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…
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 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…
Agatha Christie is a timeless story-teller, weaving intriguing stories about complex characters with dark secrets. With some 66 crime novels, 150 short stories and over 25 plays, she is regarded as the Queen of Crime. Director Robyn Nevin AO has bought And Then There Were None to life with style and humour. The play is set…
It doesn’t need to be the hard knock life. Take a trip down Easy Street with one of Broadway’s brightest sources of love, laughter and happiness. Returning to Australian shores, Annie the Musical has delighted audiences worldwide for nearly 50 years, capturing the hearts of generation after generation. It’s a truly joyous adventure following 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…
Australia’s leading First Nations performing arts company, Bangarra Dance Theatre, is once again taking to the stage at the Sydney Opera House to present their new work, Illume. After 20 years performing out of the Drama Theatre, Bangarra are making history by bringing their latest work to the main stage in the Joan Sutherland Theatre,…
While Homer’s epic of Odysseus leaving his Ithaca home for ten years to fight for Helen’s honour in the Trojan war is well celebrated, what is not so well documented is the story of his devoted wife Penelope who was left behind. Booker Prize-winning author, Margaret Atwood penned the 2005 novella The Penelopiad, which was…
Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Be… witness to one of the most extravagant and impressive productions to ever hit Australian shores. The hotly anticipated musical adaptation of Tim Burton’s classic film, Beetlejuice, has debuted six feet down-under with Melbourne’s own Eddie Perfect sliding into the titular role for the first time. The musical takes themes of family, love and…
Grab your lyre and take a trip down the Styx to the Underworld… but just remember, don’t look back. Where love, tragedy and Greek mythology combine, Hadestown debuts the timeless love story of Orpheus and Eurydice at Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre. This Tony award-winning production, fuelled by the music and lyrics of Anaïs Mitchell, weaves…
UPU are a collective based in New Zealand who aim to create more opportunities for Pacific performing artists by making contemporary, Pacific centred works for both stage and screen. UPU, meaning ‘word’, in many different languages of the Pacific Islands, brings together the voices of those living among the islands of the Pacific Ocean, also…
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…
Australian writers, Jamila Rizvi and Rosie Waterland are unlikely friends. This odd couple met while working together at Mama Mia online and are now co-authors. Their book, Broken Brains is about their unvarnished lived experiences with different forms of brain sickness. The Sydney Opera House was the first stop on the pair’s book tour. It…
Any concerns that the world’s longest-running musical was losing its edge are put to bed in a stunning Sydney gala performance of Les Misérables. Even if musicals aren’t your thing, you’ll know of Les Misérables: it’s been a pop culture icon for as long as most of us can remember. But for Australia’s insatiable theatre…
The HerStory Arts Festival (23 – 26 April 2025), presented by Lost Voices Australia Inc. aims to celebrate and amplify women’s stories, especially those that have been lost to HIStory. The three-day event, which includes plays, readings of poetry, memoirs, essays, along with musical performances and art displays, is designed to foster creativity and ignite…
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…
Based on the iconic 1992 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg, Sister Act, The Musical launched in Adelaide to an enthusiastic reception. Everything about this production is big, bold, brash and beautiful. The story is as fresh as when the movie was released. Casey Donovan stars as Deloris Van Cartier, a singer in a club managed by…
Have you ever wanted to rock out with Jesus, Judas and the gang? Join 50 years of raving audiences and bear witness this to reinvention… this revival… this ‘resurrection’ of Jesus Christ Superstar. Guided by the lyrics and music of EGOT winners Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, this mesmerising new production has hit Australian…
The Australian Platypus is an unusual animal, seemingly made from disjointed parts that somehow come together to make a creature that is both unique and adorable. The Platypus is a play that uses that creature as its motif and is also an unusual creature that is loveable. Playwright and director Francis Greenslade has compiled a witty…
Sixteen years after her passing, Pina Bausch remains the most famous contemporary choreographer in the world, and the fate of the company she founded is still inextricably tied to her. For Tanztheater Wuppertal, this is a double-edged sword. It grants a level of publicity that few other dance troupes could dream of, especially those based…
Arthur Art Bar is a gritty Fringe venue in the west end of Adelaide that has evolved over the last few years. Formerly a furniture store, it is known for its presentation of alternative and queer performances. This year for the Fringe, the upstairs rooms, each barely larger than a bedroom have been converted for…
