A dream of a musical: The Lovers has more earworms than Spotify

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THE LOVERS ★★★★½
Playhouse, QPAC, until October 5; Theatre Royal, Sydney from November 5

Even by the generous standards of opening-night audiences, the ecstatic reception for Laura Murphy’s The Lovers was telling. In week three of Brisbane Festival we may have the crowd-pleaser audiences have been craving. Seems like the kids are down to love, after all.

Expectations for the show, a high-gloss, pop-music retelling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, were high, given its highly praised 2022 debut for Bell Shakespeare in Sydney. Brisbane hit-makers Shake & Stir have mounted an all-new production with a star-studded line-up, albeit retaining original cast members Natalie Abbott (Helena) and Stellar Perry (Oberon), both standouts.

<i>The Lovers</i> fuses Shakespeare with original pop songs by Laura Murphy to dazzling effect.

Murphy got the idea to blend Shakespeare with pop bangers while still in high school. The Bard’s verse struck her as speaking as powerfully about exhilaration and heartache as any Taylor Swift song. The match-up makes a lot of sense: The Lovers may be the best gateway drug to teen Shakespeare appreciation since Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet.

The musical simplifies the play, dispensing altogether with Bottom and the Mechanicals – the troupe of amateur players whose subplot is Shakespeare’s fond caricature of his own profession. Faerie queen Titania is likewise nowhere to be seen.

Instead, magical figures Oberon and Puck (Jayme-Lee Hanekom) are twin cupids who have been sprinkling their love potion on couples throughout the ages.

The action homes in on Hermia (Loren Hunter) and Lysander (Mat Verevis), whose love has been forbidden by Hermia’s dad. The couple flees into the woods – pursued both by Demetrius (Jason Arrow), who desires Hermia, and Helena, who loves Demetrius – where Oberon and Puck can work their mischief.

Arrow has a legion of fans thanks to his work in the title role of Hamilton and his Demetrius enjoyed plenty of opening-night adoration despite the character being a contemptible narcissist. Hunter (who was Jane Seymour in Six) shines in her “I want” song Perfect Little Princess, and Hanekom (Tina – The Tina Turner Musical) can rap with the best of them.

But it’s Abbott who commands audience sympathy as the lovelorn Helena, so used to being ignored that when the faeries’ love potion turns the tables she’s convinced she’s being pranked. Abbott starred in the ABC sitcom Aftertaste, but unless you saw her as Muriel in the Muriel’s Wedding musical you might not know she has a pop diva’s vocal upper register.

If the ultimate measure of a good musical is whether you leave the theatre humming songs you’ve never heard before, then The Lovers passes with flying colours. There are more earworms here than a Spotify list packed with Swift, Roan, Carpenter and Rodrigo, and the radio-friendly arrangements are performed by a tight on-stage four-piece.

Director Nick Skubij and his collaborators are dab hands with revolving stages and digitally projected sets, bringing a riot of colour and movement, while the physical and verbal comedy snaps.

Large chunks of Shakespeare’s dialogue remain, but Murphy’s revisions reveal a Shakespearean ear for contemporary idioms: swiping right, DTF, sorry not sorry, friend zone, I’m gonna bounce. This marriage of opposites produces unexpected fireworks. The Lovers is funny, it has killer hooks to burn, and speaks directly to anyone who ever had a heart.