New Australian musicals are unusual enough. But a revival of an Australian musical presented in a brand-new production only a few years after its premiere is decidedly rare.

So, Laura Murphy was surprised and delighted when Shake & Stir Theatre Co approached her about staging a new version of her musical The Lovers at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. She admits to being even more “shocked” when commercial producer John Frost decided to join forces with Shake & Stir and bring the production to Sydney.

Laura Murphy. Photo © Joel Devereux

The Lovers was premiered by Bell Shakespeare in 2022. At that point, Murphy – “a Shakespeare nerd” after playing Flute in a high school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream – had been working on the show for 12 years, having begun writing it while still at school as a way to introduce young people to The Bard. 

The Lovers is a contemporary riff on A Midsummer Night’s Dream with a pulsating pop score. Murphy wrote the book, music and lyrics. She also did the orchestrations. She uses text from Shakespeare’s play for the spoken dialogue, but delivers most of the storytelling through the songs, which feature her...