“Why the Heck Don't We Do It Ourselves?"

Lucy Boniface on long car journeys, the shows nobody else would produce, and bringing RENT to Yeadon Town Hall.

There's a particular kind of frustration that builds when you keep watching the shows you love not get made. For Lucy Boniface, that frustration had been quietly accumulating for years. An actor and singer since the age of ten, she had spent almost a decade on committees for local theatre companies, throwing herself into productions she believed in. But the shows she and her husband Adam - a musical director - really wanted to produce? They kept not happening. Too niche. Too small a cast. Too risky a topic. All perfectly valid reasons, when you're running a charity or a community theatre company.

It took one long car journey to change everything.

Now, Lucy and Adam are two shows into their new company, That's The Badger Productions - and just weeks away from opening RENT at Yeadon Town Hall.

Paula Boyle sat down with Lucy to talk about taking the leap, the reality of producing your first big musical, and why waking up the morning after a show still thinking about it is exactly the point.

You've been involved in local theatre for years, mainly on the committee side. What finally made you take the leap into producing yourselves?

Adam is a musical director, so we've always had that skill set there. And we'd been talking for such a long time about shows we loved that, for various legitimate reasons, bigger local companies just weren't going to produce - shows with smaller casts, lesser-known titles, topics that might not shift enough tickets for a charity-run organisation. Rather than sitting around waiting for somebody else to do them, we just kept thinking: why the heck don't we do it ourselves?

The thing is, we talked about it for years. And then one day we were on a long car journey and we just looked at each other and said - why do we keep talking about this and not doing it? What have we got to lose? That was the moment.

And what were your first steps?

We went straight for Jesus Christ Superstar - applied for the rights before we'd even officially set up a company, under Adam's existing music company name. It came back as a no, because another local company was already producing it in 2026. We were gutted. But it pushed us to actually register as a limited company, get ourselves set up properly - and then we applied for RENT. Which was accepted.

The other thing we quickly learned: get your venue before you get your rights. Rick Hyland told us that finding a venue would be the hardest thing we'd do, and honestly, I didn't believe him for a second. There are loads of venues around here, I thought. But they get booked up incredibly fast, especially when you need them for a full week.

Why RENT specifically?

Three reasons. We wanted a show that would play to Adam's strengths - music-led, harmonically rich, sung through. RENT delivers on that in spades. We also wanted something not frequently produced around here. It hasn't been done locally for around ten years. And then there's the story. A lot of musicals have brilliant music but a fairly ropy storyline. The drama matters to us - I have a drama background first and foremost - and RENT has both. It tells a story that still feels urgent and relevant today. All three boxes ticked.

"Rather than sitting around waiting for somebody else to do them, we just thought: why the heck don't we do it ourselves?"

Were you tempted to be in it?

Oh, absolutely. I want to be in everything. But I don't often make sensible decisions, and this was one of the rare times I did. I've been on enough committees to understand the sheer scale of what goes into producing a big musical. Trying to perform in it as well, in a large venue, on our very first big production? That would have been madness.

Rick said to me recently, "Lucy, you do realise you're doing the job of an entire committee, single-handedly." He chose to say this when I was a bit stressed. He has wonderful timing. I won't be sitting out of future That's The Badger shows. This one was the sensible exception.

What's kept you awake at night?

Two things. The set - because it's the one area where I feel least in control and have the fewest connections. We've got an incredible guy, Andy Grace, who has designed and built our RENT set essentially solo. I trust him completely. But it's a lot to ask of one person, and if anything went wrong, I'd genuinely not know where to turn. So that sits in the back of my mind.

And ticket sales. Which I know is universal. People don't plan ahead. They know they'll see some theatre in a few weeks, but they won't pick a night until the last minute - not because they don't want to go, but because they want the flexibility. I completely understand that. I do exactly the same thing myself. But when it's your own money on the line, that's when it starts to feel very different.

What's been your greatest joy so far?

Watching RENT come together. I'll be honest - I was a little worried going in that I'd find it frustrating not being on stage, that I wouldn't get the same buzz from the outside. But that hasn't been the case at all. Watching people grow through the rehearsal process, seeing how far they've come, the commitment they've brought - there have been genuinely moving moments in that rehearsal room.

And our first show, Teechers at Ilkley Playhouse in June - that was an enormous moment. Three actors, a much smaller scale, but physically the most demanding thing I think I've ever done. Harder than a musical, if you can believe it. And we pulled it off. That felt extraordinary.

Why is the company called That's The Badger?

Adam has a saying - well, there's some debate in our household about who actually invented it, but we'll leave that there - "that's the badger." It means: that's it. That's exactly right. On the nail. He uses it in rehearsals when the altos finally nail their harmony line after months of trying.

That's what we want people to feel when they leave one of our shows. Not just that it was a good night out, but that it was exactly what they were looking for. That they wake up the next morning still thinking about it - because the story resonated, because it said something that still matters today. Teechers surprised a lot of people in exactly that way. It was written in the eighties, about the education system of that era - but so much of it is still happening now. That kind of relevance is what we're after.

"We want people to wake up the next morning still thinking about what they've seen. That's the type of show we want to do."

And RENT feels like it belongs in that same category?

Completely. Jonathan Larson, who wrote the music and lyrics for RENT, died just hours before it first premiered on Broadway. There's something really important, I think, about the fact that it hasn't been significantly altered since - that it is what he made it. It's not a perfect musical. It's complicated and messy and occasionally problematic. But it's his story, told his way, and there's something wonderful about that being preserved.

If budget and ambition were no object - what's the dream?

Next to Normal. Without question. I found it years ago on one of those old downloading platforms - Limewire, or something similar - probably entirely illegally, I'll be honest. It took about 45 minutes to download a five-minute track. But from the moment I heard it, I was hooked. Adam was too, the moment I played it to him. It's a story that stays with you. We'll do it one day.

When do you think you'll actually relax?

I'm hoping: halfway through the first act of the first performance. In reality: probably Thursday night, once we've got a couple of shows under our belts and I can feel the energy in the room. Yeadon Town Hall is a stunning venue - when it's got a full audience in it, it's something really special. That's what I'm holding on to.

You can get tickets to RENT here.

Rise & Howl Collective is a Leeds-based theatre production company founded by actors Kate Maddison-Greenwell and Paula Boyle. Our next production is Trappings that we are taking to the Edinburgh Fringe. Previews at Ilkley Playhouse on 27 & 28 November 2026.

Tickets for all shows here.