Walking The Age through the Comedy Theatre’s back of house area, the Marriners point out all the areas which need updating. They highlight the steep ramp for loading sets which they want to replace with a lift, the cramped rabbit warren of dressing rooms and the timber batons from which lighting hangs.
The Marriners at the side of the Comedy Theatre. The siblings want to redevelop to improve the back of house.Credit: Simon Schluter
The theatre’s stage is only eight metres deep, which makes it one of the shallowest stages in the country. The redevelopment would extend the stage by two metres.
“The back of house is completely wheelchair inaccessible,” Kayley Marriner says. “There’s lots of shows that we actually can’t do any more.”
She says the Comedy Theatre missed out on staging The Picture of Dorian Gray “purely because the company would not stay in this space”.
Despite these limitations, Jason Marriner looks around with pride as he stands inside the theatre’s auditorium.
“You can hear the resonance [in old auditoriums], they’re beautiful, warm, they vibrate and there’s a real energy in the old auditoriums. They haven’t got better,” he says. “The challenge you have in the old theatres though is compliance.”
An artist’s impression of the proposed Comedy Theatre redevelopment with a tower behind the theatre.
The Marriners want the Comedy Theatre, built in 1928, to survive another 100 years.
Jason Marriner says in the years since the theatre was built, the occupational health and safety environment for people working in any building has changed, and so the Marriner Group has to try to find ways to upgrade the theatre’s back of house.
He says given the need to restore the theatre, LaSalle’s development plans were “almost like a gift from God”.
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“They are keen to look at opportunities to add value to their site, but at the same time, very amenable to working with us to be able to create an improved theatre outcome as well,” he said.
He is frustrated at the time it has taken to get the redevelopment through the planning process which still requires the approval of Heritage Victoria and Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny.
“It’s been an incredibly long journey,” Jason Marriner says. “Frankly, the frustration is that you could put up 100-storey tower in Docklands, which doesn’t add a lot of civic value to anyone other than being a big project, probably in under three years whereas something like this takes six. It takes an enormous amount of patience.”
At Marriner-owned Forum Melbourne on Flinders Street, the self-funded restoration of the crumbling facade is taking place “brick by brick, stone by stone”. But Jason Marriner says a different approach is needed for the major renovation required at the Comedy Theatre.
“We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved, but we can’t be naive,” he says. “It costs a lot of money, and we need to be very clever about the way in which we continue to invest in the buildings.”
An artist’s impression of what could be the interior of the redevelopment.
Despite their plans, the Marriners are adamant that they are theatre owners and operators, not developers. During the 2024 mayoral election campaign, Reece promised not to accept donations from property developers.
“Nick [Reece] said at the time, he actually clarified, which is the irony, whether or not there was any development because he wasn’t accepting money from developers,” Jason Marriner says. “I said, ‘Nick, the company is, we haven’t developed anything. We’re not developers, we’re theatre operators’.”
Victoria has not banned developer donations, which has created an environment which integrity experts say allows perceptions of conflict reduces public trust in local government. There is no suggestion such conflicts have not been managed properly by City of Melbourne councillors.
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Reece raised $950,484 for his election campaign from a who’s who of Melbourne, including wealthy business people, trade unions and people who own large amounts of property in the City of Melbourne, some of whom are planning or considering developments.
When asked about the Marriner Group’s donation and the proposed Comedy Theatre redevelopment by The Age last year, Reece said: “My understanding is that development is not proceeding.”
In addition to the Reece donation, the Marriner Group gave $25,000 to Arron Wood and $10,000 to Jamal Hakim, who failed in their bids to become the city’s lord mayor.
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“It’s just making an investment in people that you believes’ heart is in the right place and are running for public office for the right reasons,” Jason Marriner tells The Age.
While he regrets the donation to Reece’s campaign, Marriner says he was once told “you can’t be disinterested” in local politics.
“Whether or not it’s right or wrong, the current system requires candidates to raise money,” he says. “Running for public office is hard enough, and it’s not like there’s a cash bonanza waiting for you if you’re elected, you need to raise money.”
Reece and the City of Melbourne were contacted for comment.
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