• Chelsea Sheehan-Gaiger’s “Therapy: The Musical” explores grief and trauma through song, based on her experiences.
• The show, featuring Mario Sadra-de Jong, debuted at Dunedin’s Fringe Festival, winning the NZ Fringe Touring Award.
• Performances are on March 5 and 6 at Aubyn Live Theatre in Hastings.

An award-winning Kiwi musical made for people who hate musicals and based on true events is heading to Hastings for two performances in March.

Written and performed by Chelsea Sheehan-Gaiger from Hastings, Therapy: The Musical follows a woman’s reluctant visits to a therapist’s office.

Grief, trauma and the embarrassment of being human are explored through song, and the show is based on Sheehan-Gaiger’s real-life experiences.

But Sheehan-Gaiger said don’t mistake it for a sad story, as it is anything but.

Written as part of her postgraduate programme at Otago University alongside her musical accompanist Mario Sadra-de Jong, Sheehan-Gaiger debuted the show at Dunedin’s Fringe Festival in 2024 where it was nominated for best comedy and best in Fringe and won the New Zealand Fringe Touring Award.

Sheehan-Gaiger remembered coming up with the idea for the musical when Sadra-de Jong was showing her songs from his stand-up comedy material.

“I just remember I was laughing my head off saying these are such relatable songs,” she recalled.

“They were about saying the wrong thing in public and then thinking about it for far too long afterwards, and that sort of thing, and I just thought this is exactly what I would want to have in my show.”

The show consists of Sheehan-Gaiger on stage alongside Sadra-de Jong as accompanist and “dream ghost” in a two-person show of sorts.

Sheehan-Gaiger said singing songs about her own traumatic and personal experiences in a room full of strangers is “empowering and therapeutic”.

“A big part of my studies has been how we navigate trauma on stage safely as actors and for the sake of our audience,” she said.

“My director for this show, Dr Marea Columbo, she also has a PhD in psychology and is a lecturer at the university.

“She has been amazing in helping me work out how to do it safely, so that I’m not reliving trauma and not making my audience uncomfortable and finding those differences between real Chelsea and stage Chelsea.

“But it’s quite fun and it’s also nice because I’ve had some big things happen in my life and it’s lovely to be the one in control of telling my story.”

Sheehan-Gaiger said she is a little nervous about bringing Therapy: The Musical to her home audience, as some of the potential audience members may have influenced parts of the show.

“I’ve tried really hard to word this show in a way that is really respectful and loving of the people that I do talk about, but is also very honest about what it’s like to have these experiences,” she said.

“It’s important as humans that we keep evolving and changing so if people feel challenged by the show, that’s not a bad thing.”

Even though she does not outright name anyone, Sheehan-Gaiger has a feeling the people the songs are about will know that she is singing about them.

“If they go ‘hang on, that’s not how it happened’, it would be like ‘oh, so you’re admitting it happened’,” she laughed.

“I think anyone who’s happy to put their hand up and say ‘that’s me', will be because I speak about them very lovingly.”

Therapy: The Musical will be on for two nightly only on March 5 and 6 at Aubyn Live Theatre.

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region.