Actor.
Writer.
Director.
Producer.
Award-winning multi-disciplinary creative artist.
PROJECTS PRESENT & PAST
%20(3).png)
The Day of
the Triffids
Caught
Out
Good
Omens
The
Dismissal
Squabbalogic
Independent Music Theatre
Coming
Soon
A DRY PROSE HISTORY
Jay James-Moody, he wrote humbly in the third-person, is an award-winning actor, director, writer, and producer. He was an original founder of Sydney's prestigious Hayes Theatre Co and from 2006 - 2023 he was the creator and Artistic Director of acclaimed boutique company Squabbalogic - one of Australia’s premier producers of intimate musical theatre. Squabbalogic provided a stage for Australia’s finest emerging and established artists to present exciting and dynamic lesser-seen or reimagined music theatre works.
Squabbalogic filled a void by connecting with challenging work and writers in musical theatre often neglected by mainstream companies and sharing it with an audience eager to experience an alternative to large-scale spectacles. Jay's pioneering work with Squabbalogic led to his later establishing of Hayes Theatre Co with like-minded theatre makers, which in turn directly resulted in the last decade of exciting new independent music theatre in Sydney.
Jay was the recipient of a 2022 Mike Walsh Fellowship for producing, the 2024 Australian Writer's Guild Award for Music Theatre, and the 2024 David Williamson Prize.
Jay has collaborated on theatrical works with such diverse organisations as NIDA, WAAPA, AIM, Kings Cross Theatre, Opera Australia, Merrigong Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, New Mardi Gras, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, the Seymour Centre, Sydney Opera House, Noosa Long Weekend, Royal Caribbean Cruises, City of Sydney, New Musicals Australia, the Sydney Fringe Festival, and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.
Jay made his professional debut in Jerry Springer The Opera for the Sydney Opera House.
He conceived, co-wrote, directed and produced the world premiere musical The Dismissal for which he was awarded the AWGIE Award for Writing in Musical Theatre and the prestigious David Williamson Prize; and directed The Golden Age of Broadway for Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and the Sydney Opera House’s 50th Anniversary celebrations.
Jay wrote Straight From The Hart, a solo work for Blake Bowden; The Day of the Triffids, adapted for the stage from John Wyndham’s novel; co-wrote the book of a musical adaptation of the best-selling fantasy Good Omens (with Vicki Larnach and Jim Hare); and co-wrote Caught Out, an original musical satire based on the Australian cricket team cheating scandal, co-written with Xavier Coy and Lloyd Allison-Young. He also revised and adapted Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane’s On A Clear Day You Can See Forever. Jay is presently working on several new written works for stage and screen.
Key credits include Squabbalogic’s On A Clear Day You Can See Forever; Ensemble’s A Christmas Carol; his sell-out, one-man tour-de-force musical Herringbone; Hayes Theatre Co’s She Loves Me; West Side Story for Opera Australia’s Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour; and was the first Australian Elder Cunningham in the original Melbourne cast of The Book of Mormon.
Additional performance credits include Enron and God (Mill Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night and Romeo & Juliet (Sport for Jove); A Midsummer Nights Dream and A Cheery Soul (STC); Nine, Of Thee I Sing, Man Of La Mancha, Bye Bye Birdie, The Drowsy Chaperone, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Ordinary Days, A New Brain, [title of show] and Reefer Madness (Squabbalogic); A Year With Frog and Toad (Ensemble); and Fighting and The Venetian Twins (New Theatre).
Directing credits include On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, Nine, Herringbone (with Michael Ralph), Straight From The Hart, Bring It On, The Original Grease, Grey Gardens, Hello, Dolly! (with Dean Vince), Triassic Parq, Man Of La Mancha, Bye Bye Birdie, Sondheim on Sondheim, The Drowsy Chaperone, Carrie, [title of show] (with Daniel Jacobs), Thrill Me, Forbidden Broadway, Reefer Madness, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, and Tick… Tick… BOOM!
Works produced and directed by Jay through Squabbalogic have amassed over 40 excellence award nominations, winning a few.
Jay received Sydney Theatre Awards for:
Both Director and Actor in The Drowsy Chaperone;
Nominations for Actor and Co-Director for Herringbone,
Supporting Actor for She Loves Me, Director for Man of La Mancha;
Best Musical nominations for his productions of Carrie,
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Drowsy Chaperone,
and Herringbone.
Jay was awarded GLUG awards for Man of La Mancha and She Loves Me.
SNAPS OF ME & MY STUFF
NICE THINGS
PEOPLE HAVE SAID...
FIGHTING
(New Theatre)
[JJM]’s virtuosity as a performer brings all the confusion, despair, hope and humour of the character to life. - Theatre Now
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
(Sport For Jove)
Witty, sweet and endearing with electric chemistry that draws laughter and warmth. - Theatre Thoughts
THE DISMISSAL
(Squabbalogic)
Filled with plenty of comedy and nerve to confirm it as one of the best original Australian musicals of the decade. - State of the Art Media
THE DISMISSAL
(Squabbalogic)
As far as Australian musicals go it doesn’t get any better than this. - Sydney Theatre Reviews
HERRINGBONE
(Squabbalogic)
[JJM]'s performance is an amazing feat... - Broadway World
HERRINGBONE
(Squabbalogic)
[JJM] is everyone except the band. And he is brilliant...It requires a particular set of performance muscles and he appears flex up effortlessly. - Sydney Arts Guide
HERRINGBONE
(Squabbalogic)
We witness superhuman talent, along with extraordinary skill and conviction, as the consummate storyteller takes us to the farthest reaches of what theatrical magic can achieve. His technical abilities prove as moving as the palpable love he has for the art form, so clearly discernible on this stage. Exquisite. - Suzy Goes See
HERRINGBONE
(Squabbalogic)
If you needed any kind of confirmation that [JJM] is a consummate, inspired and hugely original musical theatre performer, then grab the remaining tickets to Herringbone... An astonishing performance. You won’t forget it. - Limelight Magazine
HERRINGBONE
(Squabbalogic)
Easily the weirdest, most fascinating, disturbing, touching, funny and flabbergasting show ever. For 90 minutes, [JJM] simpers, growls, lisps and segues between eleven characters with dazzling accuracy and conviction... A brilliant and unusually gifted musical-theatre performer. It’ll be a long time before we see anything quite like this again: grab tickets. - Stage Noise
A CHEERY SOUL
(STC)
[JJM] is given, thankfully, plenty of time to show off his comic chops in keenly-observed comic bits. - Timeout
SHE LOVES ME
(Hayes Theatre Co)
Stellar scene stealing work accompanies every turn of [JJM]'s avuncular cosmetic clerk and he just about shoplifts the whole she-bang... [JJM] plunders every comic nuance in line delivery and physical and facial gesture, mining the mirth for a mother lode of laughs." - Australian Stage
SHE LOVES ME
(Hayes Theatre Co)
[JJM] runs off with the show. - Daily Review
SHE LOVES ME
(Hayes Theatre Co)
[JJM] is an absolute scene-stealer. - Time Out
SHE LOVES ME
(Hayes Theatre Co)
An absolutely hallmark performance from [JJM]. His work is pinpoint in both pathos and primping. - Sydney Arts Guide
THE BOOK OF MORMON
With such fine artists as the amazing [JJM], this is clearly one of the finest Australian casts ever assembled. - Stage Whispers
A MIDSUMMER
NIGHTS DREAM (STC)
[JJM]'s shy Flute hits the comic timing sweet spot repeatedly. - SMH
OF THEE I SING
(Sydney Opera House)
[JJM] puts in a star turn... An afternoon of unmitigated pleasure. - Limelight
MAN OF LA MANCHA
(Squabbalogic)
Director [JJM] has always been good at bringing out the genuine human emotion in a heightened art form like musical theatre, and his work with Sheldon is one of his greatest successes; together they have built a slowly-cresting crescendo of equal parts charm, valour, kindness and tragedy." – Aussie Theatre
MAN OF LA MANCHA
(Squabbalogic)
Raw and honest... A wonderful expression of musical theatre. - Broadway World
MAN OF LA MANCHA
(Squabbalogic)
The images and ideas that live inside the head of [JJM] mean that the rest of us, sooner or later, become privy to wondrous and heart-wrenching sights and sounds… As a realiser of dreams, [JJM] is one of the most thrilling talents of the new generation of musical theatre makers." – Stage Noise
THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
(Squabbalogic)
[JJM] is spectacularly good. – Stage Noise
THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
(Squabbalogic)
The distinguished, popular, enviably gifted, versatile [JJM] has pretty much proved himself an outright genius with this one. – Daily Review
THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
(Squabbalogic)
[JJM] is tremendous. – The Australian
THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
(Squabbalogic)
One of the most watchable performers in musical theatre. Exceptional comic timing, boundless energy and a great eye as director. He has stage presence aplenty. – Shit On Your Play
THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
(Squabbalogic)
I've seen Bob Martin & Geoffrey Rush as Man in Chair but [JJM] gives a very special performance in Drowsy Chaperone. – Jo Litson
THE VENETIAN TWINS
(New Theatre)
The star, with his usual star-level charisma, is one of the best figures in Sydney independent musical theatre... The best thing about [JJM] though is his capacity for comedy – he shines in roles that have a little meat to their quirk (both seasons of [title of show] and Ordinary Days were other shining examples in his humane and endearing eccentric character wheelhouse) and this role is no exception. – Aussie Theatre
THE VENETIAN TWINS
(New Theatre)
[JJM] displays terrific comic timing whilst capturing instantly two distinct characters... We can’t help but love him... Trust me -- we would have given him whatever he asked for. A less confident actor would have crashed and burned in this demanding comic role but [JJM] gives it as good as it gets. – Shit On Your Play
ORDINARY DAYS
(Darlinghurst Theatre)
[JJM] continues to prove he can wear multiple creative hats and look good in all of them; this performer brings a gently funny, surprisingly thoughtful view to the hopeful Warren, who could have been dangerously one-note in the hands of a lesser actor. – Aussie Theatre