H.R. The Musical goes to Edinburgh!

H.R. The Musical is the runaway hit sketch-comedy set in the workplace that, after a successful tour of selected New Zealand and Australian cities in the two years since it opened, is now set to take on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 

In August, performers Mika Austin, Jessica Robinson and Amy Mansfield (writer/producer) will play 26 nights at the Gilded Balloon's Patter House, one of the top five Fringe venues in the storied city.  

We have an extraordinary team.

The cast is directed by Katie Burson. 

The show is produced by Artsense Productions

Our backing tracks have been recorded and produced by Lizzie Buckton (RIVR Studio)

Video content filmed and edited by Pablo Araus

We want to acknowledge here the many people and organisations who've contributed to this show through the various iterations of the show in 2024, 2025 and 2026. (There's a non-exhaustive list in the "Impact" section below!). We can't take you with us, but we will be thinking of you, and we thank you. 

One of the biggest costs is just getting the three cast members to Edinburgh and housing us for a month.

But there’s also the venue, the lights and mics and sound gear, the technical labour.

We have more than 6,000 tickets to sell, in competition with almost 4,000 other shows, so that means marketing and promotion: posters, flyers, targeted activations, paying a local publicist social media spend, and more. 

Even with good houses across the month (which naturally we are going hard to achieve), the box office income alone won't cover all the costs.

So many of you have been staunch supporters by coming to the show (sometimes multiple times!) in Aotearoa and Australia. (Note, in case any Aucklanders would like to come see the Edinburgh iteration, which is a "best of" the sketches and songs from HR1 and HR2, we're running a fundraiser season at the Herald Theatre in Auckland 14-18 July).

Our Edinburgh venue, The Gilded Balloon, is the perfect place for this kind of satirical musical comedy.  They've hosted the likes of musical comedians Flight of the Conchords and Tim Minchin over the years, and the opportunity to perform H.R. The Musical there to the international gathering of audiences, festival directors, producers, agents, film & TV industry professionals and more is once-in-a-lifetime.

The invitation to take the show to Edinburgh arose out of our successful run at this year's Adelaide Fringe. Around 10,000 people have now seen the show in one of its iterations, with critics celebrating it as "a comic triumph - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐" (Glam Adelaide), "an instantly relatable gem - ⭐⭐⭐⭐" (The List).

It's resonating across borders because of its "cultural commentary" on contemporary work life as well as its biting wit. "What makes H.R. The Musical so powerful isn’t just its humour, but its accuracy - ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (Upside Adelaide). Audiences have said they “felt seen”, that they were now “going to have to quit their job”, and that "it’s like everything you think at work but can't say out loud". (They’ve also told us “the world needs to see this”, which we are taking quite seriously!)

Having got this far without a single grant or sponsorship funding, the time has come for us to look to our community to help us soften the financial risk. We know that times are tough. Anything you can give towards our taking this Kiwi satire to the world is soooo gratefully received. It will enable us to connect with international presenters, festivals, agents and representatives who are in a position to give the show a longevity for years to come. And it will give audiences the specific, close-to-the-bone joy and laughter our NZ and Australian crowds have experienced. 

On Boosted crowdfunding, it's all or nothing. If we don't reach the fundraising goal, we don't get a cent. So we reeeally need to reach this goal to help us reach the other, bigger artistic goal - one which has grown from a seed of an idea four years ago into multiple executions involving many people shared with many audiences, and which now needs to take this particular Edinburgh-bound flight.

Thank you so much!

Amy, Mika and Jessica

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Acknowledgements of collaborators in H.R. The Musical iterations to date:

Performers - Zoe Triggs, Hayley Dallimore, Lizzie Buckton, Kirsten Locke, Kate Saunders, Leith Macfarlane, Amanda Grace Leo, Caitlin Smith, Kirsten Morrell, Catrin Johnsson, and Benjamin Preston 

Support crew - Simon Todd, Anna Groot, Gary Hofman, Joel Wood, Spencer Noonan, John and Janet Mansfield, Janet Austin, Myles Ward and Hugh Robinson

Choreographers - Lara Fischel-Chisholm, Katie Burson, Zoe Triggs, Mika Austin

Costumes - Janet Austin, Mika Austin and Zoe Triggs

AV and artwork design - Lizzie Buckton, Gareth Blackler, Katie Oliver 

Marketing advice and support - Lizzie Buckton

Photography - Michelle McLennan

Set and props design - Tom Lusk

Technical expertise - Zane Allen, Alylai Flynn, Dan Matthew, Louis McKendry, Elissa Webb

Rehearsal venue - Ockham Collective spaces

Venue staff at  - Q Theatre and Auckland Live (Auckland) (including but not limited to Phil Evans, Kate Ward-Smythe, Padma Akula, Melissa Fergusson, Usha Bhana, Todd Waters, Helaina Keeley, Emali Rokoqica, Faith Ashleigh-Wong), Te Auaha (Wellington), Little Andromeda (Christchurch), Crystal Spiegeltent (Taranaki Arts Festival), The Pavilion (Hamilton Arts Festival)

This is a non-exhaustive list, of course. Suffice it to say, many many people have contributed in many and beautiful ways!

This is what Amy's mum Janet calls "the social production of art"! We really hope you can socially produce the H.R. The Musical in Edinburgh via this crowdfunding campaign! xxx