Michael Bailey | Arts & Culture editor | Feb 2, 2026 – 12.18pm
Michael Paynter, fresh from Jesus Christ Superstar, will play John Farnham in the Whispering Jack musical while also touring his Great Australian Songbook show
Michael Paynter credits John Farnham with teaching him everything he knows about being a singer, and will repay the debt after being cast as the icon in the Sydney Theatre Company’s bio-musical of his life.
Once signed to Sony, Paynter’s pop career was stalled by corporate machinations for the past decade, although he rose to greater renown in 2024 playing the title character in Jesus Christ Superstar, earning impromptu standing ovations for his long notes on Gethsemane just as Farnham had done playing the same role 32 years earlier.
It was his audition performance of that song that convinced STC artistic director Mitchell Butel to cast him in a role crucial for reviving the fortunes of Australia’s largest theatre company, which made losses of $2.3 million across 2023 and 2024.
“How do you cast someone to play one of the greatest singers who’s ever lived? First, you have to try to find a voice as golden and powerful and rich,” Butel said.
“But John Farnham is [also] the ultimate showman and musical storyteller, with a rare ability to open his heart and connect with his audience. It’s been a joy watching Michael unlock a warmth and charm and wit that is spookily Farnham-like.”
The musical focuses on the making of 1986 album Whispering Jack, which Farnham’s manager Glenn Wheatley mortgaged his house to finance. It is interspersed with flashbacks to Farnham’s earlier teen pin-up career, after which he was considered a has-been, until the You’re The Voice vehicle became the highest-selling Australian-made album of all time.
There are also high stakes at play behind the Whispering Jack musical – the second partnership between the state-subsidised STC and commercial producer Michael Cassel Group since the huge success of The Picture Of Dorian Gray.
Royalties from the West End and Broadway seasons of that “cine-theatre” take on the Oscar Wilde classic helped STC to record revenue of $45.7 million in 2024, helping to rescue a year otherwise plagued by spiralling costs and the impact of a donor boycott following an unauthorised on-stage pro-Palestine protest by three of its actors.
Paynter, a member of both the Icehouse and Jimmy Barnes touring bands, has “shared a few stages” with Farnham, who has been out of the public eye since 2022, when he was diagnosed with mouth cancer from which he has subsequently recovered.
He admits to a fandom of Farnham at “psychotic stalker levels”, after being told repeatedly as a young singer that his high tenor was reminiscent of the star.
“A lot of it’s been by osmosis, but I credit him with teaching me everything I know about being a singer,” Paynter said.
“To be able to step into that and honour the man and his legacy is a huge privilege.”
Paynter said he was looking forward to speaking with Farnham as part of the process of developing his performance, but is not interested in “doing an impression” of the icon.
“I don’t think that serves anybody well, and I’m not a good enough actor to mimic him precisely,” he said.
“Ideally, I’ll find a way to make people forget they’re watching me and feel like they’re watching John, in a way that feels genuine to me, but it’s an equation that is yet to be solved.”
The musical is being co-produced by Gaynor Wheatley, the wife of Farnham’s late manager.
“Finding the right person to step into John’s shoes has been a meticulous and considered process,” she said.
“When Michael Paynter performed the material for the first time, there was an immediate sense of recognition in the room, not just of his remarkable vocal ability, but of the respect, understanding and care he brings to John’s story.”
Paynter is about to embark on a six-month “great Australian songbook” tour, booked months ago to capitalise on his increased recognition post-Superstar.
He will then enter rehearsals ahead of Whispering Jack’s opening at Sydney’s Roslyn Packer Theatre on November 15. The musical will then tour nationally.
“Putting on that blonde mullet wig for the first time is going to be a real moment,” he said.