Author: Penny Spirou

Osgood Perkins, the auteur who brought us last year’s Longlegs and, most recently, the sheer lunacy of The Monkey, has delivered us straight back into evil with Keeper. After barely dating, Liz (Tatiana Maslany) agrees to join her boyfriend, Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland), at his remote cabin in the woods. It’s not really her style, but…

Mario Marchese, known to his adoring fans as Mario the Maker Magician, is a fireball of energy. This is what you will expect for the 60 minutes he graces the stage in his high-octane magic show. Not only is Mario the Magician absolutely hilarious, but he is also the most friendly and personable man you…

Jonathan Larson’s RENT musical was first performed on stage on 26 January 1996, the day after he passed away suddenly in his kitchen. Larson didn’t get to witness the lasting impact his creative work has had at a global level. Almost 30 years later, RENT returns to our country and finds itself in the most…

Inspired by the music of Dolly Parton, Here You Come Again is a new musical that celebrates the country musician in the most unique way. The story centres on a forty-year-old man, Kevin (Dash Kruck), who is caught in a mid-life crisis during the pandemic. For this iteration of Here You Come Again, he is…

The 39 Steps’ evolution dates back to the novel of the same title by John Buchan, published in 1915, Alfred Hitchcock’s film in 1935, then reimagined on stage in 1996 by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon, and then Patrick Barlow in 2005. As eloquently noted by director Damien Ryan, “The stage version winks at the…

Part of the winter school holiday line-up at the Sydney Opera House (see: Kids & Families | Sydney Opera House), The Twits is a staging of the disgusting(!) Roald Dahl book. The people behind the show, Shake and Stir Theatre Productions, really lead the way with children’s theatre (that can be sincerely enjoyed by parents…

If you can believe it, CATS is now over 40 years old. One of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s signature stage musicals (on this rare occasion, without artistic teammate, Tim Rice), CATS has been around the world touring every city imaginable including Paris, London, New York, Athens, Bangkok, Tokyo, Amsterdam, and back now to Australia after tours…

Directed by Alexander Ullom, It Ends was originally a short film that turned into a feature (87 minutes, to be precise), which debuted at SXSW 2025. It tells the story of a group of college kids embarking on a road trip. However, when they miss a turn-off, they realise they are driving directly through a…

Screening as part of the ‘Freak Me Out’ programme strand for Sydney Film Festival, Redux Redux is a self-reflexive blend of science fiction and horror, coming in fresh from its 2025 SXSW premiere. Quite simply, the film tells the story of Irene (Michaela McManus), who travels through parallel universes to find her daughter’s killer. Directed…

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, CATS, the record-breaking stage musical from Andrew Lloyd Webber, is set to tour Australia from June 2025. Starting its season at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, CATS will then move on to Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide from 20 September and to Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne from 21 December. A Perth…

This 65-minute mini musical, playing at the Sydney Opera House, is based on four books in the Dog Man comic book series, including Dog Man (2016), Dog Man Unleashed (2016), Dog Man A Tale of Two Kitties (2017), and Dog Man Lord of the Fleas (2018) by Dav Pilkey. Geared towards readers and fans 8…

Hailing from its original run at Melbourne Theatre Company in 2023, Sydney has been blessed to have a season of Bloom, a new Australian musical, playing at the Sydney Theatre Company. Writer, Tom Gleisner, is hesitant on referring to this production as such, suggesting it, “would be enough to frighten most people off, let alone…

In a world of dramatic works turned into musicals (see: Beetlejuice, Death Becomes Her, and The Color Purple, The Lord of The Rings: A Musical Tale enters. Although the original production premiered in Toronto and London back in 2006 and 2008, this new production, which focused more on the telling of the iconic story from…

Sydney Festival has some world class theatre, dance, art, and music on show throughout the Sydney summer this year, but Siegfried & Roy: The Unauthorised Opera, is really something special. A fascinating real-life story in its own, the tale of these two German magicians is captured on stage in the form of an opera. And…

A kid friendly interactive art installation is on as part of the 2025 Sydney Festival. Held in the beautiful Walsh Bay Arts Precinct, Colour Maze is geared towards children in the 2-to-12-year age range. “Colour Maze is an imaginative play experience created and brought to life by Amigo & Amigo. It inspires children to get…

SIX has arrived for a Sydney season at the Theatre Royal. Inspired by the six wives of Henry VIII, this fresh new musical, which debuted in London in 2017, is a vibrant, energising show that captivates and charms. Written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, “SIX is more than just brilliant music, it’s also a…

This production of Yentl is an incredibly engaging theatrical imagining of the short story of which it is based. The original Yiddish short story Yentl, The Yeshiva Boy by Isaac Bashevis Singer, published in 1962 has proven to still have a relevance today, over 60 years since the story was conceived. Simply put, Yentl is…

The 1949 play, Death of a Salesman, was written by lauded American playwright, Arthur Miller. Miller wrote plays including All My Sons (1947) and The Crucible (1953), and dabbled in screenwriting and radio plays, winning a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this very play. Death of a Salesman first premiered in 1949 and ran for…

With a little over a year since the first Sydney run of the 50th Anniversary Production, Rocky Horror Show is back at the Theatre Royal in Sydney. Featuring mostly the same cast and staging (check out last year’s recap here), this production has kept the momentum going after five decades of this outrageously naughty sci-fi…

Well, dip my eyeballs in glitter. The brand-new musical, & Juliet, is now in Sydney, and it’s a high-energy mash-up of Shakespearean storytelling, 90s pop music, and gender-bending progressiveness. Re-working the story of Romeo & Juliet (1597), the story starts with William Shakespeare (Rob Mills) and his wife Anne Hathaway (Amy Lehpamer) (yes, you read that…

The Lehman Trilogy opens in 1844, where a young man from Bavaria, Hayum ‘Henry’ Lehman (1844 – 1855), arrives in New York with a dream to work his way up in a bold new world. Lehman is joined by his two brothers, Mendel ‘Emanuel’ Lehman (1847 – 1907) and Mayer ‘Potato’ Lehman (1850 – 1897),…

There are circus performances, and then there are circus performances. Circus 1903, with a very limited run at the Sydney Opera House, is a visual feast, dazzling audiences and leaving jaws on the floor with serious talent. This show has aerialists, contortionists, cyclists, jugglers, strongmen, clowns, and everything in between. Circus 1903, which toured across…

A circus for adults only, Rouge is a sexy show touring and currently playing at the Sydney Spiegeltent (House of Mirrors) at The Entertainment Quarter, Sydney. The intention was to create a show that represented what doesn’t often make it to the stage: queer relationships, female sexuality, kink, and non-binary characters. Rouge had it all…

Directed by Simon Phillips, Divas is a captivating journey through time, exploring the (often quite short) lives of the biggest music stars to ever grace stage and screen. There are ten, in fact, each with their own unique personality, connection to music, and outlook on life and love. Unbelievably, there is one star who brings…

MAMMA MIA! The Musical boasts a coverage of 22 of ABBA’s greatest hits, loved by multiple generations since the super group first stepped on stage in the 1970s. This stage musical, first coming to life in London in the 1990s, has gone on to perform in over 20 languages around the world. It also turned…

If you can believe it, it’s been 50 glorious years of Rocky Horror, across stage and screen. It all started in a small 63-seater in London on the evening of 19 June 1973. Since, it has been performed worldwide in over thirty countries and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Of course, there…

Created by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber over half a century ago, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has returned to Oz for the 2022/23 tour. It was this musical that gave Rice and Lloyd Webber the start in their illustrious careers which continued with theatrical collaborations including Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. For…

Best known as a finalist on the commercial television singing competition, The Voice, Prinnie Stevens is a singer and theatre performer, starring in productions including The Bodyguard and Thriller Live. In Lady Sings the Blues, Prinnie brings her Tongan Catholic heritage to stage and maps out a life and love of strong women in music….

Antarctica is a new Australian exclusive opera performed by the Sydney Chamber Orchestra, jointly with The Netherlands’ music ensemble, Asko|Schönberg. It draws its audience in to the endlessness of the southern continent that is Antarctica. As the composers, Mary Finsterer (Music) and Tom Wright (Libretto) intended, the performance “hopes to awaken a vastness of thought”,…

As part of Park Sounds, musicians T. Lopea & the International Men of Mystique played at the Music Box (a pop-up stage near the P1 parking at Olympic Park, closest to Qudos Bank Arena) to add to the atmosphere as patrons started shuffling in for the main event, Kings of Leon supported by The Temper…