Following a sold-out debut season at Hayes Theatre Co in 2025, Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical will return in an expanded production in 2027. The new Australian musical will begin its return season at Sydney’s Carriageworks before embarking on a national tour. Announced destinations include Melbourne Theatre Company, Merrigong Theatre Company, Geelong Arts Centre and The Art House Wyong, with further venues to be revealed.
Joel Granger, whose credits include Guys and Dolls and The Book of Mormon, will reprise the title role. The New Zealand-born performer previously played the celebrated racehorse during the musical’s original Hayes Theatre Co season.
Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical reimagines the familiar rags-to-riches story of the New Zealand-born racehorse, his struggling trainer and the nation that rallied behind an unlikely champion. Its retelling incorporates events including gambling scandals, double-crosses, an attempted shooting and Phar Lap’s fondness for sugar.
The production features an electro-swing score by composer Steven Kramer, drawing inspiration from artists ranging from Duke Ellington to Daft Punk. Hayes Theatre Co artistic directors Richard Carroll and Victoria Falconer said the response to the musical’s original season demonstrated the audience appetite for its unconventional take on Australian history.
Phar Lap is a really special show – it’s funny, it’s clever, it’s undeniably unique – and truly deserving of the praise it’s received as a new Australian classic. Audiences at our Hayes season were genuinely bowled over by this energetic, irreverent telling of a story that’s so deeply ingrained in our collective culture – so it’s very exciting that many more people will now have the chance to see it.
Tickets for the Carriageworks season are now available through the Hayes Theatre Co website.
