Zoe Triggs, Mika Austin and Lizzie Buckton perform in last year's season of H.R. The Musical. Its sequel opens in Auckland later this month. Photo / Jinki Cambronero
Actor Mika Austin discusses the original H.R. The Musical sketch comedy, which pokes fun at office and corporate life, and previews its sequel, H.R. The Musical #2: Things Just Got Personnel, opening this month in Auckland.
“Let’s go to the theatre!” said no team ever.
Aspiring doctors prescribe laughter in Med Revue comedy sketches. Future engineers measure humour in decibels at their year-end varsity shows. As a law student, I practised projection, no doubt having designs on future courtroom success, in my university’s Law Revue. (Confusingly, I also worked for the Law Review – a far less entertaining pursuit.)
But what can Generic Office Workers claim as their creative outlet; their comic release? In 2024, the irreverent, cathartic workplace satire, H.R. The Musical was a runaway hit. I felt the buzz from the stage as it struck a deep chord with audiences across the country.
Audiences made up of workers like me – a former HR executive, myself – who noticed the absurdity of office life, and found community and joy, laughing at ourselves, with each other.
Originally conceived as a one-off, sketch-based musical by writer/producer Amy Mansfield, the original H.R. The Musical, which is about to announce its Australian premiere, pokes fun at corporate jargon, email etiquette, and mansplaining bosses through song, dance and sketch.
But, as material continues to pile up in today’s political and workplace climate, we realised the first show merely scratched the surface of corporate nonsense.
So now, as another year of Government cost-cutting and corporate purges draws to a close, I am currently bracing myself for the organised frivolity of the compulsory office Christmas party.
You know the drill: karaoke/mini golf + cheap drinks + Secret Santa tat + highly flammable Look Sharp accessories. (What’s that, you say? Sure, half the team being fired last month was kind of a buzzkill, but don’t worry, you will have forgotten them by mid-January …)
Enter, fresh musical sketch-comedy, H.R. The Musical #2: Things Just Got Personnel. Just in time for the silly season, we’re back with CEO Dick, and his band of generic employees (human resources, if you will) to explore 2025’s corporate culture trends – from pay equity injustices, weaponised engagement surveys and sidelined DEI initiatives, to the very real challenge of leading mass executions, sorry … restructures.
As seemingly endless public sector layoffs and corporate “realignments” leave workers waiting for the hammer to fall, who, I ask you, spares a thought for the bullying firing manager, as explored in the new song I Can’t Make You Resign?
In HR, learning about people’s experiences is a perk of the job. For H.R. The Musical #2, Mansfield has crowd-sourced audience work tales to highlight even more real-life, outrageous stories. Heard the one about the woman who, following a restructure and having just had a hysterectomy, needed to reapply for her own job from her hospital bed? Classic corporate LOLs!
As if the workplace weren’t ripe fodder enough, recently James Nokise, Kiwi comedy stalwart and winner of this year’s 2025 Topp Prize in comedy, laid down a wero to New Zealand comedians in his award acceptance speech. “Politicians in this country are ridiculous. Don’t be afraid to point that out and make material about it.”
So we watch, as senior political leaders channel Marie Antoinette, building gilded boardrooms, flaunting their personal wealth, and claiming rates relief on luxury beach houses.
Meanwhile, furloughed and fired essential workers queue at food banks and strike for scraps in the face of tree-toppling storms. For them, the new show’s bluesy Public Sector Spiritual is a workplace reality, “I work in the public sector / I’m a pretty upstanding dude / But every time the government changes there’s a 50/50 chance I’ll get screwed.”
Wearing my HR hat, I recently reminded a large group of senior business leaders that it was not up to female employees to subsidise their businesses through unequal and unfair pay.
If only the Government felt the same way about historic pay equity claims for our female public sector workers. Perhaps there will be more cut-through on stage in H.R. The Musical #2, where this year’s legislative chicanery and the failings of parliamentary procedure are set to pop music, a la the Pet Shop Boys, in Pay Me Like A Man.
To the apparent irritation of our most senior Ministers, yes, work is very much political. And what of the newest inductee to the team, ChatGPT? As a junior litigator, I learned the job, in part, poring over endless discovery documents and drafting court briefs from scratch. Now, as four generations compete for too-few jobs, AI is barrelling through the employment sector – Coming, ready or not! – while low-level and graduate positions are disestablished, replaced by bots.
While the junior litigator in me would be thrilled at the efficiency, today, the junior litigator in me might also be unemployed. Cue: an epic rap battle between AI and a beleaguered human employee, with the winner picked by the audience on the night. “Will the real live humans please stand up!”
Stand up and be counted with your fellow humans at H.R. The Musical #2, connecting over shared experiences, office nonsense, and a bloody good laugh. Now that’s worth leaving the office for.
Mika Austin is an actor and former corporate lawyer and senior HR executive. She appeared in the original H.R. The Musical, and will reprise the role of CEO in H.R. The Musical #2: Things Just Got Personnel at Q Theatre, Auckland, from November 25 to December 6.
Tickets available at www.qtheatre.co.nz/shows/hr-musical
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