Dusty Springfield’s life was reimagined last night at the QPAC Concert Hall. Growing up in post-war Britain as a red-haired Irish Catholic tomboy called Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien, she overcame parental disapproval and Catholic guilt to receive an OBE for her services to popular music.

She adopted Dusty, a disparaging moniker given to her by the nuns at school, and created “Springfield” from scratch.

The young Mary forged a career for Dusty in the 1960s. Dusty was a singer, a performer, an arranger, a television host, and later, a session singer in the US. She was 23-24 years old when Dusty achieved the young Mary’s dream of being widely recognized for her mezzo-soprano voice and other musical talents.

Her audacity spoke for the mod generation. Not content with fame at home, she visited the US to find the voice she wanted to give to the world. Dusty found the soul sound of the Supremes and Marvin Gay, and brought them and their R&B sound back to London to enliven British music.

“Son of a Preacher Man”, “I only want to be with you”, “Wishin’ and Hopin’”, and “I Just don’t know what to do with myself”, still play on Brisbane radio stations.  Out of the public eye, Dusty formed a lifelong loving relationship with Reno, the lead singer of “The Supremes”.

The show and most of the cast are Australian, with most of the cast coming from Brisbane.

The musical was written and created by John-Michael Howson, David Mitchell, and Melvin Morrow for Australian audiences in the early 2000s, and premiered as a musical in Melbourne in 2006. It has played hundreds of times for Australian audiences, with an adaptation playing in the UK in 2018.

Amy Lehpamer starred as Dusty, the adult, while Nikola Gucciardo played her inner child, Mary O’Brien. Amy reproduced Dusty’s famous songs perfectly last night. Her voice soared throughout the Concert Hall, as did the voice of Jayme-Lee Hanekom, who played Reno, the lead singer in The Supremes, and Dusty’s on-again, off-again lover.

Nat Jobe, as Dusty’s devoted hairdresser, and Kat Harrison as her dresser, provided Dusty with care and kept her laughing through the good and bad times.

The full cast of seventeen accomplished singers and dancers received a standing ovation from the full Concert Hall.

It takes a lot of creative people to produce a musical of this quality. Jason Langley was the Director, Michael Ralph the Choreographer, and Brendan Murtagh the Musical Director. Sound, lighting, video design, and wig design skills were woven into the production by a talented Australian crew.

The show provided flashbacks to the outrageous 1980s gay bar scene, and its costumes and dance moves were passed on to a new generation of performers.

There are only six shows in Brisbane: last night’s and at 7 pm Friday, 2 pm and 7 pm Saturday, and the final show at 2 pm Sunday.

Book quickly to avoid disappointment. https://www.qpac.com.au/whats-on/2025/dusty-the-musical-in-concert

Kerry McGovern