Video: How Margot Robbie Became a Producer on The Big Gay Jamboree

You never know who's going to come to your show. One day, Marla Mindelle received an email with the subject line: "Hey, it’s Margot Robbie." As in Barbie film star and producer Margot Robbie. Barbie was in her inbox. "My sisters were like, 'Don’t open that email, it’s a scam," recalls Mindelle. But she did open it and it was the real Robbie, who had seen Mindelle perform in her show Titanìque: Une Parodie Musicale, and who wrote, "Titanìque is the greatest thing I have ever seen, what else are you working on?”

Fast-forward to now and Robbie is one of the producers of Mindelle's newest show The Big Gay Jamboree, a new musical that she wrote with Jonathan Parks-Ramage and Philip Drennen. In the show, Mindelle plays a failed actor named Stacey who becomes trapped in the fictional town of Bareback, Idaho—which is also a Golden Age musical. And Stacey, "has to utilize her BFA in musical theatre to escape," says Mindelle. Learn more about the show, and its cast, in the video above.

How would they describe the show? "It’s demented chaos, it’s Wizard of Oz on fire island,” says Natalie Walker, who is playing a character that she described as “Marilyn Monroe meets Jerri Blank."

Get a sneak peak of some of the music in the video below.

The Big Gay Jamboree is currently in performances now at the Orpheum Theatre. It will officially open October 1.

The show also stars Alex Moffat as Keith, Paris Nix as Clarence, and Constantine Rousouli as Bert. The ensemble includes Brad Greer, Amanda Lee, Jillian Mueller, Olivia Puckett, Melvin Tunstall, and John Yi, with swings Jaden Dominique, Jeremiah Ginn, Clyde Voce, and Cortney Wolfson rounding out the company. Casting is by Stephen Kopel.

Conor Gallagher is directing and choreographing, leading a creative team that also includes scenic designer dots, costume designer Sarah Cubbage, lighting designer Brian Tovar, sound designer Justin Stasiw, projection designer Aaron Rhyne, hair and wig designer Leah J. Loukas, and makeup designer Katie Gell. David Dabbon is musical supervisor and arranger.

Sue Wagner, John Johnson, and LuckyChap are producing. LuckyChap, a production company founded by Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Josey McNamara, and Sophia Kerr, previously was developing the project with Mindelle for the screen. The Barbie producers announced the project in 2019, though as Parks-Ramage told Playbill, "it died in movie development hell."

Tickets are available at BigGayJamboreeTheMusical.com.