By Hannah Story
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Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical will premiere in Sydney in November next year, as the blockbuster album celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Set between 1980 and 1986, Whispering Jack tells the story of Farnham’s comeback, from struggling former pop star to the voice of the all-time highest-selling album by an Australian artist.
It is also the story of the people who believed in Farnham: from his wife Jill; to his manager Glenn Wheatley and his wife, Gaynor, who mortgaged their house to fund the album.
The musical’s writer Jack Yabsley (ABC TV’s Gold Diggers) describes the period as “zero to hero” — and that’s what makes it so compelling.
“What does that mean when you’ve had success as a [teenager] to be 35 and down and out?” Yabsley says.
“And to have the strength to take all those risks to change your sound, your name, everything that you’re doing and say, ‘I still have something to say’.
“As someone who works in the arts, that’s something I can relate to so deeply.
Sydney Theatre Company (STC) artistic director Mitchell Butel will direct Whispering Jack, one of 13 shows in his first season at the helm of the company.
It also includes a new play about the AFLW from Prima Facie writer Suzie Miller, an adaptation of Homer’s The Iliad starring David Wenham, and Miranda Otto’s return to the stage after 15 years, in The River by Jez Butterworth.
Bringing Farnham’s story to the STC is special for Butel, who was four years old when he saw the singer star as Pippin in Sydney in 1974.
“For many people, their first entrée into theatre is through musical theatre,” Butel says.
“Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical is not traditional Sydney Theatre Company fare … [but] it’s something I think will hook a different, younger, more rock ‘n’ roll crowd.”
A hardcore fan at the helm
Yabsley describes himself as a “hardcore fan” of Farnham, who grew up listening to the singer — especially Whispering Jack — on long drives through regional NSW.
Later, the family also listened to the Jesus Christ Superstar cast recording from 1992, which featured Farnham as Jesus.
About a decade on, the writer even snuck into a John Farnham concert in Sydney by posing as a waiter.
“I was metres away from my hero, watching him just wail on stage,” he recalls. “I had one of the greatest nights of my life.”
When Yabsley heard Michael Cassel Group, the company behind the international tour of The Picture of Dorian Gray, was developing a Farnham musical, he knew he needed to write it.
Cassel and co-producer Gaynor Wheatley were intrigued by his pitch.
“I think they liked the direction I was going in because I kept coming back to [the idea that] this show has to be funny and it has to make you feel good, because that’s what John does on stage,” Yabsley says.
“An audience needs to be having laughs and all the feels and then their hearts broken and then feeling joyous.”
Space for difference
They are the same feelings audiences can expect to have watching the mix of plays in STC’s 2026 season.
Butel says his first season at STC is about “holding space for difference” — whether in comedies like Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat’s The Unfriend, dramas like Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’s Tony-winning Purpose, or musicals like Whispering Jack.
“In every show, a point of view is changed because of a conflict or rhetoric or persuasion or an event,” Butel says.
“Theatre does that better than any other medium.”
The season stemmed from conversations Butel had with artists about the stories they wanted to tell in 2026.
Those artists included actors who haven’t worked with the company in years, like Wenham, who last performed with STC in 1997.
“I [asked], ‘What would be the thing that would entice you back here?'” Butel says.
“Brilliant world premieres are important, but also actors that audiences love help sell the season.”
And STC needs to sell the season as the box office is its main source of revenue. At the same time, government funding and philanthropy are in decline, with the company posting a loss of $565,759 in 2024.
“We’re looking under every rock, [asking] ‘How can we ensure that the money that we’re spending goes onto the stage?'” Butel says.
The company has turned towards advocacy, lobbying the government for more sustainable arts funding and a tax offset for pre-production expenses.
Such a rebate would be akin to the producer offset offered to the Australian film industry.
“It would be transformative,” Butel says.
The best writing from Australia and the world
Alongside three world premieres of new Australian work — Whispering Jack, Suzie Miller’s Strong Is the New Pretty, and Bennelong in London by Muruwari playwright Jane Harrison (Stolen) — the 2026 season includes seven plays from overseas.
One of those is American playwright Larry Kramer’s drama about the AIDS crisis, The Normal Heart, which opened at STC almost 40 years ago, in 1989.
“I was 19, and that show changed my life,” Butel says.
The production of The Normal Heart coming to STC next year first opened at State Theatre Company South Australia (STCSA) in 2022, with Butel starring as Kramer’s alter-ego Ned. He’ll be reprising the role in the STC season.
“I wanted to display to audiences, ‘There’s a shift [from former artistic director Kip Williams],'” he explains.
“You’ve got someone returning to the company who you know primarily as an actor — I’ve done 17 shows here — and I wanted to re-begin the journey with the audience in that way.”
