The female lead of a musical dogged by claims of sexual misconduct used profanity to shock castmates, talked about her genitals and pulled down her male co-star’s pants and touched him suggestively, a theater company claims.
Oldfield Entertainment, which staged the troubled 2014 production of The Rocky Horror Show, made the claims about Christie Whelan Browne in documents filed in federal court as the company responded to the star’s legal action against them.
Along with three other women involved in the production, Ms Whelan Browne accused co-star Craig McLachlan of assault, indecent assault and making unwanted advances, leading to a 2020 trial in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, where he was found not guilty.
In documents responding to a lawsuit alleging they failed to provide a safe work environment, Old Entertainment alleges that Ms. Whelan Browne was a “willing participant” in sexually suggestive conduct with Mr. McLachlan.
Christie Whelan Browne (pictured left) co-starred with Craig McLachlan (pictured right) in the ill-fated 2014 production of The Rocky Horror Show
This included “raising fingers or squeezing between buttocks,” pulling down his pants “when he least suspected it” and discussing her genitals with him, the statement said.
The company also claims Whelan gave Browne McLachlan wedgies, used a towel to move his groin area or backside and engaged in mutual crude jokes.
It is also alleged that she has coined derogatory names for her co-stars, including ‘talentless c***’ and ‘garbage c***’, and has often vowed to ‘break female stereotypes’.
An argument over a dressing room prompted Ms. Whelan Browne to insult another cast member and call her “garbage breath,” according to court papers filed this week, according to the Daily telegram.
Ms Whelan Browne’s absence from a number of performances in Melbourne due to a back injury led to a “distance” from the “camaraderie and relationships” between her and other cast members, Oldfield Entertainment said.
The star made ‘critical comments about the students who took on the role of Janet’ and also mocked a male actor’s performance, saying he didn’t do a very good job.
In defending the claims made against it by Ms Whelan Browne, Oldfield Entertainment said she was an experienced actor and theatrical union representative who made no complaint to Mr McLachlan or the company during the show.
Mr McLachlan was accused of making unwanted sexual advances during the ‘Janet Bed Scene’ during the play.
Whelan Browne (pictured) claims theater company Oldfield Entertainment failed to provide a safe working environment during its 2014 staging of the Rocky Horror Show
However, the theater company insisted that these scenes were ‘created in the context of the work that both the applicant and Mr McLachlan had agreed to do under their employment contract and under the direction of the director’.
In her statement of claim, Ms Whelan Browne says she went to staff involved in the production several times to complain about Mr McLachlan’s alleged conduct and was given no support.
According to Federal Court documents filed against Oldfield Entertainment, Ms Whelan Browne is asking the court to award her $1.5 million in damages and a further $500,000 in aggravated damages.
Ms Whelan Browne is also seeking an order that Oldfield Entertainment, led by producer John Frost, apologize, and that the court declare that the company breached the Sex Discrimination Act.
Lawyers for Oldfield Entertainment have requested the court to reject the statement of claim in its entirety and to institute a legal costs claim.
The theater company rejects the claim that “a reasonable observer would expect that the allegations of sexualized comments… would insult, humiliate or intimidate the applicant.”
It says the ‘nature of the production, including the costumes, characters, dialogue and actions, was highly sexualised’.
The company also claims that the acting methods required cast members to “get into character,” and this meant that “sexualized behaviors and conversations occurred offstage.”
Ms Whelan Browne went to the media in 2018 with allegations including sexual harassment and indecent assault committed against her and other female co-stars by Mr McLachlan during the show’s 2014 Australian tour.
In a statement released on social media in September last year when she launched federal court proceedings against the theater company, the musical theater star said Oldfield’s behavior towards her constituted sex discrimination and unlawful discrimination.
‘Today I filed an application in the Federal Court of Australia against Oldfield… alleging that she unlawfully discriminated against me under the Sex Discrimination Act by subjecting myself to gender discrimination, repeated sexual harassment by a fellow cast member, and victimization when I spoke out against him,” she said.
“My claim is about my experiences working as a lead on the Rocky Horror Show in 2014 and then Oldfield’s response to my complaints from 2017 to date.”
Ms Whelan Browne had previously filed a complaint against the company with the Australian Human Rights Commission, which ruled in February that the matter “could not be resolved through mediation”.
A person cannot bring claims of unlawful discrimination in the Federal Court until the commission has closed the complaint.
“I submitted this application today with fear and anxiety, but also with the knowledge that it is something I must do and that I will see it through to the end,” she said in the statement.
“I know I deserved better treatment, that I deserved to feel safe and respected in my workplace.
“Other women in the arts deserve better, and I will not accept that anything less than that is ‘just the way it is’.”
Mr McLachlan has always denied the allegations. In 2018, he launched defamation proceedings against multiple media outlets over their reporting of the allegations, which he suddenly dropped in 2022 before key witnesses took the stand.
Following this development in May 2022, Ms Whelan Browne blasted Oldfield on social media for ‘refusing to investigate our claims and threatening to sue us for defamation’.
The star said her “sole intention” in making the claims public was to protect female performers in the show’s 2018 production.
Ms Whelan Browne said the experience had left her and the other women ‘significantly traumatised’ and she had received ‘multiple threats and ongoing abuse’.
“I know I haven’t seen the end of it yet,” she said.
“I have lost my sense of security in the world, knowing that someone was so eager to harm me because I spoke the truth.
“This was the result of simply trying to protect other women from the same behavior.”