When did you come up with the idea of a musical about Phar Lap, and did you always envisage having the horses played by tap-dancing actors?

During COVID, everyone went slightly mad, but my madness manifested in a musical about a horse. I spent hours trying to work out why this thoroughbred was as famous in Australia as Ned Kelly or Cathy Freeman. What I discovered was a truly theatrical story that was crying out to be turned into a musical, and it HAD to be told straight from the horse’s mouth. And to truly get inside our equine hero’s head, an actor playing an all-singing, all-dancing Phar Lap was the only option.

Steven Kramer and Sheridan Harbridge. Photo © John McRae

What is electro-swing, and why did you feel this was the right musical style?

Imagine taking a Glenn Miller big band vinyl record and remixing it into a pumping nightclub banger. That’s electro-swing. Phar Lap’s era was the Roaring Twenties and Thirties, and I wanted to take the swing and jazz music that I love from that time and bring it into today. Taking inspiration from Baz Luhrmann’s...