For over 20 years, Milk Crate Theatre have engaged with disadvantaged people, devising works which challenge norms of performance. Developed over the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns, DUST was conceived over a number of zoom sessions before being fleshed-out in the person earlier this year. Drawing on themes of isolation and enforced reflection, the story centres…
It’s a cold, dark night in Sydney. As the wind whips around St James’ Cathedral, there’s a whisper of something sinister. The shadows appear to be moving and an overwhelming sense of anticipation hangs in the air. This is Deadhouse: Tales of Sydney Morgue and we are about to step into Razor Gang Wars: The…
A Raisin in the Sun was the first play in Broadway to be written by an African American woman, premiering in 1959 and starring Sidney Poitier. Sixty-five years later, it finally makes its Australian mainstage premiere, presented by Sydney Theatre Company. Three generations of Youngers live in a cramped 2-bedroom apartment on Chicago’s gritty south…
There would be few people who are not familiar with Charlotte Brontë’s classic story of Jane Eyre. Even if you have not read the original novel, there are numerous film adaptations and stage productions that have re-imagined this haunting and Gothic tale. I was interested to see what this latest offering from director Michael Futcher…
Three years ago, Come From Away crash-landed on Australian shores to rave reviews praising everything from the performances to the music. Now, the Tony award-winning musical has returned to Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre to spread its infectious joy and poignant narrative to new and returning audiences. This is one of those shows where every individual element…
In the world of endless streaming services and instantaneous hand-held entertainment, theatre can seem a bit inaccessible and highbrow – at least, to a large proportion of the younger generation. And that’s what the team at Beyond the Yard Theatre are trying to remedy with their production Trust Me, It’s the End of Our World…
As the applause dies down and the lights go up, the audience glances at one another, glassy-eyed and slightly dazed. What had we just experienced? It felt as if we had witnessed open heart surgery – while the person was still conscious – and the thought uppermost in my mind was – how the hell…
Delta Goodrem and guests walk the red carpet at The Phantom of the Opera opening night. Experience the phenomenon of one of the most successful musicals of all time, when Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legendary show makes its Sydney Opera House debut. Nathan captured the excitement and glamour of the red…
Audiences watching Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde either know the drill or at least have some concept of what happens. But it’s a testament to Kip Williams and the Sydney Theatre Company that this production bedazzles and surprises. This is a rendering that is brimming with so many different layers, that it…
It’s easy to assume a classic story will feel tired and dull when it’s reproduced for the thousandth time – but that was not the case with The Glass Menagerie. Perhaps it was the vivacious talent delivering the script or the timelessness of family drama, but this Tennessee Williams piece felt just as relevant and…
Trigger warning: Sexual assault Prima Facie tells the story of Tessa (Jodie Comer), a young, tenacious and determined barrister who is at the prime of her career. With a sharp mind and an ironclad belief in the word of the law, she has never lost a case. Even when working on cases that would trigger…
1996-ish. Canberra-ish. Artie Whig (Will Carseldine) is facing an uncertain future, about to be cut off by his no-nonsense father John (Kevin Hides). Unless he marries and finds a career, the young gadabout can kiss his allowance goodbye. Meanwhile, Minister for the Environment Robyn Shi (Hsiao-Ling Tang) and her advisor Gertrude (an absolute scene-stealing Emily…
After a delayed start, Robyn Archer: An Australian Songbook has finally made its way to the Bille Brown Theatre stage and, happily, it was more than worth the wait. Setting aside the assumed Aussie repertoire, An Australian Songbook explores the history of our country through a rather unexpected collection of Australian music, anchored by the…
National treasure Robyn Archer has set up home at Queensland Theatre for the next couple of weeks. Alongside her long-time band members, George Butrumulis (Zydeco Jump), Cameron Goodall (The Audreys) and Ennio Pozzebon (Keating: The Musical), she’ll be taking audiences on a journey through Australian song – and it won’t always be the tracks you’re…
Charming. That’s the word I’d best use to describe what Moulin Rouge! has bought to a Sydney crowd that’s absolutely aching for a playful musical following the previous few years. While he’s busy doing the round in Australia right now for his new movie Elvis, Baz Luhrmann has no doubt already been through the Capitol…
It is 1899 and the world’s most famous actress, Sarah Bernhardt, is rehearsing for Hamlet. But, to the horror of critics and the delight of the Parisian gossip mills, she won’t be reprising her role as Ophelia. Nor will she be embracing the age appropriate Gertrude. Bernhardt craves something more audacious, something bold. Something that…
The Australian production of Once, the eight-time Tony Award-winning musical (based on a critically acclaimed 2007 film) has come to The Regal Theatre in Subiaco. It’s a charming, joyous story, and even before the show started, there was a palpable feeling of excitement in the air – assisted by musicians wandering between the rows, playing…
Intimate, heart-breaking and occasionally very funny, Jason Robert Brown‘s The Last Five Years has taken to the La Boite Roundhouse stage under the direction of Darren Yap. Chronicling two 20-somethings as they fall in and out of love, the musical navigates the years of miscommunications, crossed wires, and heartfelt attempts to salvage something that perhaps…
Whip out your retro windbreaker, rock the double denim look and prepare to relive the good old ’90s in all their glory with the nostalgia-fuelled Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical. Following successful runs across the US and the UK, garnering rave reviews from original film stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Reese Witherspoon, this throwback musical…
Experience the timeless Cinderella story you know and love, now with a contemporary spin in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, a Tony Award winning Broadway musical from the minds behind The Sound of Music. After captivating audiences across the US, this spellbinding production has floated into Melbourne, lighting up the famous Regent Theatre with dazzling costumes…
Queensland Theatre‘s second production of 2022 sees Australian screen and stage legend Angie Milliken return to her Brisbane roots. And she won’t be the only theatrical icon in the building when Theresa Rebeck‘s Bernhardt/Hamlet opens later this month. Set at the turn of the 20th century, when famed French actress Sarah Bernhardt staged a performance…
Presented by Circa, Wolfgang’s Magical Musical Circus has a short stint at the Theatre Royal, adding a cheeky element of fun to the school holidays. The show is a more ‘child-friendly’ version of its adult counterpart, Circa’s Peepshow, which runs parallel in the evenings. The classical composer’s music comes to life on stage as the…
Prepare to be sent on a nostalgia-fuelled ride back to the good old ’90s as Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical premieres down-under in May. Presented by David Venn Enterprises (The Wedding Singer, Bring It On: The Musical), this beloved production will be shuffling its way onto Australian shores in 2022, premiering at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre…
Hamilton has a new home in Australia – officially opening in Melbourne’s theatre district after spending much of 2021 and the early months of 2022 based in Sydney. The Tony Award-winning blockbuster, at the centre of a premiere bragging rights battle between the two capital cities, was eventually won by the New South Wales Government….
Song Lines are the way of sharing knowledge along generations of Indigenous people. In this multimedia performance, the relationship to the land is explored, not just in song, but in visual poetry. Drone art specialists, Celestial and First Nations Artists have collaborated to tell these stories from First Nations peoples. Renowned singer, songwriter, Archie Roach…
The worlds of ballet and musical theatre collide in An American in Paris, creating an extraordinary blend of timeless music, breathtaking choreography and a captivating love story set against the romantic backdrop of Paris. Inspired by the 1951 Oscar-winning film of the same name, and incorporating music from George and Ira Gershwin, An American in…
The opening song in Bethany Louise’s Broadway Baby cabaret show is both a tribute and lament that she is singing at Arthur’s Bar for the Adelaide Fringe. Not that Arthur’s Bar is a bad place, it’s more because her dreams of starring on Broadway were dashed by the dreaded COVID virus. In an autobiographic style,…
The Cocoon is four vignettes of love, with two monologues and two duologues. Written by New York’s Kotryna Gesait & directed by Brisbane-based Timothy Wynn, The Cocoon has previously been performed at the Adelaide Fringe in 2018 and again in 2019. For 2022, the performance takes place in Peter Rabbit in the West End of…
Local celebrities and guests walk the red carpet at the opening night of the stage adaptation of Alfred Hitcock‘s North By Northwest. David Campbell stars as Roger O. Thornhill who’s uneventfull life is turned upside down when he is thrust into a world of espionage, romance and murder. From the skyscraper canyons of New York…
Before walking into the theatre, the quality of the storyline has already been confirmed as this play is based on the 1959 film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock who brought audiences iconic classics such as Vertigo (1958), Strangers on a Train (1951) and Psycho (1960). Considered the first ‘James Bond’ before there was any,…
