Arts

Debuting at ILA Immersive Light and Art for the 2026 Adelaide Festival, Manifest Destiny is an ambitious cross-disciplinary exhibition by acclaimed South Australian photographer Alex Frayne, in collaboration with digital artist Liam Somerville (Capital Waste) and composer Donnie Sloan (Empire of the Sun, Sneaky Sound System). Blending analogue photography, 3D digital immersion and original composition, Manifest Destiny marks a…

Frank Roberts, a Widjabul Wia-bal and Githabul man, known as ‘Honest Frank’, was Australia’s first Aboriginal Olympian. A man of incredible integrity and determination, Frank’s skills in a boxing ring saw him selected for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. In My Cousin Frank at the Sydney Opera House, his first cousin, artistic and cultural leader…

There’s something exciting about A Christmas Carol returning to the Melbourne theatre each year. Much like the season itself, Charles Dickens’ timeless tale has a way of circling back with a sense of familiar comfort, but the Old Vic’s acclaimed production manages to make that return feel exciting rather than routine. Back at the Comedy…

Teleportation may not be possible just yet, but Maho Magic Bar is the closest we’ve come! Situated in the newly opened Spiegel Haus Melbourne precinct, step into a bespoke space that stimulates the senses and transports you to an authentic Tokyo magic bar without ever leaving your backyard. Combining dazzling magic, classic cocktails and laughs…

This is a spoiler-free article that was originally published 25th June 2025.  Less than 18 months after it premiered on the West End, Stranger Things: The First Shadow made its anticipated Broadway debut this April. The play is Netflix’s first production on the stage, and understandably, the production was initially met with skepticism. Could the…

With sexual fluidity becoming more a open topic of discussion and exploration, it’s quite surprising how revelatory something like Gravity still feels in 2025; Bradford Elmore‘s sexual celebratory romantic dramedy that flips the usual boy-meets-girl narrative with a boy-meets-boy-meets-girl layering. A tale of two distinct love stories unfolding simultaneously, Gravity initially sets up the meet-cute between Heather (Annabelle Kablean, comedically…

The 2022 film version of The Whale, directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Brendan Fraser, earned two Oscars and a BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Samuel D. Hunter‘s play, written in 2012, centres on a morbidly obese online English tutor trying to reconcile with his perpetually angry daughter. The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild,…

What better way to celebrate the grand opening of Spiegel Haus Melbourne, a new entertainment venue in the heart of the CBD, than with a sexy, sultry and seductive adults-only spectacle? Blanc de Blanc Encore is a sensual mix of cabaret, circus and comedy, turning this eclectic Melbourne venue into a Parisian, champagne-fuelled delight for…

It’s 1968, and Hair has just brought a story about identity, hippie culture and war to the musical theatre scene. Cut to nearly 60 years later, and the same cultural movement is making its way through Australia, capturing the audience with an emotion-fuelled tribal ritual. This tribal love rock musical is hinged around 60s counterculture,…

The State Opera of South Australia have reimagined Shakespeare’s story of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet as a beautiful ode to the power of love. Director Radula Gaitanou has taken Gounod’s distillation of Shakespeare’s play and imagined it as a love story that transcends time and space. It is a story of two young…

Walking through the doors of The Grand Electric was like stepping back into a 1920s speakeasy. A circular stage dominates the centre of the room, with chairs and tables scattered around it. Above the stage, like the crowning jewel, sits an enormous disco ball, that showers the room in dancing bursts of light. The mood…

Appropriately pitched as a “stripped-back, rough-and-ready reimagining”, Calamity Jane at the Sydney Opera House is a rowdy and rambunctious tale of the well-known American frontierswoman. Known as a sharpshooter and avid storyteller, there have been many reprising’s of this infamous character – Doris Day in the 1953 film, Robin Weigert in the 2004 series Deadwood…

If you’re a popular-enough movie with a strong feminine edge, there’s a good chance you have been, will be, or are receiving the screen-to-stage treatment.  Over the last near-two decades we’ve seen such titles as Legally Blonde, Bring It On, 13 Going On 30, and Mean Girls all get the musical treatment, and now, the…

Australian pop sensation Samantha Jade has long been a powerhouse in the music industry – from winning The X Factor in 2012 to topping charts with her platinum-selling hits and captivating audiences with her dynamic performances.  Known for her stunning vocals and undeniable stage presence, Samantha has continually evolved as an artist, expanding her talents…

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…

Natalie Abbott burst onto the scene as Muriel Heslop in Muriel’s Wedding The Musical, earning Helpmann and Green Room Award nominations in the process.  And now, she brings her comedic brilliance and powerhouse vocals to The Lovers, a popified take on Shakespeare’s classic ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’; you can read our review here. As the…

In a world where a genocide is being played out on peoples phones and the “leader of the free world” is blatantly censoring anyone who speaks out against him, the worst thing we can do is stop asking questions. Curious at the Sydney Opera House presents four talks in one day. These talks, which address…

Hugely popular comedian Matt Rife has announced new tour dates for his ‘Stay Golden World Tour’ with nine dates across Australia and New Zealand next year. January and February will see Rife electrify audiences in New Zealand’s Ōtautahi, Christchurch and Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, followed by an Australian run throughout Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth….

Think of it as Shakespeare for the TikTok generation, The Lovers, courtesy of lyricist Laura Murphy, injects the same type of energy Baz Luhrmann laced his Romeo & Juliet telling with across the Midsummer Night’s Dream narrative, reimagining the classic chaos of the original love story with a serious pop sensibility. The core story itself…

Put on your white glove, dust off your red “Thriller” jacket and get ready to witness a musical production fit only for the King of Pop. Michael Jackson is more than a name, he’s a symbol of creativity, aspiration and resilience: a true superstar who transcended musical and cultural boundaries to unite the world through…

Musicians taking centre stage on Broadway is nothing new. In recent years, artists like David Byrne and Bruce Springsteen have transformed the Broadway stage into long-running residencies. Scripted productions about real and imagined musicians, like MJ The Musical (about the life and music of Michael Jackson) or the play Stereophonic, have been awarded Tony’s, and have…

Anne Frank is a name synonymous with youth, innocence, and heartbreaking tragedy. Her diaries, published after her death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, detailed her life, and that of her family, hiding in an annex in Amsterdam during World War II. The Diary of a Young Girl, commonly referred to as The Diary…

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…

When an ensemble of accident-prone actors take on a murder mystery performance, everything that can go wrong… does. But amount of chaos can crush their spirits, as they battle the odds to make it to their final curtain call – by any means necessary. Never has a play gone so wrong, yet felt so right….

The Linden Postcard Show is in its 35th year and this year there will be over 1200 artworks on display available for purchase. The Postcard Show runs from 6th September to 2nd November in the gallery in St Kilda in Melbourne. This is a much loved fixture in the Melbourne Art scene. As part of…

Artistic directors and cofounders of the Adelaide Ballet, Rejane Garcia and Sarah Humeniuk have a vision – to establish a professional ballet company that honours the timeless beauty of the art form, while telling the stories of South Australia. And, in the confines of the Light Room Studio at ILA, Adelaide’s Immersive Light and Art,…

Whilst The Magic Flute has been a staple since W. A. Mozart wrote the music in 1791, this performance of the opera by the State Opera South Australia has been produced with the co-support of Opera Hong Kong, Beijing Music Festival and China National Opera House. This gives it a multicultural feel. In the opera,…

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…

SNL alum Pete Davidson is making his way Down Under this September for a compact, four-show standup sprint that is way overdue. He’ll kick things off at Perth’s Riverside Theatre on September 29th, before hitting up Melbourne’s Palais Theatre on September 30th and wrapping it up in Sydney with two shows at the Enmore Theatre…