Reg Livermore’s Ned Kelly: The Musical returns to the stage for the first time in 48 years, with Victorian Opera unveiling a major revival at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat.
by Paul Cashmere
Victorian Opera has confirmed the cast for its long-awaited revival of Reg Livermore’s Ned Kelly: The Musical, bringing one of Australia’s most ambitious and debated homegrown works back to the stage for the first time since the late 1970s.
The production will play two performances only, 28 March at 2.00pm and 7.30pm, at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat, marking a rare opportunity to revisit a musical that occupies a singular place in Australian theatre history.
First staged in Adelaide in 1977 before transferring to Sydney in 1978, Ned Kelly emerged from the fertile creative partnership between Reg Livermore and composer Patrick Flynn. With book and lyrics by Livermore and music by Flynn, the show fused rock opera, vaudeville and burlesque into a sweeping retelling of the Kelly legend, interrogating the enduring national fascination with Australia’s most mythologised bushranger.
Livermore began developing the work in 1972 while touring in Hair, convinced the dramatic arc of Ned Kelly’s life was suited to musical theatre. A concept album followed in 1974, in the tradition of Jesus Christ Superstar, featuring Jon English in the title role and Livermore as Sergeant Hare. The album reached No. 55 on the Kent Music Report charts and helped establish the project’s national profile ahead of its stage premiere.
The original 1977 Adelaide production was mounted on an ambitious scale, capitalised at $250,000, with elaborate staging that included a drop curtain of more than 600 hurricane lamps and a stylised representation of Kelly’s armour. Critical reaction at the time was sharply divided, yet the work has endured in cultural memory as a bold, theatrical reimagining of colonial history.
Now, nearly five decades later, Victorian Opera Artistic Director Stuart Maunder directs a revised staging that seeks to reframe the musical for contemporary audiences. Maunder’s credits include Follies, The Pirates Of Penzance and La Rondine, and he is joined by conductor Simon Holt, whose experience spans Cats, Sweeney Todd and Sunset Boulevard. Holt has provided additional music and new orchestrations for this revival.
Emerging designer Harry Gill, recipient of the 2026 Truscott Prize, will create both set and costumes. Nicole Melloy choreographs, with lighting design by Gavan Swift and sound design by Samuel Moxham.
Leading the cast is Ethan Jones, fresh from Back To The Future: The Musical, stepping into the role of Ned Kelly. Maria Mercedes plays Ma Kelly, with Robert Grubb as Superintendent Hare. The Kelly Gang is represented by Jacob Steen as Joe Byrne, Darcy Wain as Steve Hart and Luke London as Dan Kelly. Chelsea Dawson performs as Kate Kelly.
Rohan Campbell makes his Victorian Opera debut as Aaron Sherritt, the friend turned informant whose betrayal proved pivotal in the Kelly narrative. Sally Bourne appears as Mrs Jones, while Kiran Rajasingam takes on the role of Judge Redmond Barry, the man who sentenced Kelly to death.
Victorian Opera’s current and former Opera Prize winners are featured across the supporting roles, including Douglas Kelly as Sergeant Fitzpatrick and Edwin Living, Rachael Joyce as Ellen Sherritt, and Bailey Montgomerie as Constable McIntyre. The ensemble includes Teddy Burgess, Declan Farr, Hanlon Innocent, Kristina McNamara, Alessia Pintabona and Connor Sweeney.
In a symbolic full circle moment, Reg Livermore AO will appear in a cameo as Mr Tarleton, the Bank Manager, returning to the world he created more than 50 years ago. Livermore has described the revival as a labour of love, expressing hope that the musical will find renewed recognition among Australian works that have slipped from the mainstream repertoire.
The Ned Kelly story continues to provoke debate about rebellion, justice and national identity. In revisiting this musical, Victorian Opera reopens that conversation through a distinctly Australian theatrical lens, reconnecting audiences with a work that sought to capture the myth and contradictions of the Kelly legend through an eclectic, musically expansive score.
With only two performances scheduled, the Ballarat season stands as both a revival and a reassessment of a work that once divided critics but has remained embedded in Australia’s cultural imagination.
Reg Livermore’s Ned Kelly: The Musical
28 March 2026, Ballarat, Her Majesty’s Theatre, 2.00pm
28 March 2026, Ballarat, Her Majesty’s Theatre, 7.30pm
Tickets: $39 to $90
Bookings: victorianopera.com.au
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