Dancing through tough times

Not since the critically acclaimed Ladies in Black has Queensland Theatre brought their masterful storytelling to musical theatre. But here they come again, teaming up with QPAC for the first time since the record-breaking success of Boy Swallows Universe to present The Sunshine Club.

This is a show filled with all the razzle dazzle that musical theatre audiences are used to, but it's set on our own soil. First Nations boy Frank Doyle (Marcus Corowa) returns to Brisbane from the battlefields of WWII filled with optimism and ready to start the next chapter of his young life. All he wants to do is spend time with girl next door Rose (Irena Lysiuk), but in 1946 Brisbane, it's still frowned upon for black and white to be together.

Filled with hope and defiance Frank sets up his own ballroom, The Sunshine Club, where anyone and everyone can come together... to dance.

Together, internationally-acclaimed playwright and director Wesley Enoch, prolific composer John Rodgers, and a cast of industry icons and leading lights, harness the innate optimism of the musical theatre form to create an unmissable love story - a love story between two young people, and a love letter to a future nation.

The Sunshine Club shines a light on a part of our history that we can be proud of - a community of Brisbane people, black and white, determined to experience the very best of life together. This is reconciliation, love, in action.

Jazz legend Art Blakey once said, 'Music washes away the dust of everyday life'. Dying to sink into a riff and 'dust-off' those dance shoes?! The Playhouse is set to transform into a magical 1940s Brisbane dance hall this July, jumping with Post War era jazz, and you don't want to miss it!

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