Fortunately for Adelaide H.R. The Musical comes to the Fringe for its premiere Australian season following its success at the NZ International Comedy Festival 2024 and its sellout seasons in New Zealand. It is a polished, masterfully funny satirical parody of all things corporate HR and is relatable to anyone who has worked in HR or been a participant (willingly or unwillingly) in the innumerable employee corporate programs of our working lives

H.R. The Musical begins with performers Mika Austin, Amy Mansfield, and Jessica Robinson lampooning recruitment processes by appearing as carnival sideshow heads moving back and forth regurgitating the usual well-worn jargon expected in these situations. Progressing throughout the show, writer, producer and performer Amy Mansfield’s songs and material takes broad aim at employee welfare initiatives, emails, token DEI programs, continuous business restructuring, Dick the CEO, workplace gender issues, and gender pay inequities before culminating with a trip to the near future including a hilarious rap battle with AI.

The songs and skits include the superbly amusing Lay Your Global All-Hands on Me, Have I Told You Lately You’re a C*^#?, Mansplain it to Me and many more. As in all good employee programs, audience participation is required for the “Boundarilessness” song and the finale as well as the audience being required to jangle keys during a skit.

The performers are to be commended as even in the heat of the BankSA Theatre and a technical issue with a microphone on the night of the performance of this review, they delivered a near faultless all singing and dancing performance marvelously bringing to life this world with minimal set and costume design.

Mansfield says “everyone has a work story to tell, and the more absurd the better!” The all-female cast are current and former HR professionals and the substance of the show was sourced from real-life situations. Mansfield further says that “we’ve been told the show is close-to-the-bone, even brutal, I think because that’s what everyone’s living through.”

H.R. The Musical is a comic triumph with its humour recognisable to all who have partaken in corporate culture that it uses as its base material which is performed expertly by the cast making it a highlight of the Fringe.