By Nick Pilgrim
Checked Out: The Musical is dedicated to anyone – including myself – who has spent their formative years navigating the grind of the employment rat race. If you’ve ever worked long, exhausting hours in low-paying jobs across hospitality or retail, this show is for you. It’s a celebration of resilience, a nod to the chaos, and a love letter to everyone still clocking in while figuring their stuff out.
Highlighting the manipulative frustration experienced in both blue-collar jobs and corporate “slave labour,” a solid number of films and television series have explored this very topic. These include such classics as:
- 9 To 5
- Any Questions For Ben?
- Are You Being Served?
- Clock Watches
- Disclosure
- Horrible Bosses
- Morning Glory
- Norma Rae
- Office Christmas Party
- Office Space
- Party Down
- Superstore
- The Devil Wears Prada
- The Good Girl
- The Intern
- The Internship
- The Office
- The Pajama Game
- The Secret Of My Success
- The Social Network
- Up In The Air
- Utopia
- Working Girl
The list goes on.
Much like the dramatic work Fast Food by Morgan Rose (Red Stitch, 2022), Checked Out: The Musical explores similar themes – but in this instance built with dialogue and musical interludes (made strictly for laughs).
The show offers an episodic snapshot of the daily lives of five employees at the vaguely fictional yet familiar supermarket giant, ”Woles”. Over sixty jam-packed minutes, audiences are invited into a whirlwind of playful banter, heartfelt confessions, and tense exchanges – revealing each character’s personal dreams, simmering frustrations from constant customer abuse, amid the cold indifference of management to their complaints.
Co-written by Josh Connell and Steph Lee – and directed by Lee – the show is led by a fresh ensemble of newcomers: Jackson Cross as Jack, An Dang as Taylor, Anita Mei La Terra as Bridget, Oscar O’Brien as Seth, and Shanu Sobti as Jasmine. Very much designed as an ensemble piece, the cast bounce off one another with genuine chemistry, while still allowing each member ample space to shine.
Connell and Lee tap into their shared experiences, and with Checked Out created for audiences on similar paths, the show lands with a relatable, emotional punch. (It should also be noted that Checked Out’s lighting was designed by Tom Vulcan.)
This loose and economical sketch-comedy is interwoven with a handful of accessible songs featuring titles like:
- Love In Aisle Nine
- Just Me And My Mop
- Keep On Chugging Along
- The Revolution Starts Tonight
- The Party Of The Century
While each musical number made effective use of a prop microphone, wiring the cast for the entire performance may be worth considering in future stagings. Solidarity Hall (inside the Victorian Trades Hall complex) is an intimate space, but even from the back rows, dialogue was sometimes difficult to hear.
Some of the show’s standout moments include:
- Bridget, torn between loyalty to her friends and the desire to climb the corporate ladder.
- Jack, dreaming of one day DJing at the MCG.
- Taylor, whose cheeky, chilled-out apathy is both entertaining and relatable.
- Seth, bringing lanky, goofball charm to every scene.
- Jasmine, whose quirky spirit gradually gives way to quiet disillusionment.
If last Saturday evening’s encouraging crowd response is any indication, Checked Out is a show with serious staying power worthy of inclusion on any forthcoming arts, music or comedy festival calendars. (Now complete, the current season ran for five session from Wednesday October 8 until Sunday October 12.)
