Jason Donovan is to star in a new production of Dale Wasserman’s play One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Directed by Roger Hodgman, it will have an exclusive Melbourne season from 13 November.

Donovan will co-produce the drama and play Randle P. McMurphy – a role made famous by Jack Nicholson in Miloš Foreman’s 1975 film. A charismatic troublemaker, McMurphy leads a rebellion against the formidable, authoritarian Nurse Ratched, who runs the psychiatric institution in which he is a patient, having faked mental health issues to get out of prison labour.

Jason Donovan. Photo © Matt Crockett

Ken Kesey wrote his landmark novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1962. Wasserman’s stage adaptation opened on Broadway a year later with Kirk Douglas as McMurphy and Joan Tetzel as Nurse Ratched.

The novel is narrated by Chief Bromden, a Native American patient. Kesey famously refused to see the film, which shifted the focus away from Chief Bromden and centred it almost entirely on McMurphy. However, he admired Wasserman’s play.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has been staged by various Australian theatre companies over the years, with productions by Sport for Jove...