Wesley Enoch and John Rodgers’ joyful, jazzy musical The Sunshine Club has returned to the QPAC Playhouse in Brisbane, over 20 years since its first season there in 1999. Directed again by Enoch, who wrote the book and lyrics, and including a number of creatives who worked on the original production, this revival stars a new generation of First Nations artists, the majority of whom are making their Queensland Theatre debut in this production.

The Sunshine Club was commissioned by the then-Queensland Theatre Company and developed over a three-year period, premiering in Cairns in 1999 and touring to a number of regional locations before opening at the QPAC Playhouse.

The Sunshine Club © Brett Boardman

In the summer of 1946, Aboriginal serviceman Frank Doyle returns home from World War II to find that, despite his hopes, very little has changed in his home city of Brisbane; although he has spent two years fighting alongside troops from all over Australia, everything that he has suffered and sacrificed overseas has been for the freedom of others. After being denied entry to the Cloudland ballroom, Frank...