John Farnham’s classic album Whispering Jack will get the musical theatre treatment in the Sydney Theatre Company’s upcoming season.

The 2026 program is the first under artistic director Mitchell Butel, who took over from Kip Williams in late 2024 and will direct Whispering Jack: the John Farnham Musical.

“It’s probably not the normal thing you’d see in a STC program, but we’re really excited about what new audience we can bring to the company with a work as widely appealing as this,” Butel said.

Produced with Michael Cassel and Gaynor Wheatley, it marks the 40th anniversary of John Farnham’s hit album, which became the highest-selling by a local artist in Australia with its hit single You’re The Voice.

“We’re in the middle of auditions at the moment looking for our John, and very excited by some of the talent that’s been coming into the room,” said Butel.

Farnham recorded the album in the garage of his suburban Melbourne rental, with his career in the doldrums. But with Whispering Jack and its hit single You’re The Voice, he made a return to the music charts, the album becoming the highest-selling by a local artist in Australia.

“To see this part of my story brought to life on stage is an adventure that might just require you strapping on your seatbelt!” he said.

“For me it has always been about the songs. From Sadie to You’re the Voice, I am forever grateful for both these songs and the people who connect with my music.”

Wheatley is the widow of Farnham’s long-time manager Glenn, who died in 2022. He famously mortgaged his house to finance Whispering Jack.

“Glenn believed in John when others didn’t, and together with Jill, we risked everything to make it happen,” Gaynor Wheatley said.

“To now see that story come alive on stage, with all of its heart, humour, and grit is deeply personal and incredibly exciting.

“John’s legacy deserves nothing less than this kind of theatrical celebration.”

The musical mark’s Farnham’s latest return to a public career since he had gruelling surgery for mouth cancer in August 2022, followed by reconstructive surgery.

Other STC productions for next year include the latest work from celebrated playwright Suzie Miller, who penned Prima Facie and RBG: Of Many, One. Strong is the New Pretty looks at the formation of the Australian Rules national women’s league, and will star Lucy Bell, Sheridan Harbridge and Amy Ingram.

A third new work is Jane Harrison’s Bennelong in London, starring Googoorewon Knox and Guy Simon and directed by Ian Michael.

It’s the tale of a young actor preparing for an audition, who imagines the young Bennelong, who was abducted by Governor Arthur Phillip’s men in 1789 and eventually became the first Aboriginal man to visit Europe and return.

Butel’s approach as artistic director so far has been fuelled by “thousands” of coffees and dinners with artists, to find out what the nation’s top stage talent wants to work on.

“Whenever you force people into a certain project or show, it’s never as good as when people come together around an idea and go, I’m desperate to do this work,” he said.

One of those was actor David Wenham, who will star in An Iliad, an adaptation of the Homeric poem from the Robert Fagles translation, accompanied by live music.

The STC will also mark almost four decades since its premiere of AIDs crisis drama The Normal Heart, with a staging at The Sydney Opera House.

Butel first acted with the STC in 1992’s Six Degrees of Separation and was most recently artistic director of the State Theatre Company South Australia.

He promises he’s turned around a drop in philanthropic donations to the company, in part through donors coming on board to back specific productions.

STC’s revenue fell in 2024 but due to higher production costs and a drop in government funding, with the company posting a $566,000 deficit.

-with AAP