Playing the lead roles in West Side Story is akin to climbing Mount Everest for musical theatre performers, according to Billy Bourchier, who will star with Nina Korbe, the first Indigenous lead at Handa outdoor opera since it began 12 years ago on Sydney Harbour.

For the two graduates of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, playing Tony and Maria – whose ill-fated romance fuels a bitter feud between two gangs in 1957 New York City – in their first major lead roles, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“West Side Story is one of the most iconic musicals,” said Canberra-born Bourchier, who turned 30 last Friday and is playing in Opera Australia’s Miss Saigon in Adelaide. “So to be making my debut in such a big way is like climbing Mount Everest for a musical theatre performer, it is a career pinnacle.”

With music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, West Side Story’s tale of forbidden love based on Romeo and Juliet – its feuds between warring gangs, the Jets and the Sharks – is a perfect homecoming for Korbe, who recently graduated from the master of arts program at London’s Royal Academy of Music.

The Brisbane-born 25-year-old soprano, a Koa, Kuku Yalanji, Wakka Wakka woman, whose aunt is actress Leah Purcell, is actively involved in the championing of First Nations voices.

She is the first in her immediate family to choose music as a career, actively encouraged by Purcell, who she describes as a mentor.

“It’s an honour as a First Nations singer to have the role of Maria, her feeling of being an outsider is something I, and those from many minority groups, can relate to,” she said.

Since June, Bourchier has been touring with the much-acclaimed Miss Saigon, driving his Mitsubishi car with wife Jess, two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Harper, and four-year-old staffy dog Huxley between all the locations where he has been performing. Their itinerant life – with everything they need in the car with them – is expected to continue at least until November with his upcoming roster of work.