John Farnham’s life is getting the blockbuster musical treatment to coincide with the 40th anniversary of his bestselling album Whispering Jack, featuring hits including You’re the Voice and Pressure Down.
Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical will have its world premiere at Sydney Theatre Company in November 2026. The show is co-produced with Farnham’s manager, Gaynor Wheatley, who was also behind the 2023 documentary John Farnham: Finding the Voice, and Michael Cassel, who partnered with STC on its Tony award-winning Broadway and West End seasons of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Mitchell Butel, STC’s artistic director, will direct; Jack Yabsley, the creator of the ABC comedy series Gold Diggers, has written the book. Auditions are under way.
Whispering Jack is expected to tour beyond Sydney but Cassel described the 2026 season as “a development production”, during which the show would be refined “in front of an audience before it reaches its next stage”.
Whispering Jack will focus on the five years leading up to the release of Farnham’s landmark 1986 album, a pivotal moment in his career as he tried to reinvent himself after a decade of declining sales, a pivot to musical theatre and cabaret, and an unhappy stint fronting Little River Band.
“In an outer Melbourne suburban garage in 1986, Farnham, with a new band and manager Glenn Wheatley, began work on an album and a song called You’re the Voice that would transform his career and their lives,” reads the program note for the show.
Whispering Jack spent 25 weeks at the top of the charts and has sold more than 1.7m copies. It remains the third-bestselling album in Australia and the bestselling album by a local artist.
Farnham said he was looking forward to seeing this chapter of his life on stage. “Musicals have always held a very special place in my heart as it’s where I met [my wife] Jill,” he said.
Whispering Jack was announced on Monday night as part of STC’s 2026 season. Next year’s starry line-up will also feature Sam Worthington and Pamela Rabe in John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer and Tony award-winning 2004 drama Doubt: A Parable; David Wenham in an adaptation of Homer’s epic poem The Iliad; and Miranda Otto and Ewen Leslie in Jez Butterworth’s gripping and “endlessly mysterious” tale The River.
The Tony and Olivier award-winning playwright Suzie Miller (Prima Facie; RBG) will return to STC with a new play about the creation of the AFLW. Strong Is the New Pretty will have its world premiere at Brisbane festival before heading to Sydney, and STC said plans were under way for touring.
Rounding out the program are the world premiere of the time-hopping historical drama Bennelong In London by Jane Harrison (The Visitors; Stolen), and the Australian premieres of the Tony and Pulitzer prize-winning 2025 comedy Purpose by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Appropriate), and the “cringe-tastic” 2022 comedy The Unfriend by the Sherlock creator Steven Moffat.
Butel, who was artistic director of State Theatre Company of South Australia before taking the reins at STC, will bring three of that company’s shows to Sydney next year, including his own 2022 production of Dennis Kelly’s “devastating” one-woman play Girls and Boys, starring Justine Clarke; and Emily Steel’s black political comedy Housework, which opened in Adelaide in February.
Dean Bryant’s production of Larry Kramer’s landmark 1985 Aids drama The Normal Heart, which premiered at STCSA in 2022, will be remounted at Sydney Opera House in 2026 with Butel reprising his role.
STC has also snagged the Sydney premiere of Bryant’s hit musical adaptation of Miles Franklin’s novel My Brilliant Career, co-created with Sheridan Harbridge and Mathew Frank, which sold out its premiere season at Melbourne Theatre Company in 2024 and won five Greenroom awards. Guardian’s five-star review described it as a “funny, feminist triumph”. My Brilliant Career will return to Melbourne in January, followed by in Canberra, Sydney and Wollongong.
Finally, STC will present an updated version of Jonathan Biggins’ satirical tribute to the former prime minister Paul Keating, The Gospel According to Paul: The Second Coming.
