Continuing its impressive run of refreshingly lesser-known musicals, Queanbeyan Players is about to present an unlikely show about a boy who grows up in a bubble, opening on St Valentine’s Day.

Bubble Boy is a 2008 musical with music and lyrics by Cinco Paul and book by Paul and Ken Daurio, and was based on the 2001 Touchstone Pictures’ film of the same name. 

It introduces us to Jimmy Livingston, whose conservative, fearful mum is convinced that he has a deathly allergy to germs so raises him in a bubble-room for his own protection and educates him with nothing other than Better Homes and Gardens and the American Christian animated television series, VeggieTales.

What could possibly go wrong? 

The answer is that after a pretty girl called Chloe moves in next door and romance blooms to the infuriation of his mum, Jimmy hatches a plan to escape and see the world — adventures follow.

Sounds improbable? Not at all. There are many examples of this phenomenon, not just in the US, where the story originated, but closer to home, as close as Canberra. 

But as I find when I catch up with the director Tijana Kovac and music director Tara Davidson, this show, which theoretically could have a serious edge, is being presented as a fun night for all the family, a comic-book journey through love, laughs and self-discovery.

Kovac, who works for Questacon by day and was trained at Perform Australia, has been involved with 10 junior musicals for them but has never worked for Queanbeyan Players before and is enjoying directing what she calls “a surprising show”.

She’s made some creative changes to bring the story into an Australian milieu, such as having Jimmy’s mum read Better Homes and Gardens rather than the American magazine in the original show.

With her at a rehearsal in Warehouse Circus’ Chifley premises, is Davidson, a well-known local voice teacher, who describes the musical as “linear-funny” because it’s told chronologically when Jimmy meets a bunch of weird characters and weirder situations along his escape route. 

Davidson says that the music is a lot more complex than you’d imagine, with some demanding guitar work in it. As for the subject matter, “it’s crazy, but after lockdown, it feels timely,” she says.

She has engaged a six-piece band, led by Adam Bluhm at the keyboard and while they’ll be creating the sound, Jimmy, played by Rylan Howard will perform on a cardboard cutout guitar designed, like most of the props, to suggest a comic-book style.

By day, Howard works as an administrative assistant at Blumer’s lawyers, well-known arts philanthropists who are very supportive of his extracurricular activities. He began dancing when very young at Dance Northside, later learning to play guitar after his grandfather won an acoustic electric guitar in a raffle and didn’t want it. 

“Jimmy has a serious side,” Howard says. “While he’s trapped inside a room in a closed-minded environment, he wants to see the world. He wants to have a normal personal life, and it gets to him.”

There’s a happy ending in the show, but not before a catastrophe that shows how strong the power of suggestion can be, since his mum has convinced him, and herself, that he will die from germs – for a while, it looks as if he might. 

“I’m playing it straight,” Howard says, “although it’s a ludicrous situation, it’s up to other people to laugh. 

“We’re being serious about being un-serious,” Kovac adds, “I tell the cast that we are finding the truth in the goof.”

Bubble Boy, Belconnen Community Theatre, February 14-23.