise assets to cover employee entitlements.

"When we closed the employees were paid all their back wages," he said.

"The only thing outstanding is some superannuation and I'm sure the liquidators will recover that.

"There have been some untruths spread about.

"If anybody tells you the cast or employees are not going to get their money it is absolutely untrue."

"We did everything we could and kept everybody onside."

Mr White said he had personally invested in and lost "a lot of money" in Buddy the Musical.

"It's just a chance you take in theatre musicals in Australia," he said.

But he was confident another theatre company would return with another production.

"I think someone else will come in and pick up the reins," he said.

"... but there are a lot of external factors that make it very difficult for musical theatre production in this country."

An SV Partners spokesman said later that the show's 33 cast and crew were owed a total of $260,000 in wages and $140,000 in superannuation.

They were first in line to receive the proceeds of sales of the show's plant and equipment, and any outstanding amounts would be sought under the federal government's General Employee Entitlements Redundancy Scheme (GEERS), he said.

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