Garry has been responsible for the international success of Tap Dogs and Priscilla Queen of the Desert, The Musical – Australia’s two most successful theatrical exports of all time.
Garry has a degree from Australia’s national theatre school (NIDA) and a rigger’s ticket, a law degree and a pilot’s licence, holds an MBA and is a qualified pyrotechnician. And for the past 20 years he’s developed, produced and managed a variety of groundbreaking and distinguished dance, theatre and comedy productions all over the world.
While still working as a labourer on the blast furnace floor at the Port Kembla steelworks, Garry was one of only fifteen in the country to win a scholarship to study the Technical Production Course at NIDA, Australia’s national theatre school. Some years later, he returned to NIDA to teach, and ended up running the course for ten years.
Garry’s early work was with Melbourne Theatre Company and then as production manager for large-scale musical productions such as Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, The Boy from Oz, and Showboat. Tap Dogs was the show that brought Garry to London. With his business partners in Back Row Productions, Garry oversaw the show’s international expansion; beginning with the 1996 Edinburgh Festival, Tap Dogs has now played 330 cities in 37 countries.
Garry was instrumental in taking Swan Lake from the dance market to major international commercial touring success. He was part of the team that produced the first Australian tour of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, probably the most successful contemporary dance work of recent times having won three Tony Awards and over 30 international theatre awards.
In 2000 Clear Channel acquired Back Row and during that time he developed new shows and new markets for their shows. Five years later, Back Row re-acquired the company from Clear Channel.
Garry has produced and managed international productions ranging from Jerry Seinfeld (in London, Rekyjavik and Stockholm) to Russia’s Slava’s Snowshow, Canada’s Mums the Word to South African Gumboots, China’s Shaolin Monks to Circus Oz in Vienna, the Broadway hit Fosse (in Hamburg, Amsterdam and Paris) to Cats in Portugal, and the Edinburgh Festival launch of Austria’s 100% Sex Therapy.
Garry is a proud ambassador for Australian arts and arts training. He is a past member of the NIDA Board of Directors and current member of the NIDA Foundation Trust, and he of advises the school on the development and implementation of a new post-graduate Creative Producing degree.
With RGM Productions, Garry hopes to continue producing an eclectic and interesting range of live theatre productions for the world stages.