By Jennifer Beasley. An instant classic, Break of Day is the unfolding Australian tragedy of excessive hubris and the revelations that comes from the shattering of delusions. As a critic, I live for the moments when theatrical performances flash with genius. Break of...

Review by Josiah Hilbig   The 1812 Theatre’s production of Ken Ludwig’s Treasure Island, directed by Erin O’Hare is a wonderfully thrilling adventure as the young Jim Hawkins suddenly finds himself thrust into the midst of conniving, backstabbing pirates all...

By Suzanne Tate The Neil Diamond Musical: A Beautiful Noise was a delightful surprise. Not your average jukebox musical, A Beautiful Noise is a raw, revealing, and brave look into the motivations, successes, shortcomings, career, and family life of Neil Diamond, told...

By Suzanne Tate The Palais Theatre in St Kilda was filled with excitement and energy on Friday night for the one-night-only performance of Jersey Forever. The show featured the four original cast members from the Australian cast of Jersey Boys; Bobby Fox, who...

Review by Suzanne Tate   Henry the Eighth's famous brides are once more gracing Melbourne with their iconic, powerful presence, as the blockbuster show SIX returns once again to the Comedy Theatre.   Since premiering at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017,...

By Jennifer Beasley. A challenging performance that tackles difficult subjects allows the magnificent Lucy Ansell to soar. Trigger Warning (taken from Red Stitch Website): contains strong language and mature themes. It includes depictions of sexual assault, rape,...

By Darby Turnbull As Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag says “Hair is everything”. The Salon or Beauty Parlour has always been a place for people, usually of the same gender, to commune and let their guard down. Theatrically it’s a setting of potent possibilities; at her...

By Adam Rafferty Like the rest of Russian writer Anton Chekov’s plays, Uncle Vanya has had innumerable English adaptations since it first graced the stage at the turn of the twentieth century. Venerated Aussie playwright Joanna Murray-Smith penned this version for...

By Jennifer Beasley. Bold and brilliant, Vista is an outstanding production whose seamlessly execution allows one story to duplicate and raises the bar on contemporary dance.  Amazing. Australia’s foremost chorographer, Stephanie Lake, has me floored. Her company, the...

By Adam Rafferty It’s hard to believe it has been fifteen years since the revered Broadway musical Grey Gardens has graced a Melbourne stage but considering the limited engagement of that first staging by the now defunct The Production Company it’s definitely not too...

Review by Suzanne Tate   Pretty Woman: The Musical has been a long time coming, especially for Australian audiences. The idea was first raised in 2013 by producer Paula Wagner in discussions with Garry Marshall and J.F. Lawton, the director and writer of the...

  Review by David Gardette    Premiering in 2011 and making its Broadway debut in 2012, Bring It On: The Musical brought together an impressive creative team including Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton), Amanda Green (High Fidelity) and...

By Jennifer Beasley. A sublime presentation, both beautiful and terrifying, of generational trauma from Domestic Abuse as told through a bespoke fusion of spoken word, dance, singing and music.  *** Trigger warning: Mentions of Domestic Violence. As a critic, it can...

By Jessica Taurins Suzy Eddie Izzard has spent much of her extended career doing standup and other silliness, titillating her audiences with sharp punchlines in all formats (stage, screen, probably radio, so on and so on). So, I would expect some audiences to be a...

By Darby Turnbull Dax Carnay-Hanrahan can always be relied upon to come up with the best titles. Over the last five years her company TAYOTAYO collective have made their mark on the Naarm stage with memorable productions including Trans Woman Kills Influencer, Chasing...

By Adam Rafferty While many may see theatre, especially the work of state theatre companies, as the place where ‘important’ stories should be told and ‘worthy’ subjects explored to inform our world view and reflect the current state of affairs, sometimes it’s not only...

Review by Annie Zeleznikow   Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) is a light-hearted adaptation of the original source material (written by Isobel McArthur), narrated by the servants of the Bennett family and the extended Pride and Prejudice universe. This silly and...

. Review by Nick Pilgrim . Chapel off Chapel, Prahran Reviewed on Friday June 19, 2026 . When I was offered the chance to review Sweet Charity (1966), I literally jumped at the chance. Along with Mame (1966), Hello Dolly (1964) and Gypsy (1959), this is one of the...

By Suzanne Tate  Sheltering, by Bangarra Dance Theatre, was a beautiful, evocative performance that explores ideas of deep cultural significance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Bangarra Dance Theatre is a company of professional contemporary artists,...

By Nick Pilgrim Though deeply personal and introspective, stories about writing, research and intellectual ownership can make for surprisingly compelling theatre. Notable examples of this niche but fascinating genre include A Room With a View, Adaptation, Arcadia,...

By Jennifer Beasley. The co-dependent nature of Big and Little Edie from Grey Gardens backdrops this stunning and emotionally fulfilling cabaret from a talented trio.  Based upon the 1975 documentary, Grey Gardens (you can watch it on youtube), explores the...

  Award winning performer Jaclyn DeVincentis returns to Chapel Off Chapel for the Melbourne debut of her latest work Prima Nonna. As the title would suggest this show is all about Nonnas - specifically, her Nonna Sera.   From the moment the audience enters...

Review by Nick Pilgrim . . It was only a matter of time. . . In recent years, public interest in Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (1879 – 1954) and her prolific output has experienced a significant resurgence. Two investigative biographies, a children’s book and a...

By Darby Turnbull For the next few weeks Footscray local and Award-Winning Cabaret Performer Miss Friby is hosting a soiree for the lost, confused and discontented at Bluestone Church Arts Space. Beasts of Burden invites its audience to sit with whatever baggage...

Review by Tim Garratt   Adapted from Sydney Pollack’s 1982 film, Tootsie premiered in Chicago in 2018 and arrived on Broadway the following year. With music and lyrics by David Yazbek and a Tony Award-winning book by Robert Horn, the show is now playing on an...

By Darby Turnbull Sarah Ruhl’s 2003 adaption of the myth of Eurydice and Orpheus has been in almost constant production since its premiere, even spawning an Opera at the Met in New York. Her whimsical, poetic and funny deconstructions of contemporary malaise that...

By Karyn Lee Greig ‘Anna X’ - Red Stitch Actors Theatre - Wed 27/5/26 4 Stars Of the many con artists throughout history, predictably, a few were women. In the 18th century, Jeanne of Valois-Saint-Remy (1756-1791), was leader of the ‘Affair of the Diamond Necklace’...

  Written by Graham Linehan in 2011, The Ladykillers is a stage adaptation of the 1955 dark comedy film of the same name. Considered to be a British comedy classic, the film starred Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, and Katie Johnson, receiving great...

By Nick Pilgrim If the name, Sidney Poitier (1927 – 2022), isn’t a familiar one, it should be. The late actor is known for fronting iconic motion pictures like The Defiant Ones (1958), Lillies of the Field (1963), A Patch of Blue (1965), To Sir, with Love, Guess Who’s...

  The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a musical with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. The musical is a stage adaptation of the animated 1996 Disney film of the same name, which was based on the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo. While the animated film was...

Review by Tim Garratt   It’s no small achievement for any theatrical work to still draw audiences in almost 150 years after its debut. In 2026, The Pirates of Penzance (subtitled ‘The Slave of Duty’) remains a beloved fixture on stages across the world.  ...

By Jennifer Beasley. Wild, wacky and wonderful, Pride and Prejudice, Bloomshed style, smashes the ceiling on absurdist comedy.  I love a good potted plant. Yes. You’re read this correctly because in this ninety-minute retelling of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice,...

  Once is a musical with a book by Enda Walsh, and music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. Based on the 2007 film of the same name, the musical adaptation of Once premiered at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2011 and then transferred to Broadway...

By Nick Pilgrim Clocking in at a brisk seventy-five minutes, Shoelace Chaser packs quite the punch. Spare and compact, this coming-of-age story appears written expressly for teenage and young adult viewers alike. Covering a multitude of themes, the one-act play...

By Jennifer Beasley. A compelling tale of inevitability binds five friends as an 800-year-old conflict during Northern Ireland’s unsettling conflict draws to an end – with tragic results. Produced by Ben Walter of Patalog Theatre Co. and Cameron Lukey of 45DS present...

By Darby Turnbull Shortly after their very fine revival of Beyond the Neck Theatreworks returns to Tom Holloway’s oeuvre with his 2008 play Red Sky Morning, which will also tour regional Victoria. Through interconnected, verse-like monologues, Holloway the...

Review by Suzanne Tate   Waitress premiered on Broadway in 2016, nine years after the movie was first launched at the Sundance Film Festival. Waitress has built a loyal following through its combination of quirky humour, grounded domestic drama and a score by...

By Jennifer Beasley. Female revenge empowerment becomes entwined with predatory tennis metaphors and Hamlet’s corruption through justice as Game. Set. Match delves into monster hunting territory as it asks: Can someone reclaim agency through violence?  Trigger...

By Adam Rafferty After staging A Streetcar Named Desire in 2024, MTC have returned to American author Tennessee Williams’ work again, this time producing his breakthrough play The Glass Menagerie (not for the first time). It’s known for being a ‘memory play’ with...

By Mama Natalie  The name Mara has deep roots in multiple strands of myth and folklore. In Norse and Germanic traditions, a “mara” was a malevolent spirit believed to sit on a sleeper’s chest, causing nightmares. In Hebrew, the name itself means “bitterness” or...

By Jessica Taurins Nobody really grows out of enjoying fairytales. No matter what we say to ourselves, it's easy to be sucked back into worlds of mystery and magic, where mistakes jumpstart an adventure and a moral ending is to be expected. The Bookbinder is one of...

By Jessica Taurins Harry Jun is a delicious blend of many things - Korean, Australian, Wollongong-ian, exuberant, thoughtful, hyperactive, humble - and all of them are on display during his 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival show Inside Jokes, Outside Voice....

By Jennifer Beasley. Brilliantly acted and directed, this three-hander comedy about male friendship, lies and identity is the perfect showcase for Roxburgh, Herriman and Schmitz. Prepare to be dazzled!  I’ve long wanted to see Art, written by Yasmina Reza in 1994 and...

By Jennifer Beasley. An outstanding adaptation of Lao She’s famous novel, Four Generations In One House is a play of epic proportions, with an outstanding cast and brilliant direction. NB: Spoken in Putonghua with Chinese and English Surtitles. Lao She’s brilliant...

By Jessica Taurins It isn't easy to transition sketch comedy from screen to stage, especially when said sketches are pretty chaotic to begin with. There's a lot to consider pre-show - timing, props, audiovisual cues - and that's not even taking into account a Live...

By Jennifer Beasley. Anton Chekhov’s timeless classic is given an Aussie flavour – with surprisingly good results. The Cherry Orchard is Chekhov’s last play. Written in 1903, this version of the Russian classic runs at two hours and is redolent with the scenescape of...

By Suzanne Tate It’s hard to know how to approach this review. Sammy J is undoubtedly a very funny man, and I love his satirical humour. But this particular show has grown from a very long series of happy ‘accidents’ and coincidences bordering on the unbelievable. The...

By Jessica Taurins As my partner and I arrived to see Demi Adejuyigbe's The Wheel, his Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2026 offering, we worried we were late, as our previous show had run over. Silly us. Adejuyigbe's queue of eager weirdos (ourselves...

By Chenoah Eljan  Ben Knight hosts Educators at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, a rotating medley of former teachers-turned-comedians. The show sells out, because truth be told an audience loves a show that speaks to them - and there is no doubt this show is...

By George Dixon. The 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival is in full gear. If you love comedy, it’s the best time of the year. With so many types and styles of comedy, there is something for everyone. For instance, Luke Rocca’s set “Spineless” is by design...

By Maxine Montgomery How very! Melbourne has a darkly humorous treat on its doorstep this April, with the West End and Broadway production of Heathers the Musical having been brought to Australia, and this iteration delivers both style and substance in spades. A key...

Review by Tim Garratt In 1918, the entire Romanov royal family was executed by Russian revolutionaries, ending more than 300 years of absolute monarchical rule. Almost immediately after the murders, rumours began circulating that Tsar Nicholas II’s youngest daughter,...

By Jennifer Beasley. A barrage of comedians, a stressed MC and a flowing bar turn the upstairs tap room of the Hofbrauhaus Restaurant into comedy central. When you are reviewing a medley of comedians, you can expect the unexpected. In this case, as I rocked up to the...

By Chenoah Eljan  It’s in the name but it bears repeating: YOU are Sarah Keyworth’s show at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival. An hour of crowd work turns a great deal on the crowd and their willingness to participate. Lucky for Keyworth (not luck at...

By Nick Pilgrim Celebrating forty glorious years, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is bigger, bolder, and more diverse than ever. From the acrobatic daring of Circus Oz to the frenzied competition of IKEA Wars, put simply, there is indeed something for...

By Jessica Taurins The Breakup Variety Hour opens with a blast of Ariana's soul directly into the audience, beautifully setting the stage for the hour of her show. 'I Just Came to Say Goodbye', the first track from Ariana's album 'The Breakup Variety Hour' - also the...

By Jennifer Beasley. The brilliant Tom Sainsbury proves once again that he is New Zealand’s best export.  Fabulous. Well, that’s the end of the review. Oh? You want more? I mean, it’s Tom Sainsbury, writer of more than 50 plays, contributor and actor on Wellington...

By Jennifer Beasley. Casey Filips, What A Character, is the natural cerebral evolution for this talented comic, whose exceptional observational skills delves deep into the minutiae of characters to stunning effect . I was keen to see Casey Filips this year, after...

By Tabitha Hilbig Australian playwright Louis Nowra is most known for his 1992 play Cosi – the story set in a 1970s Melbourne mental institution. With countless adaptation, including the 1996 film with a star studded cast for a quirky, iconic, Australian classic. If...

By Jennifer Beasley. A surprisingly well written and performed absurdist/surreal play from emerging artists that deconstructs the Manosphere to reveal the misogynistic intent of toxic podcasters. As a theatre critic I try to support emerging theatrical artists when I...

By George Dixon. Danger Comic Master at Work. No matter what you think, Tom Gleeson is undoubtedly a comedic master. This wordsmith-storyteller is always fresh and on topic. From the moment the spotlight hits, Tom is on, interacting with his audience in a way that...

By Jennifer Beasley. Sleek, sophisticated and sexy, this Parisian inspired Cabaret and circus act takes turns from dazzling to comedic in a tight and international professional performance. *Strictly 18+ with some nudity. Well, well, well. Look at you go Spiegel Haus,...

By Jessica Taurins Hot Department - aka 'brother and sister' duo Honor Wolff and Patrick Durnan Silva - are incredible at what they do, and Amalgamation is no exception. Birthed fully formed in an acting school in Ballarat, and accused of eating their own twins...

By Jessica Taurins It isn't easy to review a comedian like David Correos. If you've only seen him on Taskmaster NZ, you might know him as boisterous, silly, and a bit foolish (in the nicest way possible). On the other hand, if you've only been exposed to clips of his...

By Darby Turnbull As the Independent Arts scene splutters along being drowned with ever increasing funding cuts and venue closures, the Motley Bauhaus expanding to include the Wherehaus and the Spielhaus is a welcome life raft for our plethora of performance artists...

By Jennifer Beasley. Aliya Kanani, Gill Cordiner, Donald Vaughan and Courtney Maldo turn your bad dating blues into a comedy laugh fest. Everyone’s has one, right? Or if you haven’t because you are blessed, know some poor unfortunate that has had one. And no, it’s not...

By David Gardette  A stalwart of the interstate festival circuit, Murder Village – An Improvised Whodunnit returns to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival to celebrate its 10th anniversary with the same playful chaos that has sustained it for a decade....

The title of Tom Cashman's 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Show - NPC (Nearly Proficient Comedian) - is a fun and whimsical play on words that keeps going and going throughout his show. For those unaware, an NPC is usually a non-player character, someone...

By Suzanne Tate Buffy Revamped, written by Brendan Murphy is a sprint down memory lane for avid Buffy fans. Performed by Jacob Jackson, Buffy Revamped promises to bring you the entire 144 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as seen through the eyes of Spike. Covering...

By Suzanne Tate The Evening Muse was described by Hannah Gadsby in their promotional videos as a “tonight show, wrapped up in a stand-up show, wrapped up in an existential crisis”. Apparently, Gadsby has been avoiding the world a little too successfully lately, and...

By Jennifer Beasley. A sweet and romantic premise that borrows from the glam of 60’s TV couples.  As MICF 2026 is now fully in the swing of all things comedy, it is nice to find a duet, in particular the frenetic style of Robyn Reynolds, now wedded to the gentlemanly...

By Jennifer Beasley. Mayhem, mischief and amorous misadventure visit Piano On Swan as this outstanding crew of actors and musicians perform one of the great British comedies of the twentieth century.  I’m so very glad that I accepted the invitation from J & L...

By Jessica Taurins Since 1988, or so Wikipedia tells me, The Umbilical Brothers have been confident mainstays of Australian comedy. The Umbilicals (Shane Dundas and David Collins, not actually brothers) are weird, wacky, and incredibly funny, seamlessly blending silly...

By Nick Pilgrim For three jam-packed weeks each Autumn, the state’s capital city becomes home to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Hundreds of acts both local and around the world converge on the town, overtaking every performance space imaginable. For...

By Chenoah Eljin Too often you see a comedian and go home thinking: I could do that. Kate Dolan’s Trout leaves precisely the opposite impression: awe. What Dolan has crafted is a proper performance end-to-end with movement, music, visuals and jokes layered...

By Nick Pilgrim Jenny Tian is a self-made star on the rise. In many ways the thirty-year-old reminds me of Carol Burnett, the legendary comic and actress who kick-started her career on sheer grit and willpower alone. Back in the day, Burnett used every resource...

By Jennifer Beasley. A clever blend of technology and stand-up comedy allows Con Coutis to sneak his way into the most harden of hearts with his one-hour comedy ode to the spy genre. Con Coutis is impressive. Very Impressive. After his techno-drenched interactive...

By Georgina Luck  Well-crafted stories about the choices that shape our lives It was a pleasure to attend the second well-curated season of 10-minute plays from members of the Melbourne Writers Theatre. Karyn Lee Greig’s skilful direction once again draws out a...

By Chenoah Eljan There’s a kind of irony in titling a show Absolute Dark Comedy and then delivering something so persistently obvious and underdeveloped it feels like a first timers’ open mic accidentally booked into a festival slot. There is nothing transgressive or...

By Jennifer Beasley. Extraordinary. Director Fini Liu combines exceptional acting skills to seamlessly integrate with his fellow actors Tony Zhang and Yuan Lu, to deliver a flawless production. Do Theatre have done it again. What a way to open the Melbourne...

By Georgina Luck  Finely crafted stories that welcome us into vivid worlds It was a pleasure to attend this well-curated season of 10-minute plays from members of the Melbourne Writers Theatre. Under the skilled direction of Karyn Lee Greig, each monologue feels...

By Nick Pilgrim Opening night for this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival could not have been, well…any more Melbourne. Bucketing down with rain, the only bright spot in Thursday evening’s miserable weather was Claire Cooper’s opening zinger where even she...

By Gary Helmore A world premiere always carries a charge of anticipation.  With ‘Who I’m Doing This For’, audiences are rewarded with a taut, three-handed drama-thriller that delivers on its promise. Winner of the Amethyst Award, this debut full-length play from Peter...

  With book, music and lyrics by Amity Dry, The Perfect Life is a modern-day musical that follows the lives of four women. Lily is the owner of a local cafe, a business she has successfully built over the past couple of decades. The cafe is the meeting point and...

By Darby Turnbull  White Australia, notoriously, has a somewhat abstract relationship with our recent history. Westgate currently playing at MTC and this revival of Tom Holloway’s Beyond the Neck both explore monumental events, the impact on the victims, their loved...

By David Gardette Amplified comes to the Melbourne Comedy Theatre for a short, sharp season, and it’s a show that lands, hits hard, and disappears before you know it. Commissioned by the University of Melbourne Arts and Culture and supported by Geelong Arts Centre,...

By Jennifer Beasley. A bold and daring reimagining of The Great Gatsby via ballet, jazz ballet and tap dance, invites the audience to dress up in their best flapper gear and experience the flamboyant 1920’s. F. Scott Fitzgerald's third novel, The Great Gatsby, written...

By Adam Rafferty The fall of the West Gate bridge during its construction in 1970 is something that should be an essential part of the education of all Victorians. But as time passes, increasingly it doesn’t feel like common knowledge, even amongst Melbournians....

By Ash Cottrell As a passionate, adventurous Melbournian, you’ve really got to try everything this city has to offer. In recent years, I’ve come to love experiencing Shakespeare presented outdoors, in parks particularly. While it’s usually, Macbeth or A Midsummer...

Review by Suzanne Tate   Opening night for Rebel: A New Musical in Prahran on Friday night was a resounding success! The Book, music, and lyrics were written by Drew Downing, initially performed by him as a cabaret, which he debuted at the Midsumma festival in...

By Jessica Taurins Hear My Eyes events are, as the name implies, a veritable feast for the senses. Their core concept is re-scoring an existing film and playing the resultant work live, bringing new feelings and emotions to the onscreen visuals. I expected a lot from...

By David Gardette  A rich, memorable, wonderfully acted revival that does justice to Lawler’s iconic vision. Holding a defining place in Australian theatre history, Ray Lawler’s Doll Trilogy is a gripping portrait of working‑class life. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre has...

Review by Tim Garratt Do our friends really know how we feel about them? What stays unsaid between us? And if the truth came out, would these friendships survive? Those questions are front and centre in ART, a comedic piece by multi-award-winning French playwright...

By Adam Rafferty Written by Melbourne Theatre Company NEXT STAGE Fellow Jean Tong, Do Not Pass Go is a workplace drama that thanks to its title conjures the idea of work being like going ‘directly to jail’. We open on the first day of the job for Flux (Ella Prince) a...

By Karyn Lee Greig This Edge of the Heart production presents 4 cautionary tales, around the themes of ageing and what counts in the time we have. It is a highly entertaining programme of drama and dark humour, well executed by creatives and cast alike. These plays...

By Jennifer Beasley. The mutability of time and space is recreated in this extraordinary meta play that intertwines and merges four Larrakai mothers, Country, The Dreaming and Dream. You don’t often see the playwright also directing their play, but Jada Alberts...

  With a book by Catherine Johnson, Mamma Mia! is a musical featuring the songs by Swedish pop group ABBA, with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. The musical debuted in London in 1999, then Broadway in 2001. Mamma Mia! has become the longest running...

  Review by Suzanne Tate   First staged in 2011, The Book of Mormon, written by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone, has earned a reputation as a chaotically funny and bitingly satirical musical that pushes the limits of language, taste and theatrical...

By Nick Pilgrim In the past year or two, whodunnits have returned to the local live entertainment scene with a vengeance. Standout plays and experiences include: And Then There Were None Dial M For Murder Murder In The Graveyard The Mousetrap The 39 Steps Just to name...

By Nick Pilgrim As I queued last Friday night to see Robert the Octopus, I overheard the following snippet of conversation. “When you see a PO PO MO CO show, expect the unexpected. Even if you never know what you’re quite in for, you’ll always be entertained.” I...