There's nothing about business can be learned from theatre... is there?
Some of the sharpest leadership lessons come from a creative team bringing a live production to life. Making the seemingly impossible, possible.
The best example I've seen is STC's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'.
It's Kip Williams' vision adapted from Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel of the same name.
One actor, twenty-six characters, five live camera operators producing a mind blowing amalgam of live performance, live video, costumes and scene changes, non-stop over two hours.
The effect was breathtaking, best summed up by Cassie Tongue's review in the Guardian.
"There is a rare moment that happens in the theatre, and audiences and artists alike chase it their entire lives: the moment when a stage goes dark at the end of a performance, and after a second or two of stunned silence, the audience erupts. Everyone rises for a standing ovation.
Everyone. They clap and clap, and then clapping isn't enough: they whistle, they trample the ground beneath them to applaud with their feet. It is a generous, thrilled, addictive show of thanks for the gift of story."
Would anyone write that about an experience with your business?
The honest answer for most is no. Not because the people aren't capable. Because the business hasn't been built to produce that kind of response.
Organisations don't rise to ambition. They default to design.
Dorian Gray genuinely impossible
The thing about Dorian Gray is that it is genuinely impossible. One missed cue and the whole edifice collapses in front of 800 people. There is no second take. There is no edit. There is only the live performance and the team that holds it together.
Eryn Jean Norvill played the lead in the original Sydney season and the Australian tour. Sarah Snook took the role for the West End in 2024, and won the Olivier. The production transferred to Broadway in 2025 and Snook won the Tony.
But the lead actor never performed that material alone, it was an entire team effort.
Williams directed it. Marg Horwell designed the set and costumes. Nick Schlieper designed the lighting. David Bergman ran the live video. Clemence Williams composed the music.
And when Snook took over for London, Norvill stayed on as dramaturg and creative associate. The original lead became part of the architecture that supported the next one.
Each season had to be rebuilt from cold. Sydney. Adelaide. Melbourne. London. Broadway.
Different cities, different theatres, different audiences, sometimes years apart. Every key person on the team had a part that could have broken the whole.
The production worked because the design held. Across every restart. Across every transfer. Across every change of lead.
Most businesses couldn't mount Dorian Gray.
Four questions worth asking honestly about your business.
Could you cast it?
The people in the key seats, could they actually perform the hardest version of their role, or are they competent in the safe version of it?
Could you direct it?
Is there someone whose job is to see the team from outside the team, and give the feedback that turns competent into extraordinary?
Could you rehearse it?
Or does your team only show up when the curtain is already going up?
Could you trust each other through it?
When something goes wrong, and inevitably something does, would the team cover for each other instinctively, or would they protect themselves first?
The leadership team running businesses that can mount Dorian Gray are rare. They are also the ones that compound results year over year.
The ones that can't aren't badly run. They are running the production they have been designed to run, with the team they have been designed to perform with, at the standard they have been designed to deliver.
Changing the design is the work most CEOs assume they can do themselves.
It's also the work that almost no CEO has done alone.
Until next time,
Rex
[P.S. Follow me on LinkedIn for more leadership insights.]
If you'd like to see if your team is ready for Dorian Gray, try our Leadership Team X-Ray. 21 questions across five dimensions. About 10 minutes. The results is a team diagnostic.