The Uni Revue has recorded its biggest audience numbers in eight years after a successful season that included a return to Tasmania’s north-west for the first time in over 50 years.
A total of 7,754 people attended this year’s shows, the highest figure since 2018 and roughly 1,000 more than that year’s tally.
Bianca Paine, the show’s marketing manager, said the response was overwhelming, particularly during the four performances in Devonport.
“The locals up there were so thrilled that we brought the show to them,” she told Pulse.
Demand was so strong that organisers added a Wednesday night show to the originally scheduled Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances.
“We had pretty much like 97% attendance in those last three shows,” Paine said.
Even the added show drew more than 350 people to a theatre that seats 407.
The production hadn’t travelled to the north=west since the early 1970s, a fact the team only discovered after audience members corrected them.
“We thought we had confirmed the date as 1958, but then we had a couple of people in the foyer in Devonport tell us that they came and saw us in the ’70s, so we got corrected on our own facts,” Paine said.
Audience feedback was strong across the board, and the cast also raised money for Cancer Council by bucket-shaking in the foyer after each show.
“They were just so thankful to us for bringing it up to Devonport and saving them the drive down to Launie,” Paine said.
Planning for next year’s season is already underway, with theatre bookings confirmed in Devonport for the first week of June, the Albert Hall in Launceston for the last week of May and the Theatre Royal in Hobart.
Next year’s production will be the 80th Uni Revue, a milestone Paine described as “pretty incredible”.
Auditions are expected to take place in early February, with the show opening in May.
Paine said one of the unique aspects of the Uni Revue is its flexibility, with content able to be updated right up until opening night to reflect local events and stories.
“You don’t wanna lock in anything too early because there might be some great event or something that comes out that you can base a show around,” she said.
The revue has been a fixture of the Tasmanian theatre scene every year since it began, delivering a uniquely Tasmanian song and dance comedy show with a strong element of political satire.
