INXS The Musical to open in Australian in 2017 as band still rides high in charts after 100 weeks

THE renewed love affair with Australian chart-toppers INXS will be tested by an upcoming musical inspired by their hit songs.

INXS hope to become the new sensation of the world’s theatre stages with a musical based on their hits to open in Sydney in 2017.

With their music still commanding the album charts more than 100 weeks after they restored their legacy with the INXS: Never Tear Us Apart mini-series last year, manager Chris M Murphy has set up a theatre company to mount INXS The Musical.

Murphy remains tight-lipped about his backers for the project but insists he has some of the international theatre world’s biggest “creatives” coming on board to write and produce the musical for the stage.

Veteran producer John Frost recently estimated a hit show costs about $5 million to stage, with weekly run costs of up to $600,000. A sold-out production can gross more than $1.5 million a week.

The band’s longtime manager set up Murphy Theatrical to orchestrate the band’s next move to exploit their extensive catalogue of hits recorded by Michael Hutchence, Andrew, Tim and Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Gary Beers, after reacquiring the rights to their music a few years ago.

The phenomenal success of the mini-series, which was watched by more than two million Australians and sold internationally, gave Murphy the impetus to forge ahead with the stage musical.

INXS: Never Tear Us Apart provoked a fan frenzy for their music with the The Very Best hits compilation giving the band their first No. 1 album in Australia in 24 years and spending 102 weeks in the charts and counting.

It has sold more than 350,000 copies, with three different editions retailing between $14.99 and $24.99, grossing at least $5 million for the band and their record label.

The television series also propelled several of their biggest albums including Kick, Listen Like Thieves and The Swing back into the top 40 and songs including Never Tear Us Apart and Need You Tonight back onto radio playlists.

Now the big question for Murphy and his musician charges is whether INXS The Musical will follow the template of long-running theatre hits such as Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You and focus on the songs rather than a narrative of the band’s life story.

“I started thinking Vegas before I started to think Broadway. I have been talking to Giles Martin about what he did with The Beatles music for the Cirque du Soleil show LOVE,” he said.

“We want the show to be sexy and dramatic, not a jukebox of hits.”

Murphy said several West End producers had approached him about opening the show in London but he and the band wanted to continue the renewed love affair Australian audiences have with INXS.

“When I came back on board with the band I wanted to turn INXS into one of the most iconic brands in Australia. We have done it and we have to continue to do it here,” he said.

“A lot of young people who are now fans never got a chance to see INXS live and this will be the place to see their music in a live setting.”

It is also the band’s only option to offer a live INXS experience, with guitarist Tim Farriss confirming the injury to his hand from a boating accident in February has ended his playing days.

“It’s kinda f ... ed, it’s not good and I am having to learn to live with that reality. I have to look at life a bit differently. In a way, I was going to have to take a break (from the road) and now I have to,” Farriss said.

He will act as a consultant on the production as he did with the mini-series.

“That’s something I can do with one hand; I can still point at people,” he joked.

Farriss said he and his bandmates had thrown things at Murphy on a tour bus in Germany when he had first raised the idea of their songs being suitable for musical theatre during their heyday.

“I told Chris I hate musicals but I’ve been going to a couple to get my head around it. Contemporary music these days is meant to be theatrical entertainment,” he said.

“The whole thing about us is we wrote our music for the live stage because we were a live band and these songs are meant to be performed,” the guitarist said.

“It’s been great to see people like Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, London Grammar and Brandon Flowers perform our songs recently.”

Farriss said like Murphy he wanted the focus of INXS The Musical to be the songs rather than the rise of the band and the death of frontman Michael Hutchence.

He also said they agreed a cast of relative unknowns would work better than famous actors or those who had appeared in the mini-series.

“The biggest common denominator here is the music and to be frank, I don’t know how important the story is at this point because it has already been told,” he said.

“I am thinking more of a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds vibe as far as a theatrical production goes.”

Originally published as INXS The Musical to open in Australian in 2017 as band still rides high in charts after 100 weeks