The award-winning Australian musical Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical is getting back in the saddle, with Hayes Theatre Co announcing an expanded Sydney season and national tour for 2027.
The rollicking, provocative new Australian musical comedy with a huge heart became an unprecedented sold-out hit at Hayes Theatre in 2025. Now it will return to Sydney, this time playing Carriageworks from 8 July to 8 August 2027, before heading on tour.
The national tour will include seasons at Melbourne Theatre Company, Merrigong Theatre Company, Geelong Arts Centre, The Art House Wyong, and other venues yet to be announced.
It’s welcome news for audiences and artists alike at a time when Australia’s live performance sector continues to face a difficult operating environment, with rising costs, squeezed budgets and the ongoing challenge of getting original work in front of audiences. There’s something particularly exciting about seeing an original, offbeat Australian musical not only return, but get the opportunity to travel around the country.
Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical – quick links
From racecourse to rave hall
With book, music and lyrics written by Steven Kramer (multifaceted music director, writer, composer, orchestrator, producer and performer), Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical takes the familiar story of Australia’s most famous racehorse and gives it an exuberant electro-swing makeover.
The show follows the gangly New Zealand-born horse’s rise to fame alongside trainer Harry Telford, weaving gambling scandals, double-crosses, an attempted shooting, and a career-threatening addiction to sugar into its rags-to-riches tale.
The production drew enthusiastic praise from a range of critics, with independent critic Suzy Wrong describing it as ‘as joyous as it is ridiculous’ in her 4.5-star review, praising Kramer’s ‘wit and invention’ and describing Sheridan Harbridge’s direction as ‘bold and unrepentantly idiosyncratic’.
Its score draws on influences ranging from Duke Ellington to Daft Punk, combining brassy retro swing with electronic textures.
That distinctive combination helped the production stand out at the 2025 Sydney Theatre Awards, where Phar Lap took home three prizes: Best Production of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (for Sheridan Harbridge), and Best Performance in a Leading Role in a Musical (for Joel Granger).
Granger will reprise his role as Phar Lap for the 2027 production. The New Zealand-born, Australian-based triple threat is known for stand-out performances in major productions including Guys and Dolls on Sydney Harbour and The Book of Mormon.
Sheridan Harbridge back in the director’s chair
The return also brings director Sheridan Harbridge back to a production that helped cement her reputation as one of the most beloved and versatile figures in Australian theatre.
Harbridge is well known to audiences for originating the role of Tessa in Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie, a performance that earned her a Sydney Theatre Award. Other notable credits from her extensive resume include co-writing the acclaimed musical adaptation of My Brilliant Career for Melbourne Theatre Company.
As a director, she has helmed Hayes Theatre’s Dubbo Championship Wrestling, earning a Sydney Theatre Award nomination for Best Director, alongside works like David Finnigan’s 44 Sex Acts in One Week.
Her affinity for work that is theatrical, irreverent and distinctly Australian makes her a natural fit for Phar Lap – a musical that takes an instantly recognisable piece of national mythology and gleefully turns it on its head.
A second lap for an Australian original
The 2027 production is being developed for tour with support from the Creative Futures Fund’s Development Stream, opening up the possibility for audiences around Australia to encounter a work that might otherwise have remained a Sydney success story.
Hayes Theatre Co artistic directors Richard Carroll and Victoria Falconer say audiences of the original season were ‘genuinely bowled over’. They describe Phar Lap as a really special show, saying ‘it’s funny, it’s clever, it’s undeniably unique – and truly deserving of the praise it’s received as a new Australian classic’.
For an industry hungry for sustainable pathways for new Australian work, Phar Lap getting a second life – and a much longer set of legs – is cause for celebration.
After all, if a show about a racehorse can make the leap from a sold-out season at a 110-seat theatre in Kings Cross to a national tour, perhaps it’s time to place a few more bets on Australian-made musicals.
