Australian composer Sean O’Boyle and his partner writer/performer Amanda Jane Pritchard were in London working on a musical theatre project for the West End, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the project was cancelled.

They tried to book a flight back to Australia but with the chaos that followed the coronavirus, there weren’t many available. Eventually they managed to secure two tickets but the flight was then cancelled. As they waited to see what would happen next, they decided to use their isolation time in London by starting work on a new show – Coronavirus the Musical Musical.

O’Boyle composed a lively two-minute overture that draws on a range of genres including modern classical, jazz, rock, country, Celtic and choral, while Pritchard wrote the opening scene, which features a brawl in a supermarket as shoppers vie for toilet paper and other essentials.

Amanda Jane Pritchard and Sean O’Boyle in COVID-19 lockdown. Photograph supplied

“The overture is quite short so we thought that we would get all our musical friends from around the world to record it in isolation. I knew that it would be problematic and difficult but we ended up with 112 musicians, and...