In 1972 I was working on the Australian production of the live musical, Jesus Christ Superstar.
The promoter, Harry M Miller, produced this stage music spectacular and I felt privileged to have been chosen to work as a member of the sound department.
I worked hard with the rest of the sound department, helping to set up and to maintain the sound equipment to the standard of reliability that the show demanded.
The performers, especially Jon English who played the role of Judas and Trevor White who played Jesus, gave their all.
So did all the cast and crew. We often had a full house and the investors soon got a very good return on their huge investment.
The applause during the reprise at the end of each performance was deafening and much louder than the huge sound system.
The cast, crew, band, orchestra, front of house and the management all had the attitude of “The show must go on!”
Several weeks after the opening at the Capitol theatre, the management discovered one staff member only turned up on pay day so they sacked him.
The union called a strike because according to the award, any staff position at the opening must remain for the entire run of the production.
The audience was arriving at the theatre and below the stage, the union rep was speaking to a meeting of the crew, cast and orchestra.
A demand was written up and somebody took it to Harry Miller’s office nearby. He returned to the meeting and said Harry does not accept the demand and he wants to address this meeting.
We voted for Harry to address the meeting.
Harry addressed the meeting and said he could close the show right now.
He said the theatre was dark before he got it restored. It had needed a lot of renovation. For example the reason that one of the taps in the bathroom didn’t work was because there was no pipe behind the wall.
He said we all have work and we can continue to have work if we end this strike.
We voted to end the strike, the show did go on, some minutes later than scheduled, and the audience enjoyed the performance.