Club Broadway is coming to Canberra, bringing songs from Hamilton, Les Miserables, Wicked, Rent and more

That's because this is the first time in his career the usual dance beats one would expect to hear in a club have been replaced with Broadway favourites.

The man behind Australia's version of Club Broadway is bringing the pop-up event to Canberra next month, with a playlist packed with belt-out bangers from musicals including Hamilton, Les Miserables, Wicked, Rent, Chicago, Six, as well as screen productions such as The Greatest Showman, Disney films and Smash.

And since starting the event a few months ago, Murphy has found people can't help but applaud after every song plays - hence the pause.

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"There's a story to all of these songs and especially the really big show-stopping numbers. They start small and finish big, and there are key changes," Murphy says.

"There are divas hitting high notes, there's drama, and it's like that song after song after song, especially in the second half of the event when we play all the big songs.

"I've been doing it for a few months now and the playlist has been honed in. It warms up in the first hour with a few well-known favourites and builds towards the big numbers in the second half of the show.

"It's finding that balance of playing an obscure song from [composer Stephen] Sondheim and then "Tomorrow" from Annie and then "Something New" for Muriel's Wedding and just making sure it is balanced. So that it's not just an hour of old songs. And then an hour of new songs."

The idea started with a TikTok video. Murphy saw a club in the US filled with people singing their hearts out to "Defying Gravity" from Wicked.

The video was infectious and the DJ knew he needed to create a similar experience in Australia. The result is not just a night filled with musical numbers, but live performances, "pop-up surprises and magical moments".

And that same song that inspired the whole event is now one of the crowd favourites of every Club Broadway. Along with "One Day More" from Les Miserables, the signature Wicked song makes the crowd go bananas without fail.

"Club Broadway attracts everything from 18-year-old theatre kids to grandmas and grandpas who just loved musicals. It's a real cross-section of people who are all there for the same reason - they all love musicals," Murphy says.

"And I think theatre people, theatre nerds are a really special type of person who is loving and generous and welcoming and just love loving musicals with other musical-loving people. Whereas dance parties that I do attract a broader cross-section of people. So it might be a bigger crowd, but it's a more general crowd.

"After COVID I have been trying to see as many performances as much as I can because I didn't realise how much I missed it when it went away. And I think maybe at these events, we are capturing some of that and people are getting into loving their musical moments with other people."

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