The Sydney Theatre Company, Michael Cassel Group and Gaynor Wheatley have revealed their solution to one of the more challenging casting conundrums in recent years: who will play John Farnham in Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical?

It was announced today that Michael Paynter will play the Australian music icon during Sydney Theatre Company’s World Premiere season at the Roslyn Packer Theatre this November.

Marking 40 years since the release of Farnham’s Whispering Jack in 1986, the production brings to the stage the story behind the album that transformed the singer’s career and became the highest-selling Australian album of all time. 

Michael Paytner. Portrait supplied

Directed by STC Artistic Director Mitchell Butel, the musical charts Farnham’s late-career reinvention and the suburban Melbourne beginnings of a record that would become a cultural landmark.

Paynter, currently touring nationally with The Great Australian Songbook, earned widespread acclaim in 2025 for his Sydney Theatre Award-winning performance as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar – a role famously played by Farnham three decades earlier. He said portraying Farnham was an honour “hard to put into words”, describing him as “the gold standard” of male singers.

Of his performance...