The musical theatre star and TV personality says he’s committed to “supporting a theatre that I genuinely believe in.”

Star of stage and (TV) screen, Todd McKenney, may be one of the nation’s most recognisable and celebrated performers, but the award-winning musical theatre leading man and Dancing with the Stars judge says he owes a debt to Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre. “I didn’t really know how to act,” McKenney confesses as we chat, overlooking the waters of Sydney Harbour where the Ensemble Theatre sits, quietly nestled among the leafy suburbia of Milsons Point.

McKenney is referring to his first pure acting job, in Ensemble Theatre’s Helpmann Award-winning 2007 production of Richard Alfieri’s Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks. The play is a beautifully touching but unforgivingly exposed two-hander about tolerance, acceptance and ballroom dancing, in which McKenney starred opposite Australian musical theatre icon Nancye Hayes. “I didn’t really know how to approach a play and how to find the right characterisation, because in musical theatre I kind of knew what the game was and didn’t have to learn,” he says of playing gay dance instructor Michael. “I think [director and former Artistic Director of Ensemble Theatre] Sandra Bates realised when we hit the rehearsal room that I wasn’t a really good actor. One day during rehearsals she said, “Todd, when you act it’s awful.””

(Photo: Hannah Meegan)

Yet thanks to Bates’ insight and guidance, and having the opportunity to develop a strong rapport, both onstage and off, with his co-star Hayes, McKenney’s acting abilities came on in leaps and bounds – a fact reflected in the production’s unparalleled box office success. Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks smashed Ensemble Theatre’s previous records for its most attended show, and still remains, by a significant margin, the highest grossing production in the theatre’s 57 year history. “I owe Sandra so much because now even my musical theatre acting is better,” McKenney shares. “When Nancye and I hit the sweet spot in a scene, when a scene just lands perfectly, it’s thrilling! I’d never experienced that before.”

To give a little back to the theatre company to which he owes so much, McKenney has now become Ensemble Theatre’s newest Patron. In the role he says he’ll use his national profile to champion the work of Australia’s longest continuously running professional theatre group. “I want to be a real loud mouth supporting a theatre that I genuinely believe in,” McKenney says with his characteristic enthusiasm. “It’s so important to remind people that independent theatres, like Ensemble, do truly amazing work.” McKenney joins double Gold Logie-winning actress Georgie Parker as Patron of Ensemble, but in addition to being a figurehead for theatre in 2016, he will also be treading the boards for the company too, reprising his record-breaking performance in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks in February next year, once again starring opposite Hayes.

For Ensemble Theatre’s Artistic Director Mark Kilmurry, the play’s the thing, and the rest of next year’s selection stays true to that vision with a mix of iconic favourites and brand new Australian work. Including the world premiere of Jack of Hearts, by revered playwright David Williamson AO, the Australian premiere of James Graham’s touching romantic comedy about keraunothnetophobes, A History of Falling Things, Kilmurry’s own adaptation of the Tony Davis novel, The Big Dry, and Harold Pinter’s gritty study of love and jealousy, Betrayal, 2016 promises a diverse spectrum of theatrical journeys.

Todd McKenney and Nancye Hayes in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks

Yet beyond its main stage offering, Ensemble Theatre is also an ardent supporter of the next generation of great Australian playwrights and directors, with a programme of creative advocacy that provides a proving ground for emerging theatre artists to hone their skills. In association with the Australian Writer’s Guild and David Williamson, the Ensemble’s New Writing Commission searches out talented storytellers providing an invaluable opportunity to have their work realised on stage, and the newly established Sandra Bates Director’s Award offers two promising dramaturges the chance to assist in directing 2016’s productions.

It’s this legacy of creative altruism at Ensemble Theatre that McKenney wants to trumpet. “It’s such a gift for a new writer to come and experiment in a space that’s a safe environment,” he observes. “Sandra and Mark really care about presenting new Australian plays. They’re not faking it. They’re not just trying to fill a theatre. They really care about talent, and that is so, so important. That’s why it’s such a great fit for me, and why I’m so proud to be the patron.”

Ensemble Theatre’s 2016 season is on sale now.