After the success of Muriel’s Wedding The Musical, Kate Miller-Heidke and her husband and regular collaborator Keir Nuttall have written a new musical called Bananaland, which opens this month at the Brisbane Festival. As Deborah Jones discovers, the path that has led them there takes in opera, contemporary art music, musical theatre, stand-up comedy, punk and pop, not to mention Eurovision.

Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall. Photo © Jo Duck

They say you should write what you know, so that’s what Keir Nuttall did. Back in the day, he’d been in a punk band; now he had a little boy who was –  it goes without saying – a Wiggles watcher. Nuttall started putting down a few thoughts for a show in which worlds collide.

What if the...