The award-winning Sydney-based independent musical theatre company Squabbalogic is winding up its operations. In a statement released yesterday (Sunday 8 September), founder and Artistic Director Jay James-Moody said:

“If I had ever thought Squabbalogic would still be a thing after 18 years I would have given more thought to the name. Something more memorable, or at least easier to spell.”

Squabbalogic’s final production was an original Australian musical, The Dismissal, staged at the Seymour Centre in 2023. The ambition and scale of the production was “a big ask of a small company”, James-Moody said.

Matthew Whittet in The Dismissal. Photo © David Hooley

“Private investment, philanthropy, sponsorship and good-will carried the production across the finish line, but a distinct lack of Federal, State and Local Government interest – the kind offered to international commercial musicals – left too great a deficit for Squabbalogic to continue any further.”

Founded in 2006, Squabbalogic’s projects have included Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story, A New Brain, Grey Gardens and the Australian premieres of musical including Reefer Madness!, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Carrie the Musical.

Its production of The Drowsy Chaperone received Sydney Theatre Awards for...