Theatre

Queensland Theatre‘s production of Cheryl Strayed New York Times bestseller Tiny Beautiful Things took to the Billie Brown theatre stage earlier this month. Adapted for the stage by Academy Award nominee Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Tiny Beautiful Things follows Sugar, an online advice columnist, as she helps strangers navigate the contradictions and complexities…

Direct from the West End, Disney’s classic Beauty and the Beast has arrived in Sydney at the Capitol Theatre. This reimagined production brings together the original creative team: Broadway’s Matt West as director/choreographer, Alan Menken as composer, Tim Rice & Howard Ashman as lyricists. Alongside them are Natasha Katz (lighting designer) and Ann Hould-Ward (costume…

The Poison of Polygamy at the Sydney Theatre Company will take you on a journey. From China’s Qing dynasty to Victoria’s nineteenth-century goldfields, and the colourful landscape of Melbourne’s Chinatown, the play seamlessly shifts focus. Based on the novel by Wong Shee Ping and adapted for the stage by Anchuli Felicia King, The Poison of…

Your summer nights are sorted! Grease the Musical is coming back to Australian shores just in time for the New Year, and has recently announced cast and ticket details for its Melbourne and Sydney runs. From a Broadway mainstay to an iconic film starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, Grease has stood the test of…

Known around the world as the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin is one of the most iconic singers of all time. During her impressive career, she won 18 Grammy awards and sold over 75 million records. Her incredible life and the songs defining her career form the heart of the stage production, ARETHA: A Love…

It’s an exciting time for the Australian arts when we get to see an ambitious, personal, and original Australian musical take the stage. Driftwood the Musical presents a captivating tale of hope and perseverance which delves into poignant themes involving the Holocaust, inter-generational trauma, sacrifices in times of war, and the perseverance of art. Created,…

Climate change, global warming, greenhouse effect, carbon emissions – there are many words to describe it and even more emotions associated with its impacts. Scenes from the Climate Era at Belvoir explores our complicated and tumultuous relationship with climate change. Presenting over fifty stories which delve into climate science, activism, and denial, it doesn’t pull…

Lace up your blue suede shoes and get ready to relive the storied life of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley in the premiere of a brand new bio-musical – Elvis: A Musical Revolution. Following successful Australian runs of The Wedding Singer and Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical, David Venn Enterprises presents a…

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…

From the big screen to the stage, the story of Once has struck a chord with audiences all around the world since its inception in 2007, evoking tears of laughter, tears of joy and tears of sadness. Making its long-awaited return to Melbourne, this award-winning production from Darlinghurst Theatre Company is a truly enchanting musical…

Trigger warning: this review/play covers the topic of abortion, if that’s triggering for you please give it a miss. For many, the idea of being trapped in an elevator is the stuff of nightmares. Throw in an ex-partner and it suddenly becomes the last place you want to be in the world. Unfortunately for the…

Having already enjoyed a sold-out world premiere Melbourne season in 2022, Driftwood The Musical is set to return to Melbourne on 3rd May before debuting in Sydney across a run of three venues from 24th May. Ahead of this run of shows, and off the back of the news that the show will be heading to…

Come From Away is a hit musical based on the true story events of the September 11 WTC tragedy. It tells the incredible story of how 38 planes were diverted from North American airspace to a remote town in Newfoundland, Canada. The locals opened their hearts and homes to almost 7000 scared and confused passengers….

Debuting on Broadway in 2010, American Idiot (based on the Green Day album of the same name that defined a generation) has become a beloved production that went on to win two Tony awards. It was developed by bandmates Michael Mayer and Billie Joe Armstrong and has finally come to Melbourne’s Chapel off Chapel thanks…

Described as a “coming-of-age comedy-drama”, COLLAPSIBLE, at the Old Fitz Theatre in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo, explores identity and that all too familiar feeling of being completely lost. Written by Margaret Perry and directed By Zoë Hollyoak and Morgan Moroney, this one woman play centres on Essie (Janet Anderson). She’s lost her job, her girlfriend and, as…

Ari Arari is a musical based on a 600-year-old Korean folk song. “Arirang” is surmised to mean “my beautiful one,” and the story is set in the Gangwon Province of Korea. Symbolic of the enduring bond between North and South Korea, it is a sweeping epic story of a daughter’s search for her carpenter father…

A man sits reading in a room, surrounded by artefacts of a past era; a record player, an unfinished abstract oil painting; a rotary telephone. He’s a counsellor (Cha Hyun-suk, who also wrote and directed the play) and he is expecting a patient. His patient (Taesik Shim) is to be his last before he retires…

You know the classic ‘boy meets girl’ tale – now witness the remix that flips the script on the conventional and gives Juliet the opportunity to be the leading lady of her own life’s story. What if Romeo & Juliet didn’t end with Juliet taking her own life? What if she embarked on a journey…

Adelaide Arts Theatre is hosting the first ever Korean season for the Adelaide Fringe. AtoBiz and Global Cultural Exchange Committee have hand picked a small selection of physical theatre and music shows. The story Hello the Hell: Othello is a play by Creative Jakhwa, a young team that started with the meaning of “flowering a…

In his first trip to Australia to meet the local company of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda delighted the Brisbane cast and surprised the city’s audience when he made a special appearance during the curtain call of a performance this past weekend. Speaking honestly, openly and humorously about the show, its creation, and the Australian production, Miranda…

Calling all budding detectives! There’s been a murder in London and we need your expertise to find the killer before they claim their next victim. Put your wits to the test and feast your eyes on the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap. Born from the incredible mind of Agatha Christie, this genre-defining murder-mystery has astonished…

i am root begins with a traditional Acknowledgement of Country, before Canadian-born Olenka Toroshenko calls upon her own ancestors to join her performance. From fleeing war and settling in Canada, to following love to Australia, what follows is a personal and eclectic mix of Ukrainian poetry, storytelling, dance, comedy and even cooking. There are tragic…

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…

Every now and then, there’s a show that reminds you how truly transformative theatre can be. A performance that has you holding your breath, unmoving, entranced, until the final moment. For me, one of these shows was Eddy Brimson’s one-man play, Naughty Boy, at Fringe World. In the dark theatre space of the Belgian Beer…

Yes, you read that right – the nostalgia party that swept Melbourne back to the good old ’90s is returning this month! After taking Australia by storm and garnering rave reviews, including a glowing 5/5 review from us, Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical is rounding out its Australian tour with one last romp through the…

When sitting down to review Liz Kingsman’s critically acclaimed One Woman Show at the Sydney Opera House, the real challenge is trying not to reveal too much while simultaneously describing one of the funniest comedic performances you’ll see this year. Written and performed by Kingsman and directed by Adam Brace, One Woman Show uses self-deprecating,…

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Mary Poppins descending on Melbourne’s own 17 Cherry Tree Lane for an unforgettable night of splendour. Adapted from the beloved writings of P.L. Travers, Disney and Cameron Mackintosh present this new and improved Mary Poppins production highlighting an all-Australian cast. The magical narrative follows Mr and Mrs Banks,…

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….

Sitting in the audience at Werk It you’d be forgiven for rubbing your eyes and questioning what you’d imbibed prior. The 60-minute show performed by Circus Trick Tease was pretty much all killer, no filler. This was a crazy array of jaw-dropping stunts and circus artistry with lashings of sass and innuendo. As you walk…