Anatomy of a boardroom breakdown - set to music

Corporate failures rarely begin with a single dramatic act. More often, they emerge through reasonable-sounding excuses, missed warnings and a gradual weakening of judgement. That’s the basis of Bad Company – The Musical, an upcoming Australian stage production written by former Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) deputy chair Lynn Ralph FAICD, former ASIC chair Alan Cameron AO FAICDLife and former ASIC COO Phil Khoury MAICD - who together founded corporate advisory firm Cameron Ralph Khoury.

Ralph admits that the project, which they hope will make its debut next year, is something of a career pivot. “The only way aspiring directors can learn about governance is through books, manuals or courses,” she says. “Would it be a crazy idea to think that people might get the message if they were fed it with a lot of humour and music?”

The world’s first musical theatre production set in the world of boardrooms draws on Ralph’s varied career across funds management, financial regulation and the Sydney Dance Company. 

When compromise becomes culture

 The plot centres on a first-time director trying to prove herself, a hapless chairman, and an ambitious CEO willing to rationalise any operational shortcut to protect their flagship product, setting up a classic boardroom breakdown.

For Ralph, real-world boardroom drift doesn’t feature moustache-twirling antagonists. “Nobody ever says ‘shut up and say yes’,” she notes. "It happens through a gradual language of compromise and making excuses to avoid rocking the boat, such as: ‘He’s been right in the past, so I’ll put my faith in him until he proves otherwise,’ or ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it around here’."

These small acts of self-persuasion are often where boardroom failure begins. “We’re all complex people,” she says. “Put into the right situation, we all compromise. It starts small, becomes normal, and then it gets bigger.”

An old recipe for modern crisis

Ralph anticipates audiences will recognise many all-to-common governance failures brought to life through song and dance. As Bad Company’s eponymous opening number exclaims, it’s “an old recipe, it’s always the same. Ignore the alarm bells, escape all the blame.”

While boards generally stay focused on strategy, a crisis can require a temporary shift into more detailed guidance. “There will be times when you need to get into the weeds, restore your confidence, and then get yourself back out,” she says. The real test, she says, is knowing when to move in, how long to stay there, and when to return to
a broader strategic view.

“What goes wrong in today’s boardrooms went wrong 10, 20, 30 years ago,” she reflects. The recurring pattern raises a tough question: when should a board move from strategic oversight into closer examination of business operations? She points to the AICD’s Improving Board Effectiveness guidance, which stresses that directors need the right information and the flexibility to respond to unexpected challenges

Stripped-back satire

To keep the focus on human relationships, the show avoids grandiose sets, opting instead for a minimalist stage with a board table, chairs and a screen for projections. A narrator guides the audience through corporate and legal complexity, with explanatory songs unpacking concepts such as continuous disclosure and short selling. A cast of eight actors plays 25 roles. 

Ralph reunited with composer Max Lambert AM – her old Sydney Dance Company colleague – alongside Graeme Murphy AO, one of Australia’s most celebrated choreographers, and longtime creative partner Janet Vernon AM, to build a score that bounces between Broadway, tango, hip-hop and Gilbert and Sullivan.

Corporate failure has long proved fertile ground for stage and screen. Lucy Prebble’s Tony Award-nominated play ENRON turned the collapse of an American energy giant into a spectacle of greed and delusion, while films such as The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short found drama in markets and misconduct. Bad Company joins that
tradition from a distinctly Australian boardroom angle, using comedy and song to examine how incremental compromise can become institutional failure.

As the creators prepare for a live showcase later this year, Ralph frames the presentation as a corporate launch. "This is more like our prospectus - our IPO prospectus," she smiles. “We’re a grown-up profession. We can afford to laugh at ourselves and honestly admit where we can still improve.”

The work-in-progress showcase will be held at The Rebel Theatre in Sydney’s Walsh Bay, giving invited audiences an early look at the production on stage. For further details about Bad Company – The Musical, contact Lynn Ralph.