By Jennifer Beasley. A universal fairytale of the power of the Christmas Spirit(s) and the enduring message of transformation will win over the hardest heart. This much-loved Christmas story once again lands in Melbourne for a fourth season of A Christmas Carol. An...

By Jennifer Beasley. The culmination of 20 years of PIECES, as produced by the LGI at the University of Melbourne, is a triptych creative tour du force. Lucy Guerin Inc (LCI) and the University of Melbourne Arts and Culture (UMAC) present a 75-minute showcase of three...

By Jennifer Beasley. The ultimate Meta theatre is brilliantly portrayed by the future stars of theatre. Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. What a title! Written by Alice Birch, where it was commissioned in 2014 by the Royal Shakespeare Company (London) and won the George...

By Nick Pilgrim I am what I am I am my own special creation So come take a look Give me the hook or the ovation It's my world that I want to have a little pride in My world, and it's not a place I have to hide in Life's not worth a damn till you can say I am what I am...

By Adam Rafferty As a treat for the festive season, Shakespeare’s ever popular romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing is reliably a diverting treat and this new, compact interpretation by Director Mark Wilson puts a wacky and saucy swirl on top. Cutting the cast back...

By Nick Pilgrim Cicily (Nydia Westman): "Don't big empty houses scare you?" Wally Campbell (Bob Hope): "Not me, I used to be in Vaudeville." The Cat and The Canary (1939)  At seventy-five minutes in length, The Haunting of Spook Mansion (By Ghosts) packs a great deal...

By Karyn Lee Greig William Shakespeare’s The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus, often shortened to Titus Andronicus, was written around 1592, when he was about 28 years old. It is thought to be Shakespeare’s first tragedy and is often seen as his attempt to...

By Nick Pilgrim “One day can change your life. One day can ruin your life. All life is, is three or four big days that change everything.” Riding in Cars with Boys (2001) It would be fair to say that William Shakespeare is the most famous playwright of all time. In my...

By Darby Turnbull Premiering at Griffin Theatre Company in 2022 Dylan Van Den Berg’s Whitefella Yella Tree was hailed as ‘new Australian classic’ (Sydney Morning Herald) and the enthusiasm has only gotten more glowing with return seasons at Sydney Theatre Company and...

Review by Tim Garratt   One of Shakespeare’s finest comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream has sparked inspiration in countless forms, from ballets and operas to novels and paintings. More recently, the play inspired Australian writer, composer and lyricist Laura...

By Jennifer Beasley. Ahoy me matey and blow the ship Vivisectress down into the deep, dark, waters. Mind yonder pirates, Bagfoot and Saucy Jack, trapped upon the gallon, do not deceive ye! For they are bonkers, mad and terrified of Pantomime and ventriloquism. Let’s...

By Nick Pilgrim  This reviewer can’t think of a better way to kick off the silly season. Following extended sell-out stints in Brisbane and Sydney, Blanc de Blanc Encore has moved down south determined to give curious Melburnians the evening of their lives. With the...

By Jennifer Beasley. This fiercely intelligent play portrays the late, great artist Joy Hester as the true Icon she was, blazing in rebellious glory, and stunningly acted by Emma Louise Pursey. When life mimics art, mimics life, and the circle returns. Emma Louise...

By Bronwyn Cook "This wall of disparity between us, Frankie, we gotta break it down. So the only space left between us is just us." Wrapped up in a complex, circular-collison, complicated post-coital conversation between Frankie and Johnny this is the crux of their...

By Nick Pilgrim Death is the one absolute that links all living beings, yet it remains a major taboo in Western society. Where many cultures and religions openly acknowledge and even celebrate the process as part of life’s natural cycle, dying is the one topic we...

Review by Suzanne Tate     Opening night of Hair in Melbourne on Friday was an immersive, transcendent experience, bringing to life the rebellious counterculture of the 1960s.   ‘Hair’ does not fit the mould of a standard musical theatre show in several...

  By George Dixon Inspirational true-life account of pain and hope Upside Down Fantasyland is Troy Rogers' autobiography. If appearances can be deceiving, the well-spoken, articulate, well-dressed person on stage is the product of true grit, determination and the...

By George Dixon Extremely entertaining with plenty of audience participation  Melbourne’s theatre comes alive, starting with its “Fringe Festival.”  2025 is no exception, with approximately 500 live performances on offer. Antony (Dr H) Hubmayer, a native of Adelaide,...

By Jennifer Beasley. Evocative, poetic and primal, What Lies Beneath reframes the myth of Persephone as the final taboo of a woman’s sexual awakening and reclamation of her power. It’s hard to believe that this is playwright Sarah Miller’s first play. A beautiful...

By Nick Pilgrim  "This show is a must-see if you’re looking for a wild, laugh-out-loud, and jaw-dropping experience!" "More fun than a barrel of monkeys!" This is Cirque du Soleil meets Magic Mike—Elixir is the wild, raw and rowdy. You can't miss this. "Beyond the...

& Juliet is a jukebox musical featuring the pop music of songwriter Max Martin, and book by David West Read. It features an array of well-known pop songs, in addition to one song written specifically for the musical. & Juliet is a story for anyone who has read...

The Lucky Country is a new theatrical work that explores what it means to be Australian. With music and lyrics by Vidya Makan, and Sonya Suares as co-creator and director, The Lucky Country is a one act song cycle that packs a lot into its 65 minute run time. The show...

By Nick Pilgrim Building in momentum and diversity with every passing season, this year the Melbourne Fringe Festival is bigger and better than ever. Packed with over 500 events across a multitude of genres, the three-week program is a international celebration of...

By Nick Pilgrim The Melbourne Fringe Festival is an annual tradition which hits the ground running every spring. Since its inception, the three-week long event grows in leaps and bounds with each passing season. Thanks to more than 500 choices on offer this year...

By Jennifer Beasley. Outstanding. An incredible blend of AV, dance and surrealism reflects the lives of disabled individuals in this metatheatrical production. With only about 6% of plays and films centring on disabilities, those of us able-bodied can lose sight that...

By Chenoah Eljan Walking into Marie’s Crisis at the Melbourne Fringe Festival feels a little like crashing the warmest, most nostalgic piano party you didn’t know you needed. Modelled on the beloved New York basement piano bar of the same name, this show promises a...

By Nick Pilgrim Checked Out: The Musical is dedicated to anyone - including myself - who has spent their formative years navigating the grind of the employment rat race. If you’ve ever worked long, exhausting hours in low-paying jobs across hospitality or retail, this...

By Jennifer Beasley. Brilliant writing presents a bittersweet flashback to the Noughties with pumping music and a sleepover party that uncovers the dark places that dwell within us all. Is Anyone Even Watching? The title itself is ironic and encapsulates the humour of...

By Jennifer Beasley. An emerging exceptional talent waiting to take the world by storm, Luella Fitz brings her high energy and insightful commentary in BLI$$ to expose the hidden power of women. Lilith. She-demon, black moon goddess. In Jewish mythology she was...

Reviewer: Nic Conolly A Fairytale Reimagined with Heart, Humour, and High Heels A joyous, heart-warming, and unabashedly feel-good evening that leaves you smiling from ear to ear. The morning after Pretty Woman: The Musical, the glitter and warmth of last night’s...

By Darby Turnbull Dissection of Fairy tales and fables and the ways they mould young minds and worldviews is well worn but still fertile territory. For the last three generations those fairy tales have been heavily filtered through the Disney machine; the brutality,...

By Chenoah Eljan   Ro Campbell's True Crime Walking Tour at Melbourne Fringe offers Festival goers the unique opportunity to get up and move around, laugh a bit and learn a bit, and in the case of this very lucky reviewer - enjoy some unseasonable balmy Melbourne...

By Darby Turnbull Arts Festivals are essential to the fabric of our community; last week when AI generated ‘actress’ Tilly Norwood was inflicted introduced to the world and the general feeling of hopelessness at the spectre of AI colonising the Arts space, it was...

By Mama Natalia Bent Burlesque crawled out of the shadows at the height of the Australian Burlesque revival, one of a handful of subversive and deliciously dark shows designed to flaunt the self-imposed rules of propriety, turning the concept of what was acceptable...

By Jennifer Beasley. Utterly compelling, Director Fini Liu showcases his technical talents with a brilliant team of creatives in a mesmerising journey into a broken mind. Let’s go on a journey. We’ll take a ship, named the SS Ariel’s Dream, and play some chess to...

By Jessica Taurins jks: a comedy(?) has a familiar nostalgia about it. It's like a Twitter argument where I can't block any of the participants, but I also just can't stop reading the thread. It's also like the experience of being trapped in the corner at a party by...

By Chenoah Eljan MZAZA: The Birth and Death of Stars is the Pauline Maudy show, with guest appearance by Greta Kelly. The two have been collaborating since 2004 on the music, and since 2020 on the production company, that bring this show to Melbourne Fringe Festival....

By Jennifer Beasley. Emotional, raw and powerful, Katy Warner’s play Refined showcases once again her extraordinary talent to craft individualistic characters. It’s that time of the year again readers – the almighty Melbourne Fringe Festie! How amazing and here we go...

By Chenoah Eljan Melbourne Fringe Festival is nothing if not an opportunity to see performance that doesn’t fit neatly into expectations, trusted form, and that is just a little bit risky - for its creators, its performers, and its audience. Instructions, presented by...

By Adam Rafferty  The fact that Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 gothic thriller novel Rebecca has been adapted for the screen and stage innumerable times across the last eighty-odd years is simple proof of the timeless qualities of the dark and suspenseful story. So, it...

Review by Tim Garratt   Forty years ago, the original Back to the Future film premiered, becoming the highest-grossing motion picture of 1985. The film’s success led to two sequels and eventually inspired a stage adaptation.   Directed by Tony Award-winner...

  Colour & Light: The Art of Stephen Sondheim is the latest new work by Australia's first and only Sondheim repertory company Watch This. The show is a collection of Stephen Sondheim's greatest works. However, upon arrival into the Theatreworks performance...

By Darby Turnbull One of the perks of reviewing is the opportunity to go see theatre that might otherwise have gone under your radar. Shows you might have only had a cursory glance at on a company's website you might have missed without the extra professional...

By Jennifer Beasley. Brilliant direction elevates this play into a tense psychological thriller with many questions left unanswered. Stuttered sound. Light flashes – a standoff between new patient Jane (Jessica Clarke) as she holds a gun pointed at the therapist Loyd...

Review by David Gardette    A jukebox musical that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the life and artistry of Michael Jackson, MJ the Musical focuses primarily on the period leading up to the 1992 Dangerous World Tour. Opening on Broadway in 2022, the show has...

By Darby Turnbull Deconstructed adaptations of classical works, particularly Shakespeare, can be a welcome boon. In addition to a reduced run time, they can be thematically resonant and sharply emphasise moments in the text that might be particularly enlightening....

By Rebecca Waese The ancient tale of Troy exploded upon the Malthouse stage this week in a ground-breaking re-telling that fuses the past and the present and questions the myths we tell ourselves about war. Playwright Tom Wright (Medea, The Odyssey, and The War of the...

By Jennifer Beasley. An action paced comedic feast through the film noir lens of Hitchcock’s cinematic retelling of The 39 Steps will leave you breathless from laughter. Keep your wits about you and hold onto your hats – this is one hell of a comedy ride! After...

By Chenoah Eljan. Noni Hazlehurst is a force. You’d watch her read the Melways cover to cover and be transfixed. She can communicate more in a half-expression than most do in a soliloquy. Fortunately, The Lark, written by Daniel Keene and directed by Matt Scholten,...

By Karyn Lee Greig, Bangarra has done it again. Even better. Illume is a light to us all. It is not only an artistic triumph but a profound affirmation of culture - past, present and future. From the very first starry scene, Shadow Spirits, we get a sense of...

By Nick Pilgrim Last month I had the privilege of reviewing Dial M For Murder. In my enthusiastic critique, I opined how whodunits were making a fashionable comeback. Earlier this week, The Play That Goes Wrong flipped this highly respectable, straight-faced genre...

  American Psycho is a musical with book by Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa, and music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik. The musical is based on the 1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis, which was also adapted for film in 2000. The musical had its world premiere in London in 2013,...

By Jennifer Beasley. An extraordinary tour-de-force weaves the metaphysical with the mundane in an aged care facility in this new work by award winning writer Irene Korsten. Writer Irene Korsten, who won the Green Room award for Ordinary Misery, has delivered a play...

  Tarzan the Stage Musical is an adaptation of the animated Disney film, with a book by David Henry Hwang, and music and lyrics by Phil Collins. The Disney film was first released in 1999, with the stage musical premiering on Broadway in 2006. Nearly twenty years...

By Darby Turnbull Briony Dunn’s adaptation and production of E.M Forster’s The Machine Stops, currently playing at Theatreworks opens with a sly play for the audience’s attention. For many, many minutes we watch lead actress Mary Helen Sassman shuffle minutely from...

By Adam Rafferty Millennial playwright and actress Kirsty Marillier writes about the experiences of her South African forebears in this historical fiction about family living under the system of apartheid in 1976. After years of hearing stories from her family about...

Review by David Gardette   Clovelly Fox’s staging of Adam Gwon’s intimate musical Ordinary Days, finds a heartfelt home in Melbourne. Set in early 2000s New York, the show follows four individuals—Claire, Jason, Deb, and Warren—as their lives intersect through...

By Nick Pilgrim For local readers over a certain age, the works of Oscar Wilde were staples in secondary and tertiary education. Known for their brilliant wordplay and caustic wit, Wilde slid nineteenth-century London society under the microscope for all to see. To...

Reviewed by George Dixon   A reimaged masterpiece by Victoria Opera.    If there is ever an Opera to experience, Abduction is the one. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's “The Abduction from the Seraglio” was originally presented on 16th July 1782 at Burgtheater,...

Review by Tim Garratt Penned by Lynn Ahrens (book and lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty (music), Once on This Island first appeared on stage in 1990. A new production, presented by Curveball Creative and directed by Brittanie Shipway, just opened at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre...

By Anthony Morris The Orchard is a new work by Pony Cam, a high-energy experimental theatre collective who have been creating memorable shows for over five years, often operating on the “fringe” edges of mainstream theatre. Known for their physical, fresh, and...

By Nick Pilgrim Whodunits are making a significant comeback on the Australian stage. In the last few years alone, two touring revivals (by Agatha Christie) like And Then There Were None or The Mousetrap have resonated with audiences hungry for strong story lines and...

Review by Carissa Shale   Stepping into the Comedy Theatre for In the Heights, you are immediately immersed in the vibrant, exhilarating world of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s debut musical. Before the curtain even rises, the theatre itself becomes a lively "Latino...

Review by David Gardette   Soundworks’ Melbourne return production of Songs For a New World at Chapel Off Chapel is a bold and energetic reimagining of Jason Robert Brown’s classic. With a talented cast, a powerhouse band, and a passion for storytelling, this...

By Natasha Boyd Hamer Hall Melbourne was all abuzz on Saturday night with a near capacity crowd ready for a night of laughs courtesy of self-declared “Queensland first gay second” comedian, Mel Buttle, with her new show “Taking My Sunglasses Off To Hear You Better”. ...

By Nick Pilgrim Long established as one of Melbourne’s leading independent companies, Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre is situated in the city’s inner south-east. Known for showcasing a mixture of celebrated classics and new local work, the company’s 2025 season includes:...

By Jennifer Beasley. An innovative reimagining of a classic play updated to a modern setting as a sexual power struggle disintegrates the lives of three people. Director Harry Haynes, and founder of The Liminal Space, has given creative licence to Miss Julia, the play...

By Adam Rafferty 2023 Tony Award winning musical Kimberly Akimbo is a charmingly sweet, funny and wildly untypical story of a sixteen-year-old girl, the eponymous Kimberly (Marina Prior). She lives with an ageing disease, similar to progeria, that causes her body to...

By Jennifer Beasley. A coming-of-age story that highlights family values, resilience and friendship during the 1857 gold rush in Australia. Hats off to Eva Di Cesare, the artistic creative director of Monkey Baa Theatre Company, who has shaped this sixty-minute...

By Darby Turnbull The Rome depicted in William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus is one of fraught class warfare. The ruling class of Patricians hoard resources during a financial crisis with the Plebeians constantly on the verge of revolt. Civilians have tokenistic...

Review by Tim Garratt   The Book of Mormon is one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed musicals of the 21st century. Written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Robert Lopez (co-creator of Avenue Q and a double...

By Tim Garratt First published in 1949, George Orwell’s 1984 describes the dystopian future: a totalitarian society where those in charge constantly manipulate the truth. Set 35 years after its publication date, the novel starkly warns of the potential consequences of...

By Jennifer Beasley. When you walk along the hopeless pit between salvation and redemption, how do you muster the courage to still the war inside yourself, and be free of the Yellow Line? I love stories of redemption, especially based upon true events, and when the...

By Ellis Koch David Bowie’s music and mythos cast a long, complex shadow that many tribute shows struggle to navigate. For someone who regards Bowie as more than an artist - as a cultural compass whose restless reinvention shaped generations - the stakes in honouring...

  Here You Come Again is part play, part musical and part Dolly Parton concert, born from an idea during the COVID pandemic days by Tricia Paoluccio. Gifted with the unique ability to sing like Dolly Parton, and as a life-long fan of the country music icon,...

By Jennifer Beasley. A Meta and immersive ‘cold-reading’ play that time loops on the question, is life a play, and what are the echoes that reverberate and connect us to life? Interesting, interesting, interesting. Here I am, a reviewer told to not say too much about...

  Legally Blonde The Musical is a stage adaptation of the popular 2001 film. With a book by Heather Hach, and music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, Legally Blonde The Musical debuted on Broadway in 2007, and made its Australian premiere in 2013....

By Ash  Cottrell In my humble opinion, fortyfivedownstairs is one of the most exciting places to see theatre in Melbourne. Conveniently located at the Paris end of Flinders Lane, the theatre is flanked by prominent bars and restaurants to value-add to an evening out....

Review by Carissa Shale    They say never work with animals or children, but Annie defies that proverb, proving that when done right, both can elevate a show to new heights. Annie has enchanted audiences for decades with its heartwarming tale of a plucky orphan's...

By Adam Rafferty Celebrated American playwright Paula Vogel has never been one to shy away from confronting political and social issues. In Mother Play, she tackles deeply personal subjects as she presents parts of her own life story on the stage that will likely...

By Jennifer Beasley. Roller skating through debilitating pain touches creative depths in this inspired one-woman show that delves into death, existential crisis, luck – and hope. Andi Snelling has created an interesting one act and one-woman 80-minute play based upon...

By David Gardette Anthony Hill’s Soldier Boy, adapted from his 2001 novel, brings to the stage the poignant true story of James “Jim” Martin, the youngest Australian soldier to die in active service during World War I. At just 14 years old, Martin lied about his age...

By Darby Turnbull What does it mean to have good intentions in a system that relies on undermining altruism in order to maintain the status quo? Proactive initiatives are insidiously inhibited through endless bureaucratic red tape designed to exhaust whilst self...

Review by David Gardette   John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a cult classic that continues to resonate. This bold, genre-defying rock musical tells the story of Hedwig, a genderqueer East German singer whose botched sex-change...

By Jennifer Beasley. Twenty-one incredible performers showcase their outstanding talents, redefining what ‘Circus’ traditionally means. Firstly, I’d like to congratulate the creative talents of co-creators Sage Bechtler Cushman and Hugo Oliverira for this amazing...

By Natalie Ristovski Bloomsday, a commemorative yearly celebration of the life of James Joyce, finds its Down Under home via Bloomsday in Melbourne - a team of dramaturgs who have been diligently working going on thirty years to bring the works of the esteemed Irish...

By Tim Garratt First published in 1992, Looking for Alibrandi was the debut novel of Australian writer and teacher Melina Marchetta. It has since been read by several generations locally and overseas (the novel has been published in 16 countries and translated into a...

By Adam Rafferty Australian playwright S. Shakthidharan, author of the widely awarded epic Counting and Cracking, seen as part of the 2024 RISING: festival, returns this year with the rather more concise, fable-like story of The Wrong Gods. A ninety-minute tale of a...

By Chris Hosking Can love be measured in megabytes? What information is stored in memory?  How do we find it once lost?  Will a barrage of information bring us closer together or divide us? Caryl Churchill’s brilliant 2012 text Love and Information is a challenge and...

By Jennifer Beasley. A showcase of a fractured mind unearths the pathologisation of women. Trigger warnings: Depictions of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and flashing lights. Ah, the good old days. When the easy fix for an unhappy and sexually unavailable woman was...

By Ash Cottrell It had been many, many years since I’d been to, The Butterfly Club. Last week marked the first time in a long time and it was great to be back. An eclectic, artistic, albeit kitsch coupling of trinkets and colours characterises the space. It all feels...

By Jennifer Beasley. Masterful direction unleashes the oratory power of Max Gillies in a profound triptych that uncovers moral male deficiencies and entrenched misogyny. It’s probably the first time in my life that I have been so blown away by directional talent in...

By Jennifer Beasley. A binaural sound experiment allows The Birds to come to life and asks the question that who would win at the end of the world, Man or Nature? Writing horror for the stage is a tricky thing, and when you present a monologue at 80 minutes, so many...

By David Gardette Shadow boxing presented by theatre works and feet first collective Shadow Boxing is one of those shows that grabs you and doesn’t let go. It’s raw, intense and instinctive. Written by James Gaddas in 1989, and premiering in 1994, the play centres on...

Review by Suzanne Tate   For the Gen Xers amongst us, Beetlejuice: The Musical is a flashback to our youth. It is based on the 1988 film Beetlejuice starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin, although substantial creative license has...

Review by Dave Gardette   Celebrating its 40th anniversary, Les Misérables returns in grand fashion with the Arena Spectacular, a concert-style reimagining that trades traditional staging for vocal and visual grandeur – resulting in an emotionally charged, epic...

By Jennifer Beasley. A standing ovation sums up the electric effect of outstanding choreography and circus skills by an extraordinary team. Circa, the Brisbane based ten performer circus company, led by visionary artistic director Yaron Lifschitz, have given birth to...

By Adam Rafferty Both historical and contemporary Indigenous Australian truth-telling forms the basis of writer/director Andrea James’ The Black Woman of Gippsland, an exposition of black deaths in custody that echoes across the white settlement of Australia. Those...

Review by Dave Gardette   Nothing short of a triumph, Melbourne’s production of Hadestown is a visually rich, musically intoxicating, and emotionally resonant retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Set in a Depression-era, jazz-infused...