The quirky way that John Farnham’s legacy will be honoured on Australian stages

John Farnham’s musical legacy is profound — and now he will be honoured on Australian stages in a particularly special way.

Producers are racing to get a Broadway-style musical about John Farnham’s inspirational career comeback story on stage in 2026.

Farnham’s manager, Gaynor Wheatley, and musical theatre producer, Michael Cassel, want to open the show in Melbourne to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Farnham’s 1986 album, Whispering Jack.

Producers have also changed tack with the Farnham musical’s plot line.

Initially, the musical was based around Australia’s Rum Rebellion of 1808, when officers of the New South Wales Corp overthrew governor William Bligh.

It featured 22 Farnham songs.

A Broadway-style musical about John Farnham is in the works.

Australian playwright Tommy Murphy was tasked with writing the book and placing Farnham’s hits into the piece.

Broadway figures with credits including Frozen, Mary Poppins, The Lion King and American Idiot were also connected to early iterations of the Farnham musical.

But Wheatley and Cassel said a new writer and director are helming a new version of the show.

The story Wheatley and Cassel will take to the stage relates to Farnham’s miraculous career comeback, mostly engineered by his former manager, the late Glenn Wheatley.

“Yes we did a U-turn with the storyline and it’s now biographical, 1980 to 1986,” Gaynor Wheatley told the Herald Sun.

“The songs have been worked in beautifully with the story. It’s really good. I am hoping it will be ready for 2026 to celebrate 40 years of Whispering Jack.”

Glenn and Gaynor Wheatley famously mortgaged their home to finance Whispering Jack, the 1986 album that catapulted Farnham, a former child star who had fallen on hard times, back to superstardom.

The late Glenn Wheatley with John Farnham. Picture: Glenn Wheatley

The story Wheatley and Cassel will take to the stage relates to Farnham’s miraculous career comeback, mostly engineered by his former manager, Glenn Wheatley. Picture: Supplied

Whispering Jack contains the hits You’re The Voice, Pressure Down and A Touch Of Paradise.

“We’ve got something really exciting brewing,” Cassel told the Herald Sun. “We’ve had workshops for the John Farnham musical with a new writer. We’ve also got a director on board.

“It’s biographical,” he added. “It takes a moment in time in John’s life, which we found was the best way, and great motivation, to showcase this incredible music, and have an engaging deep theatrical narrative.

“All I can say is, watch this space, because we might be seeing it sooner rather than later.”

In his 2024 memoir, The Voice Inside, Farnham said he may never sing again.

John Farnham was diagnosed with mouth cancer in August 2022 and underwent a 12-hour surgery to remove the tumour. A year later, doctors gave him the all-clear, and he is now cancer-free.

In his 2024 memoir, The Voice Inside, Farnham said he may never sing again.

“My facial disfigurement from the surgery means I can’t open my mouth wide enough for a strip of spaghetti, let alone to sing a top C,” Farnham wrote. “At this stage I can’t get the movement to make the sounds I want to make, and that’s where the vibrations and my voice come from.”

He added: “I still wail in the shower.”