Arts

The Broadway, West End and international sensation STOMP is back, set to return to Australia with its unstoppable energy. The show will tour to Melbourne, the Gold Coast, Adelaide and Sydney from May to August, running at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre from 31 July to 5 August. Eight performers use an array of ordinarily mundane objects,…

You’re walking around a museum after dark, encountering all kinds of weird and wonderful animals, suddenly you swear the Brachiosaurus just winked at you – is your mind playing tricks on you? Or is it the four cocktails you’ve just polished off taking effect? Either way, this is Jurassic Lounge and in here, anything is…

If you like your music and are looking for a book that celebrates LGBTQI legends then 50 Queer Music Icons is the one for you. This is the first book from former Presets manager, Will Larnach-Jones. It was recently launched at APRA’s headquarters in Sydney. The AU’s Natalie Salvo brings you the five things you…

The supernova of international cabaret and festival favourite, Sven Ratzke returns to Australia this week for his new show HOMME FATALE as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The show features Ratzke’s masterful storytelling is eclipsed only by his sensational vocal performances, including works by Rufus Wainwright, Dez Mona, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop. Sosefina Fuamoli…

If you were in the vicinity of Sydney’s ICC on Friday 15th June you may have noticed an abundance of white canvas tote bags marked with red Xs and Os. No, it wasn’t a giant game of noughts and crosses (although that would have been super fun) – the people toting said totes were taking…

In need of an arts fix now that Vivid and Dark Mofo are coming to an end*? The rest of the month still has plenty in store. Iconic art exhbitions, dramatic operas, eye opening musicals and curious burlesque… the rest of June is overflowing with artistic highs. Here are five events around Australia this month…

It takes extraordinary strength of character (both in personality and portrayal) to deliver a flawless performance while one of your leads is being rushed to hospital with a serious injury, but that is what the cast of Assassins did on opening night at the Sydney Opera House this week. A sharply designed, brilliantly performed production,…

Jersey Boys tells the true-life story and the rise to stardom of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons who were one of the most successful bands in pop music history. The band sold over 175 million records and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for their worldwide hits including Can’t Take…

Above Ground features Cat’s Cradle, a new work from Australia’s celebrated physical theatre company Legs On The Wall. Cat’s Cradle explores the depths of what is private and what is public, expertly utilising a commanding apparatus that looms over the space like a curtain of tentacles. The second work, Soft Prosthetics and Metal Gods, sees…

Home Fire, the British Pakistani author’s seventh novel, is a contemporary re-imagining of Sophocles’ Ancient Greek tragedy, Antigone. Freed of the responsibility of caring for her younger siblings, Isma Pasha heads to America to study. But she can’t help but be drawn back into the lives of the twins; headstrong Anneeka alone in London, and…

A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising isn’t your everyday horror novel. Presented as an oral history, it’s a chilling mix of witness statements, legal documents, and interviews, and it should come as no surprise that the film rights have already been snapped up by Fox and 21 Laps, the team behind Stranger Things. AU…

The Priscilla bus is coming. And everybody’s jumping. Sydney to Alice Springs. An intercity disco. Okay, enough Vengaboys! But dear reader, you may not know that the great, big silver bus that is Priscilla: Queen Of The Desert has rolled into old Sydney town to party and celebrate her 10th on-stage birthday. The AU Review’s…

Ever wondered what it’s like to be the most talked about person in Australia? How to go about becoming a social media sensation? Or what women who work in scientific professions really feel about gender balance? These are just some of the things pondered by some of Australia’s leading minds, all of whom are appearing…

The Priscilla Queen Of The Desert film is on the verge of celebrating its silver anniversary and the stage show has also been entertaining audience for ten years. The iconic silver bus recently returned to old Sydney town with star Tony Sheldon, who has been entertaining audiences as Bernadette in various productions of the live…

Round and round the Brisbane Ferris Wheel goes, why tourists pay $30 to ride it nobody knows. At least, that’s what occurred to me while watching the visual piece in the background set the backdrop for TAM and Metro Arts latest production – Wheel of Fortune. Loosely based on the Austrian play La Ronde, which…

Sydney’s State Theatre will be transported by the atmosphere and excitement of Parisian-themed revue Cabaret De Paris when a parade of exquisitely bejewelled international entertainers reveal all (nearly all) with 2 shows only on Saturday the 30th of June. Cabaret De Paris is a stage spectacular celebrating old-fashioned showgirl glamour mixed with the skill of…

The Adelaide Cabaret Festival is upon us for another year – from June 8th through until June 23rd, Ali McGregor‘s latest program is set to bring some revered international names together with some of Australia’s brightest musical and theatrical talent for some truly indulgent, entertaining nights out. If you’ve not been exposed to the delights of the…

In the very near future, a virus dubbed NOBI stalks the population. Those infected with it become something more than human, and designate themselves Gloamings. Attractive, powerful, and exciting, these modern day vampires have thousands clamouring to be like them. But a few see them as they really are, bloodthirsty and dangerous, and as Gloaming…

The idea of a modern-day Atlantis, or large coastal cities flooded by rising sea-levels sounds like the stuff of horror or science fiction films. Instead, The Water Will Come is a frightening, non-fiction book written by Rolling Stone contributing editor, Jeff Goodell. Goodell has written about climate change for over 15 years and is able to distill…

It is hard for some of us to even fathom being an airplane crash victim. But for former Sydney Morning Herald journalist, Cynthia Banham it was reality. In A Certain Light Banham pens a family memoir that describes this irrevocable tragedy, and the fateful day that left her a double amputee with burns to over…

At a prestigious Catholic school, two boys fall in love. In their final school year, Peter and Jason test the limits of their secret relationship, as Peter wants to come out to the world, while Jason, wary of losing his family and friends, wants to live the fantasy a little longer. As rehearsals for the…

I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting walking into Hayes Theatre to see Gypsy, a musical based on the memoirs of famous burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee. All I know is this wasn’t it. The performance focuses heavily on the early life of Gypsy Rose Lee, growing up in the shadow of her sister…

The Briefs boys are back in Brisbane, returning from a distant glamourous future to spread a message of hope, love, and fabulous good times. Led by their drag queen mistress Shivannah (Fez Fa’anana), the stage is set for a night of stunning aerial acrobatics, powerful lip syncs, and raucous good fun. This is cabaret at…

Peter Carey, Michelle De Kretser, and Kim Scott head up an eleven strong list of contenders for the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award. The past winners are up against eight other established authors, contending for a $60,000 prize. One of Australia’s most important literary awards, the Miles Franklin was established with funds from the estate…

In their largest program yet, Melbourne is once again hosting their annual Open House Weekend this coming July, inviting the public to tour and explore various buildings in and around Melbourne City. A total of 224 buildings will open their doors to the public on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 of July, allowing the public…

I read a quote by Nicholas Sparks the other day that went something along the lines of, “The thing that people want most is to be happy. Most young people seem to think that those things lay somewhere in the future, while most older people believe they lay in the past.” As I sat in…

France, 1562. The Languedoc region is on the cusp of religious war. Threatened by the spread of Protestantism, the Catholic powers are pushing back against edicts ordering tolerance, by stock piling weapons and torturing suspected Huguenots. Old friends become bitter enemies, secrets are bought and sold, and the region moves ever closer to bloody conflict….

Beloved Australian author, Zoë Foster Blake has become an authority on dating and relationships. The former Cosmopolitan columnist wrote Textbook Romance with Hamish Blake, the man who would one day become her husband. Now she delivers us Break-up Boss, a rather joyous but realistic pocket guide to break-ups and its companion piece, an eponymous app….

Despite being penned by arguably the world’s greatest playwright, the convoluted storyline of Troilus & Cressida can prove a significant challenge for even the best theatre practitioners. Secret House have tackled this problem play with their usual gusto, gaining many ticks from this reviewer, but unfortunately the source material proves a difficult sell and, as…

Narelle (Sheridan Harbridge) skirts across a converted factory floor, all brushed concrete and industrial chic, flanked by an eager estate agent (Nikki Shiels). It’s an all too common scene as Sydney’s working class havens make way for heritage apartment conversions, hip cafes and pet-owning professionals. Narelle however stalks the space with a touch of melancholy,…