Venue: Hayes Theatre Co (Potts Point NSW), Oct 9 – Nov 8, 2026
Book, Music and Lyrics: Preston Max Allen
Director: Chiara Assetta
Cast: Artemis Alfonzetti, AJ Betts, Brianna Bishop, Pippin Carroll, Chelsea Dawson, Jenny Guigayoma, Anabel Jamieson, Caitlin McCallig, Millie Seeto, Olivia Vásquez
Images by Jessie Jay

Theatre review
A squad of cheerleaders assembles in the basement of their captain’s parents’ home to rehearse for an upcoming competition — only for one member after another to be murdered, sending the team’s meticulously ordered world into chaos. We Are the Tigers, Preston Max Allen’s 2015 musical, rests on a premise as flimsy as its plot, and a score of consummate genericness prevents the show from achieving true satisfaction; yet it emerges as a delightfully silly whodunit, possessed of enough wit and intrigue to hold an audience in its grip from start to finish.

Direction by Chiara Assetta is taut and crisp, with each scene delivered at a lively pace that maintains our engagement. Kimberly Gilbert’s music direction draws out both the rock sensibilities and the kitschier elements of the score, keeping the energy high while reinforcing the show’s comic tone. The likeable cast of ten impresses with uniformly strong vocals, while their distinct portrayals of familiar character archetypes lend the storytelling a welcome sense of vitality. Brianna Bishop is particularly memorable as team captain Riley, bringing extraordinary wit and impeccable comic timing to the role.

Alice Vance’s set design conjures the blandness of suburbia with perhaps more fidelity than is wise, while the large television planted centre stage proves a miscalculation, utilised for a mere few seconds at the show’s opening and closing. Lily Mateljan’s costumes capture their high schoolers faithfully but err on the side of naturalism for a form so dependent on pizzazz. Fortunately, Topaz Marlay-Cole’s lighting supplies ample dynamism, lifting the production’s visual register overall.

There is an inherent paradox at the heart of “We Are the Tigers”. The musical appears intent on satirising the saccharine superficiality of American culture, embodied here by the rituals and hierarchies of high school cheerleading, yet it remains firmly attached to the very conventions of the Broadway musical that seem to epitomise the artificiality it seeks to critique. The result is an entertaining enough murder mystery, but one whose aesthetic choices ultimately undermine the sharpness of its own satirical intentions.

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